.

"Nurse," she said, "I am quite in trouble. I wonder if I might tell you
a secret?"

"Well, dear, if you like to trust me, safe it shall be. Inviolate it
shall be kept, Miss Annie, and you know that violet's the colour of
truth."

"Of course I do, you dear old thing. What a wonderful comfort it is to
talk to you. I knew you'd let me confide in you, and it will be such a
load off my mind."

"My dear, I hope you haven't been at any mad pranks. The young ladies of
the present day are wonderful for audaciousness."

Annie sighed.

"I wish I wasn't audacious," she said; "and I wish I wasn't thoughtless
and reckless. I'm always meaning to be kind to people, and somehow or
other I'm always kind in the wrong way; it's very, very trying."

Annie's pretty eyes filled with real tears of contrition.

"You're but young, my bairn," said Mrs. Martin, "and the heart's in the
right place; anyone can see that who looks at you, Miss Annie."

"Nurse, you are a comfort to me. Now I will tell you my trouble. At the
picnic the other day I got into a state of mind because little Boris
Lorrimer had not come, and I confided in Kitty Lorrimer and went off to
fetch him, and Kitty promised she would not tell where I had gone until
I had brought him back; but when I got to the Towers I was very
hot--very, very hot with my long walk, and I found that Boris did not
wish to come back with me, and I forgot all about my promise to Kitty,
and stayed at the Towers for the rest of the day; but poor Kitty kept
her word and did not tell, and Nora got cross with her, and climbed up
the beech tree after her, and crept out on to the rotten bough, and so
got the dreadful fall which has made her so ill. Nora would not have met
with this terrible accident but for me; so I have taken upon myself to
amuse her, and I promised to make her three dresses."

"Sakes alive! Three?" interrupted Mrs. Martin; "and why three, Miss
Annie? Wouldn't one be enough to content her?"

"No, nursey, no; three cambric dresses or nothing. I promised to make
them, and I thought I had the cambric and embroidery in my trunk, but
when I looked I found I had left it all behind me at school. You can't
think how upset I am about it, for I must keep my promise to Nora, and
Nora has got no money, and I have only five shillings, which I must keep
for stamps and odds and ends; and I would not ask Hester or Nan to lend
me sixpence for the world."

"But why not, my dear? I am sure Miss