op, dearest!" she said. "You were certain
to, as soon as you had grown used to the work here. It's always
difficult for a new girl, when she has been accustomed to a different
teacher; but I think you have fallen into Birkwood ways marvellously
quickly. Don't you feel proud?"

"Not particularly."

"Well, I do, for you! To think of being twenty marks ahead of Ursula!
It's a tremendous score! How do you manage to be so clever?"

"I'm not clever. It's sheer good luck, I expect."

"No, it's not good luck," said Mabel, putting back Aldred's dark curls
with a caressing hand. "It's something far more, only you're too modest
to acknowledge it. You're behaving just as you did at Seaforth. Oh,
I've heard about that episode! We all know of it, though you may think
it was done by stealth."

"What episode?" gasped Aldred, suddenly red to the tips of her ears.

"Don't blush so, darling! I won't speak about it again, if you'd rather
not; but I should like to tell you how much I admire you, not only for
what you did, but for the way you've tried to make nothing of it
afterwards. It's only one girl in a thousand who would have had the
courage to rush into that blazing house, and crawl upstairs and down
again; or the presence of mind to tie a wet handkerchief over the little
boy's mouth. I should never have thought of that, I'm certain. Do you
mind my mentioning it to you just this once?"

Now was Aldred's chance. The occasion when she might deny her identity
with the heroine of the fire had come at last! How easily the mistake
could be corrected, and the matter set right! She looked nervously at
Mabel, and words struggled painfully to her lips.

"I--I'm afraid--you----" she began.

"Yes, dearest?" There was a little thrill in Mabel's voice.

"You're--you're thinking too--too well of me----" stammered Aldred,
trying desperately to take the fatal plunge.

Mabel simply smiled. Her blue eyes were gazing into her friend's with
adoring affection; her face showed how deeply her feelings were stirred,
and how earnestly she meant all she had said.

"I was at Seaforth----" continued Aldred.

"I know that."

"But--but----"

Oh, how hard it was to utter her confession! In the act, Aldred's
resolution failed her; she stopped again, and was silent. Her
embarrassment was most apparent.

"Would you really rather not speak of it, dear?" said Mabel gently.

Why did Aldred hesitate? Opportunity, like an angel of light, still
tarried,