aking Mr Chester smile with indulgent
amusement.

"My dear child, how can I tell? So far it is only a suggestion.
Nothing is settled. We have not even thought of one school before
another--"

"If she goes at all, I should like her to go to Miss Moorby's, at
Bournemouth," said Mrs Chester quickly. "She only takes ten girls, and
I'm told it is just like a home--hot bottles in all the beds, and beef-
tea at eleven--"

"Mother!" cried Rhoda, in a tone of deep reproach. Her eyes flashed,
and she drew herself up proudly. "No, indeed! If I go at all, I will
do the thing properly, and go to a real school, and not a hot-house. I
don't want their old beef-tea and bottles. I want to go to a nice, big,
sporty school, where they treat you like boys, and not young ladies, and
put you on your honour, and don't bind you down by a hundred sickening
little rules. I want to go to,"--she drew a long breath, and glanced at
her mother, as if bracing herself to meet opposition--"to Hurst Manor!
There! I've read about it in magazines, and Ella Mason had a cousin who
had been there, and she said it was--simply mag.! She was Head Girl,
and ruled the house, and came out first in the games, and she said she
never had such sport in her life, and found the holidays quite fearfully
flat and stale in comparison."

"You don't become Head Girl all at once," interposed Harold, drily;
while Mrs Chester gave another sob at the idea that home could ever be
looked upon in so sad a light.

"Hurst Manor?" she repeated vaguely. "That's a strange name. I never
heard of the place before. What do you know about it that makes you
want to go, darling? Are you quite sure it is nice, and what is the
Head Mistress like, and how many young la-- girls does she take? Not
too many, I hope, for I can't see how they can be properly looked after
when there are more than twenty or thirty. I've heard terrible stories
of delicacy for life arising from neglect. You remember poor, dear Evie
Vane! Her glands swelled, and nobody noticed, and--"

"My glands never swell. They know better. Over two hundred girls,
mother; but they are divided into different houses, with a staff of
teachers in charge of each, so there's no fear of being neglected; and
it's much more fun living in a crowd. I'm tired of talking to the same
people over and over again, and should love a variety. Among the
hundred girls, one would be sure to find one or two whom one could
really