ome to girls like me."

"Why, are you so very, very sad, Maggie? Oh, now I know--of course I
know. I didn't like to write to you about it, for it seemed to me
quite--you will forgive me, won't you?--quite dreadful that your
mother should have married again. Is she married yet, Maggie?"

Maggie nodded.

"Oh, I can sympathize with you, dear Maggie! It must be so fearful to
have a stepfather!"

"It is," said Maggie.

"Is he a nice man, Maggie? Or would you rather I didn't speak of
him?"

"No; you may speak of him if you like. He is a rich man--he is very
rich."

"I am glad of that at any rate," said Merry. "You will never be in
fusty, musty lodgings any more."

"Oh no, never! My mother's husband--I cannot speak of him as my
stepfather--will see to that."

"What is his name?"

Maggie hesitated. Not for the world would she have let any of her
schoolfellows know the real position; but she could not very well
conceal her stepfather's name.

"Martin," she said.

"Spelt with a 'y'? We know some awfully nice Martyns. They live about
twenty miles away from Meredith Manor. I wonder if your Mr. Martyn is
related to them."

"Oh, very likely," said Maggie.

"Then perhaps you will go to stay with them--your mother, and
your--your mother's husband, and you too; and we'll all meet. They
live at a place-called The Meadows. It isn't as old or as beautiful as
our Manor, but it's a sweet place, and the girls are so nice you'll be
sure to like them."

"Yes, I dare say I shall," said Maggie, who didn't care to contradict
Merry's innocent ideas with regard to her mother's marriage.

"Well, I am glad," said Merry, "that your dear mother has married a
rich gentleman. Has he a country place of his own?"

"Of course he has," said Maggie, who felt that she could at least
utter these words with truth.

"And is it far, far from London, or quite in the country?"

"It is," said Maggie, "in--in the Norwood direction."

This remark made no impression whatever on Merry, who had not the
least idea where the Norwood direction was. But by-and-by, when she
parted from Maggie and joined her sister and Aneta, she said, "I have
a piece of rather good news to tell about dear Maggie Howland. She
won't be poor any more."

"That is a word we never discuss at school," said Aneta.

"Well, we needn't after to-night," said Merry with a slight touch of
irritation in her manner. "But although I haven't the faintest idea
what poverty means, I