" and then we talked over the hairbreadth escapes we had had,
and groaned to think that the good times were passed.

"I will say this for Una," said Florence, "however stupid she may be at
lessons, I never met a girl who was cleverer at scenting a joke!"

When Florence says a thing, she _means_ it, so it was an awful
compliment, and I was just trying to look humble when Mary came in to
say Miss Martin wanted me in the drawing-room. I did feel bad, because
I knew it would be our last real talk, and she looked simply sweet in
her new blue dress and her Sunday afternoon expression. She can look as
fierce as anything and snap your head off if you vex her, but she's a
darling all the same, and I adore her. She's been perfectly sweet to me
these three years, and we have had lovely talks sometimes--serious
talks, I mean--when I was going to be confirmed, and when father was
ill, and when I've been homesick. She's so good, but not a bit goody,
and she makes you long to be good too. She's just the right person to
have a girls' school, for she understands how girls feel, and that it
isn't natural for them to be solemn, unless of course they are prigs,
and they don't count.

I sat down beside her and we talked for an hour. I wish I could
remember all the things she said, and put them down here to be my rules
for life, but it's so difficult to remember.

She said my gaiety and lightness of heart had been a great help to them
all, and like sunshine in the school. Of course, it had led me into
scrapes at times, but they had been innocent and kindly, and so she had
not been hard upon me. But now I was grown up and going out into the
battle of life, and everything was different.

"You know, dear, the gifts which God gives us are our equipments for
that fight, and I feel sure your bright, happy disposition has been
given to you to help you in some special needs of life."

I didn't quite like her saying that! It made me feel creepy, as if
horrid things were going to happen, and I should need my spirit to help
me through. I want to be happy and have a good time. I never can
understand how people can bear troubles, and illnesses, and being poor,
and all those awful things. I should die at once if they happened to
me.

She went on to say that I must make up my mind from the first not to
live for myself; that it was often a very trying time when a girl first
left school and found little or nothing to occupy her energies at