dge, of which she had never spoken to Vava. 'Things were very
different then,' she wound up.

'But they are not so bad now, and you have your old friends. Do you
never see them or hear from them?' inquired the housekeeper.

'They have written, but I don't care to answer them. They have asked me
to go and stay with them, and wanted to come and see me; but I had not a
nice place to ask them to come to, and I won't stay with people I can't
ask back.'

'I think you are wrong there; anybody would like to have a bright young
leddie like you as a visitor, and you would like to see your old friends
again, I'm sure. At any rate, now you have a nice home, and we'll soon
have your sitting-room fit to receive a queen,' said Mrs. Morrison.

'I'll write to Mrs. Croker. She often comes to town, and she has a
daughter just my age, only she is still at school and going on to
college, and I am working for my living and not learning anything,' said
Eva, a little bitterly.

'But you should be learning; you can get books anywhere, and can always
improve yourself in the evenings. You shouldn't let Miss Croker get
before you,' said Mrs. Morrison.

The good woman's interest touched Eva, and had its effect; for she
delighted Mrs. Croker by writing to her and telling her where she was,
and what she was doing; and Mrs. Croker said to her husband, 'I am so
glad she has written. I was so vexed at losing sight of her, but she
seemed to want to drop us all.'

'People do when they are poor, and she felt having her education
stopped. You must ask her down for Easter. She has a few days then, I
suppose?' replied the professor.

So the first Sunday at Heather Road did them all good in different ways.

CHAPTER XVIII.

STELLA'S SURPRISING REQUEST.

'I shall breakfast a little earlier than usual to-morrow morning, Vava,'
said Stella when they were going to bed that night.

'Doreen says she catches the 8.40, so we shall be in plenty of time if
we have breakfast at eight o'clock,' objected Vava.

'You can go with Doreen by that train, but I shall take the 8.20,'
replied her sister.

Vava coloured up, for she remembered in a flash that it was to secure
that unlucky letter of hers that her sister was going up to town so
early. 'Oh that letter!' she said, in such dejected tones that Stella
was sorry for her.

'Never mind, Vava; I will not let Mr. Jones have that letter, so you
need not worry,' she said.

'Don't you think I had better