ite
uncontrolled fashion, and at the sight of her tears Rhoda put on her
severest air.

"Mother! What are you doing? You must _not_ cry! Please remember that
in half an hour we shall be at Euston, and meet the school. I should
never get over it if the girls saw my mother with a red face!"

Mrs Chester mopped her eyes obediently, and made a valiant effort to
regain her composure. For herself, poor dear, she cared little about
appearances, but Rhoda had already exhibited an intense anxiety that she
should make a good impression on the minds of her future school-fellows.
Each separate article of clothing had been passed in review, while the
bonnet had been changed three times over before the critic was
satisfied. It would never do to spoil an effect which had been achieved
with so much trouble; so the unselfish creature gulped down her tears,
and tried to talk cheerfully on impersonal topics, keeping her eyes
fixed on the landscape the while, lest the sight of her child might
prove too much for her resolution.

Rhoda was immaculate in blue serge coat and skirt, and sailor hat with a
band of school colours. Nothing could have been simpler; but there are
ranks in even the simplest garments, and she was agreeably conscious
that her coat was not as other coats, neither was her skirt as other
skirts. The hand of the Regent Street tailor was seen in both, and
there was a new arrangement of pleats at the back which ought in itself
to secure the admiration of the school! She was all complacency until
Euston was reached, when the first glimpse at a group of "Hurst" girls
smote her to earth. She had sewn the band on her hat upside down,
putting the wide stripe next the brim, which should by rights have been
the place of the narrow! To the cold, adult mind such a discovery might
seem of trifling importance, but to the embryo school-girl it was
fraught with agonising humiliation. It looked so ignorant, so stupid;
it marked one so hopelessly as a recruit; Rhoda's cheeks burned crimson;
she looked searchingly round to see if by chance any other strangeling
had fallen into the same error, but, so far as bands were concerned, she
was solitary among the throng.

A governess, seeing the two figures standing apart from the rest, came
forward and welcomed Rhoda with a few kindly words, but she was too busy
to spare time for more than a greeting. Fresh girls kept arriving with
every moment--a crowd of brisk, alert, bustling yo