ke a little kingdom in itself.

"Mrs. Boyd doesn't look very robust and seems rather timid, uncertain,
though if she is capable--" Mrs. Dane began rather sharply.

"She has been seamstress to a dressmaker for several years. I fancy she
has had it pretty hard for the last year or two, but Miss Lilian is very
bright and energetic, only I am afraid she will hold her head rather too
high."

"I fancy she will make an excellent teacher. That is her aim."

Mrs. Barrington had looked through the big book of photographs of school
girls. Some turns of the head, some glances and a sound in the voice
still puzzled her, but it was connected with something in the past. Few
young girls made characteristic portraits. Ah, here was one who had just
that poise, that eager ambitious expression. A Miss Mortimer who
certainly possessed fine abilities, and a resonant voice. She had taken
the lead in school entertainments, and then she had joined a theatrical
troupe and married a third rate actor, to the lady's great
disappointment.

"There is some likeness," she mused, "only the voice is much gentler,
more truly musical. It must be that is the elusive suggestion, and Miss
Boyd is wild over Shakespeare. It shall be my purpose to prevent her
from being an actress, unless she can stand in the front ranks."

Lilian and Miss Arran became friends almost at once. Both were fond of
walking, and to Lilian the beautiful aspect of the town, the woods and
the picturesque river with its many windings and suggestive nooks where
she always found a new touch of beauty stirred her with a vivid and
intense delight.

Then the real life began. Girls trouped in, trunks were set down with a
thump or oftener carried up on the third floor for unpacking. Girls in
the remnant of summer suits, for it was still warm, others in cloth or
serge, laughing chatting, running to and fro. How bright and merry it
all was!

It took some time to get settled. The first grade girls who were to be
the next year graduates, if they chose, were at one table with Mrs.
Barrington and Madame Eustis, the French teacher; the other had Miss
Arran, Miss Davis, and the new scholars or the second grade old ones.
Lilian was at this table, though they could have their meals in their
own rooms.

She felt very sorry for her neighbor, Alice Nevins, who was dreadfully
homesick and scarcely tasted anything, winking desperately to keep her
eyes from overflowing. Some of them looked very brigh