bed stood a mahogany chest of drawers. At two corresponding
corners were marble wash handstands, and even two pretty toilet tables
stood side by side in the recess of the window. But the sight that
perhaps pleased Hester most was a small bright fire which burned in the
grate.

"Now, dear, this is your room. As you have arrived first you can choose
your own bed and your own chest of drawers. Ah, that is right, Ellen has
unfastened your portmanteau; she will unpack your trunk to-night, and
take it to the box-room. Now, dear, smooth your hair and wash your hands.
The gong will sound instantly. I will come for you when it does."

CHAPTER IV.

LITTLE DRAWING-ROOMS AND LITTLE TIFFS.

Miss Danesbury, true to her word, came to fetch Hester down to tea. They
went down some broad, carpetless stairs, along a wide stone hall, and
then paused for an instant at a half-open door from which a stream of
eager voices issued.

"I will introduce you to your schoolfellows, and I hope your future
friends," said Miss Danesbury. "After tea you will come with me to see
Mrs. Willis--she is never in the school-room at tea-time. Mdlle. Perier
or Miss Good usually superintends. Now, my dear, come along--why, surely
you are not frightened!"

"Oh, please, may I sit near you?" asked Hester.

"No, my love; I take care of the little ones, and they are at a table by
themselves. Now, come in at once--the moment you dread will soon be over,
and it is nothing, my love--really nothing."

Nothing! never, as long as Hester lived, did she forget the supreme agony
of terror and shyness which came over her as she entered that long, low,
brightly-lighted room. The forty pairs of curious eyes which were raised
inquisitively to her face became as torturing as forty burning suns. She
felt an almost uncontrollable desire to run away and hide--she wondered
if she could possibly keep from screaming aloud. In the end she found
herself, she scarcely knew how, seated beside a gentle, sweet-mannered
girl, and munching bread and butter which tasted drier than sawdust, and
occasionally trying to sip something very hot and scalding which she
vaguely understood went by the name of tea. The buzzing voices all
chattering eagerly in French, and the occasional sharp, high-pitched
reprimands coming in peremptory tones from the thin lips of Mdlle.
Perier, sounded far off and distant--her head was dizzy, her eyes
swam--the tired and shy child endured tortures.

In