t to
teach you day by day.'

This short conversation sent me home with a happy heart. I felt
thankful that I had found some work, and I resolved to visit the
parents of each child during the week.

It was a very different atmosphere I came into a short time later. Tea
on Sunday afternoon was a time for visitors to drop in, and the
conversation seemed to me always on the most frivolous subjects.

Constance and Mr. Stroud had escaped and gone away into the garden by
themselves, and of course their engagement was being discussed as well
as the gaieties of the coming week.

I got into a quiet corner and took my tea in silence, hoping I might be
left unmolested, but this was not to be. A Miss Gordon, with a
magnificent voice, was singing as I entered, and when she had finished
Kenneth turned to me: 'Now, Goody Two-Shoes, give us something from
your violin.'

He invariably addressed me by that name now, and I knew how vain it
would be to protest against it.

'Oh yes, Miss Thorn,' said Miss Gordon, 'we have heard wonderful things
of your playing; you are quite a genius, aren't you?'

'No,' I said, colouring a little, 'I am certainly not that, though I am
very fond of it; I must ask you, I am afraid, to excuse my playing this
afternoon.'

'Oh, please play; why won't you oblige us?'

'I never use my violin on Sunday.'

There was dead silence; then a Mrs. Parker, a young widow who had come
with Miss Gordon, said, 'But, my dear Miss Thorn, play us something
sacred, of course. I always consider the violin quite a Sunday
instrument. In our village the chapel people have two going at every
service they hold. You surely cannot think it wicked to play it on
Sunday?'

No,' I said, 'I don't think it is _wicked_, but I would rather not do
it. I am sure you will not press me.'

'She has just come back from Sunday School,' said Kenneth, looking
across at me with a twinkle in his eye, 'and so she is doubly shocked
with our levity. I assure you, Mrs. Parker, her religious scruples are
such that I don't think she would pick a flower in the garden if you
were to ask her to on the Sabbath!

I rose from my seat, for I had finished my tea, and pointing to a
crimson rose in my waist-belt I said half laughing; 'I picked this as I
came in this afternoon,' and then I left the room and went upstairs,
where I had a nice quiet hour by myself. I felt quiet times alone were
quite essential to me now, otherwise I seemed to almost