ted silk. They wear
better than real silk. Mother thinks they're good enough for school."

"I don't suppose Miss Boyd has any relatives. It would be rather tough
not to have _any_ gifts. Girls, oughtn't we chip in--"

"No, we ought not," replied Phil, decisively. "The maid and the
laundress are the only ones I remember at Christmas. Mrs. Barrington has
sensibly forbidden the giving of tips, and since we don't pretend to be
friends it would be a bad precedent."

"Miss Boyd is an excellent scholar," said Miss Vincent.

"If she couldn't learn something higher she might as well stay on the
lower rounds," sneered some one. "They relegate these things better in
England. A housemaid's daughter is generally a housemaid."

"I think I have heard of people coming up from the ranks in favored
England," was the dry rejoinder.

"Oh, let's let her alone. She'll make her way with that high head of
hers. Perhaps she will be President of some college yet."

Then they went back to fun. At nine Miss Arran came in and dismissed
them.

Zay was thinking how solitary the girl must be. Oh, if her mother were
not the general mender! Even if she were a sort of charity scholar! And
she was going to have such a splendid Christmas. Her dear, beloved
mother able to get about by herself, and all the rest of their lives to
be such friends, to go abroad together, to visit picture galleries,
points of interest and compare notes. For Mrs. Crawford had been finely
educated and even the prospect of being an invalid for life had not made
her relax her hold on intellectuality. She had been a delightful friend
to her boys and they were proud enough of her, but Zay would always be
her supreme darling.

* * * * *

Some of the last exercises and conditions were marked off the next day.
Madame Eustice and two of the girls went home. A box came for Miss
Nevins and the girls thronged around at her invitation while Nat drew
out the nails that had fastened it securely, and lifted out a lighter
box.

"That's from Madame I know, and I have frocks enough here for winter.
Oh, that's a splendid fruit cake, and nuts and that's candied orange and
a box of fruit, and this is some sort of jewelry."

She tore off the wrapping eagerly. A long _lapis lazuli_ chain with a
beautiful pendant and links of exquisite color, and a pair of bracelets
to match.

"It's elegant," pronounced Phillipa. "I never go crazy over it myself
a