use
of Rest" over what was once a black gulf of anguish and horror.

Miss Wealthy's cheerful face, when they went down to tea, struck them
with a shock; they had almost expected to find it pale and
tear-stained, and could hardly command their usual voices in speaking to
her. The good lady was quite distressed. "My dear Rose," she said, "you
look very pale and tired. I am quite sure you must have walked too far
to-day. You would better go to bed very early, my dear, and Martha shall
give you a hop pillow. Very soothing a hop pillow is, when one is tired.
And, Hilda, you are not in your usual spirits. I trust you are not
homesick, my child! You have not touched your favorite cream-cheese."

Both girls reassured her, feeling rather ashamed of themselves; and
after tea Hildegarde read "Bleak House" aloud, and then they had a game
of casino, and the evening passed off quite cheerfully.

CHAPTER XI.

"UP IN THE MORNING EARLY."

"One! two! three! four! five! six!" said the clock in the hall.

"Yes, I know it!" replied Hildegarde, sitting up in bed; and then she
slipped quietly out and went to call Rose.

"Get up, you sleepy flower!" she said, shaking her friend gently,--

"A l'heure ou s'eveille la rose,
Ne vas-tu pas te reveiller?"

Rose sighed, as she always did at the sound of the "impossible
language," as she called the French, over which she struggled for an
hour every day; but got up obediently, and made a hasty and fragmentary
toilet, ending with a waterproof instead of a dress. Then each girl took
a blue bundle and a brown bath towel, and softly they slipped
downstairs, making no noise, and out into the morning air, and away down
the path to the river. Every blade of grass was awake, and a-quiver with
the dewdrop on its tip; the trees showered pearls and diamonds on the
two girls, as they brushed past them; the birds were singing and
fluttering and twittering on every branch, as if the whole world
belonged to them, as indeed it did. On the river lay a mantle of soft
white mist, curling at the edges, and lifting here and there; and into
this mist the sun was striking gold arrows, turning the white to silver,
and breaking through it to meet the blue flash of the water. Gradually
the mist rose, and floated in the air; and now it was a maiden, a young
Titaness, rising from her sleep, with trailing white robes, which
caught on the trees and the points of rock, and hung in fleecy tatters
o