t the same moment. Strangers passing beneath the
schoolroom window at a moment when the sisters were assembled together,
had indeed been known to estimate the numbers present as from a dozen to
twenty; but such a statement was obviously false, and tended to that
painful habit of exaggeration which it is the duty of all good folk to
deplore. They were girls of strong individuality, and each felt it a
duty to state her own views on any given subject, which she proceeded to
do, undaunted by the fact that her companions were too much engrossed in
talking themselves to be able to listen to a word she said. Maud
talked, pouring out tea and dropping sugar into the cups with tragic
emphasis; Lilias prattled sweetly, waving her white hands to enforce a
point which no one heard; Nan banged the table and upset her cup in
violence of denunciation; Elsie squeaked away in melancholy treble; and
Agatha's "Too bad!" and Christabel's "Horrid shame!" were heard
uninterruptedly in every pause.

When the door of the Grange opened to admit a stranger, the wail of a
violin, the jingle of the piano, and the clang of Nan's hammer greeted
him on the threshold, and from morn till night the echo of laughter and
of happy voices never died away. There was only one occasion when the
Rendell girls subsided into silence, and that was when Jim--the brother,
the typical man of the race--came home on a visit and shed the lustre of
his presence on his native village. Then the Miss Rendells sat in rows
at his feet, paying obeisance, and, meekly opening their mouths,
swallowed all he said, not even Nan herself daring to raise a question.

CHAPTER TWO.

A HAPPY THOUGHT.

Thurston House, the abode of the Rendell family, was one of those
curiously-constructed houses which are only to be met with in old-
fashioned neighbourhoods. It stood directly on the high road, a big
grey building which could boast of no architectural beauty, and which
indeed presented a somewhat cheerless aspect, with its wire blinds and
tall, straight windows. A gaunt, town-like house--such was the
impression made upon the casual passer--by; but appearances are apt to
be deceptive, and that same stranger would have speedily altered his
impression, if he had been taken round the garden to view the other side
of the house. It was almost impossible to believe in such a different
aspect! From one side a busy high road, strings of cyclists, _char a
bancs_ driving past, bearing