a man of remarkable
character. He had great strength of will and immense determination;
and Maggie, his only child, took after him. She resembled him in
appearance also, for he was very plain of face and rather ungainly of
figure. Maggie's mother, on the other hand, was a delicate, pretty,
blue-eyed woman, who could as little manage her headstrong young
daughter as a lamb could manage a young lion. Mrs. Howland was
intensely amiable. Maggie was very good to her mother, as she
expressed it; and when she got that same mother to yield to all her
wishes the mother thought that she was doing the right thing. She had
a passionate love for her daughter, although she deplored her plain
looks, and often told the girl to her face that she wished she had
taken after her in personal appearance. Maggie used to smile when this
was said, and then would go away to her own room and look at her
queer, dark face, and rather small eyes, and determined mouth, and
somewhat heavy jaw, and shake her head solemnly. She did not agree
with her mother; she preferred being what she was. She liked best to
take after her father.

It was Maggie Howland who had persuaded Mr. Tristram, during a brief
visit which he had made to town at Christmas, to send his daughters to
Aylmer House. Maggie was fond of Molly and Isabel. With all her
oddities, she had real affection, and one of her good qualities was
that she really loved those whom she influenced.

Mr. Tristram went to see Mrs. Ward, the head-mistress of that most
select establishment for young ladies at Kensington. Mrs. Ward was all
that was delightful. She was a noble-minded woman of high aspirations,
and her twenty young boarders were happy and bright and contented
under her influence.

Maggie joined the school at Easter, and spent one term there, and was
now coming on a visit to the rectory.

"I wonder what she will have to tell us! I wonder if she is as
fascinating as ever!" thought Molly Tristram as she hurried her
steps.

She had now reached that point in the avenue which gave a good view of
the old Manor, with its castellated walls and its square towers at
each end. The gardens were laid out in terraces after an old-world
fashion. There was one terrace devoted to croquet, another to tennis.
As Molly approached she saw Cicely and Merry playing a game of croquet
rather languidly. They wore simple white frocks which just came down
above their ankles, and had white washing-hats on their head