g her of useless things. Yet her wilful heart longed
for the prettinesses that she loved, and she wept herself to sleep
grieving for their loss, and for the greater loss which it typified.

The next morning her head was aching and her eyes redder than ever when
she appeared in the school-room, and she seemed more sullen and less
meek than she had been yesterday. She could not fix her mind on the
lesson Miss Davis gave her to learn, and made a great display of her
ignorance when questioned on general subjects. All this was not
improving to her spirits, and in becoming more unhappy she grew more
irritable. Miss Davis felt her patience tried by the troublesome new
pupil, and Phyllis eyed her with strong disapproval over the edges of
her book. Phyllis loved order, regularity, good conduct, and in her
opinion Hetty was an intolerably disagreeable interruption of the
routine of their school-room life.

That was a bad day altogether. Some friends of Mr. and Mrs. Enderby were
dining with them, and when the school-room tea was over Phyllis and Nell
told Miss Davis that their mother wished them to come to the
drawing-room for a short time. Hetty looked up, as she thought herself
included in the invitation; but Miss Davis, who had received general
instructions from Mrs. Enderby, said to her quietly:

"You will stay here with me, Hetty, for this evening."

Hetty flushed crimson and her pride was kindled in an instant. She was
not to go to the drawing-room any more, because she was only a charity
child. Tears rushed into her eyes, but she forced them back and
pretended to be very busy with a book. After the other girls had been
gone some time Miss Davis said:

"I am going to my own room for half an hour, Hetty, and I suppose you
can amuse yourself with your book till I come back."

When left alone Hetty flung away her book, went down on her face on the
hearth-rug, and cried with all her might. She thought of evenings when
she had tripped about gaily in Mrs. Rushton's drawing-room and every one
was glad to see her. Now, it seemed, she must live all alone in a
school-room. She forgot that she had ever been unhappy with Mrs.
Rushton, ever been left alone, or snubbed or neglected in her house; for
Hetty, like many other people, old and young, lost all her excellent
power of reasoning when overmastered by passion. In the old time she had
been happy, she thought, cared for, loved, made much of. Now she was
beloved by nobody, not eve