e. "She has such a
bright, intelligent face, and she answered so readily and pleasantly
when I spoke to her. I'm glad to hear she took you under her wing, and
showed you the Avondale ways. You'll soon feel at home there now,
Birdie."

"Oh, I shall get along all right! Miss Tempest is rather tempestuous,
and Miss Pitman's only tolerable, but the acting is going to be fun. As
for Dorothy, she's ripping!"

CHAPTER V

A Literature Exercise

The fickle goddess of fortune, having elected to draw together the lives
of Dorothy Greenfield and Alison Clarke, had undoubtedly begun her task
by sending the latter to live near Coleminster. Mrs. Clarke told all her
friends that it was by the merest chance she had seen and taken
Lindenlea. She had decided that the climate of Leamstead was too
relaxing; and when, on a motor tour with a cousin in the North, she
happened to pass through the village of Latchworth, and noticed the
pretty, rambling old house to let on the top of the hill, she had at
once insisted upon stopping, obtaining the keys, and looking over it.
And she had so immediately and entirely fallen in love with its
pleasant, sunny rooms and delightful garden that she had interviewed the
agent without further delay, and arranged to take it on a lease.

"It's the very kind of place I've always longed for!" she
declared--"old-fashioned enough to be picturesque, yet with every modern
comfort: a good coach-house and stable, a meadow large enough to keep a
Jersey cow in, a splendid tennis court, and the best golf links in the
neighbourhood close by. Another advantage is that Alison can go to
Avondale College. The house is so near to the station that she can
travel by train into Coleminster every day, and return at four o'clock.
I'm never able to make up my mind to spare her to go to a boarding
school; but, on the other hand, I don't approve of girls being taught at
home by private governesses. The College exactly solves the problem. No
one can say I'm not giving her a good education, and yet I shall see her
every day, and have her all Saturday and Sunday with me. It's no use
possessing a daughter unless she can be something of a companion, and I
always think Nature meant a mother to bring up her own child,
particularly when she's a precious only chick like mine."

Alison had no memory of her father, who had died in her infancy. Her
mother had been as both parents to her, and had supplied the place of
brothers and si