y between two
counties, and were now in Blankshire, in which Hurst Manor itself was
situated. To remark on this fact seemed an innocent and natural manner
of opening a conversation, so she turned towards Square Face, and said
brightly, "Now we are in Blankshire, I see! I have never been here
before. The country looks very pretty and undulating."

The girl turned and stared at her with a wooden stolidity of feature.
Seen at close quarters she appeared to Rhoda as at once the most
extraordinarily ugly and comical-looking creature she had ever beheld.
Her little eyes blinked, and the thin lips flapped up and down in an
uncanny fashion that refused to be likened to any ordinary thing. There
was a moment's silence, then she repeated in a tone of the utmost
solemnity--

"The country is very pretty and undulating--you are quite right. Your
remark is most apt! May I ask if you would object to my repeating it to
my friend over here? She would be so very much interested."

She was so preternaturally grave, that for a moment Rhoda was taken in
by the pretence, the next she flushed angrily, and tilted her head in
the air, but it was of no avail, for already the next girl was tittering
over the quotation, and turning to repeat it in her turn. The simple
words must surely contain some hidden joke, for on hearing it each
listener was seized with a paroxysm of laughter, and face after face
peered forward to stare at the originator, and chuckle with renewed
mirth. It was a good ten minutes before it had travelled round the
carriage and been digested by each separate traveller, and then, so far
from dying out, it acquired fresh life from being adapted to passing
circumstances, as when the train having stopped at a junction and moved
on again with a jerk, Square Face fell prone into her companion's arms,
and excused herself with a bland--

"Excuse me, dear. It's my little way. I _am_ so pretty and
undulating," and instantly the titters burst out afresh.

Rhoda's face was a study, but even as she sat fuming with passion, a
voice spoke in her ear from the side where Brown Eyes still studied her
advertisements.

"Laugh, can't you?" said the voice. "Laugh, too, as if you enjoyed the
joke. It's the only way. They will go on all the more if they see you
are angry."

"I hate them all!" hissed Rhoda savagely, and the other heaved a sigh.

"Ah, so do I, but they shan't hate me if I know it! I'm sorry I
snapped, but I'll ta