any opinions from Antonia!"

They had reached the brow of the hill now, and Hester was resting her
ponies for a moment.

"How fiercely you speak," said Susy in an aggrieved tone. "Aren't you
really interested in me and my future? Coming to the Towers is a very
important step for me. I shall be the mistress, and in a position of
great distinction. Father says I must entertain, and I hate
entertaining, for it rouses one up so dreadfully; but I do think that
you, as an old schoolfellow, might take a little interest in me."

"Listen to me for a moment," said Hester; "I want to say something."

"Oh, how appallingly solemn you are! I wish I had a lollipop to stop
your mouth with."

"You must listen," said Hester in a firm voice; "I'm not joking. Times
come in all lives when one cannot joke. I did not love you as my
schoolfellow, Susy, and, frankly, I do not love you now; but, when you
come to the Towers, I'll do everything in my power to help you, not
because I like to do this, but because it's right. I can help you in
many ways, for you don't know anything of county society; and, coming
after such an old and popular family as the Lorrimers, people will be
very apt to cut you if you are not careful. My father and I know
everyone in the place, and we can get them to be kind to you if--if you
deserve it; but that depends altogether on how you treat the Lorrimers
now."

"Bravo," burst from Annie, who was sitting in the back seat, but who
overheard Hester's words.

"Don't interrupt me, Annie, please," said Hester.

"The Lorrimers are my dearest friends," continued Hester. "Molly
Lorrimer, whom you have not yet seen, and Annie, here, are the two
greatest girl friends I have in the world. It is a great, great sorrow
to the Lorrimers to leave the home where they and their people have
lived before them for hundreds of years, and until they leave the place
you ought not to talk before them of the way you mean to furnish the
Towers when you are in possession. You ought to regard their feelings;
and if you wish to please me, and if you wish me to help you by-and-by,
you will. Remember, you are not in possession yet. The Towers is not
your place yet."

"Well, I never!" exclaimed Susy. "Why, you've turned into an orator;"
but Hester's words had subdued her a good deal, for if she had one
source of envy, it was the envy which _parvenus_ like her give to the
old county people, and if there was an ambition in her stagnant soul, i