that moment.

The girls all entered the house, lit their candles, and went upstairs
to their rooms.

As Maggie was wishing her two dear friends good-night she said
quietly, "I hope you won't mind; but Merry Cardew--or, as I ought to
call her, Miss Cardew--has asked me to go over to the Manor to-morrow
morning in order to show me the old house. I said I'd be there at ten
o'clock, and could then get back to you in time for lunch. I do trust
you don't mind."

"Of course we don't," said Molly in a hearty tone. "Now, good-night,
Mags."

"But if you think, Maggie," said Isabel, "that you will succeed in
that scheme of yours you will find yourself vastly mistaken."

Maggie smiled gently, and the next moment she found herself alone. She
went and stood by the open window. There was a glorious full moon in
the sky, and the garden, with its deep shadows and brilliant avenues
of light, looked lovely. But Maggie was not thinking of the scenery.
Her thoughts were busy with those ideas which were always running riot
in her busy little head. She was not unamiable; she was in reality a
good-hearted girl, but she was very ambitious, and she sighed, above
all things for power and popularity.

When she came to visit Molly and Isabel she had not the faintest idea
of inducing Cicely and Merry to join that select group who were taught
by Mrs. Ward at Aylmer House. But when once the idea had entered her
brain, she determined, with her accustomed quickness, to carry it into
execution. She had never yet, in the whole course of her life, met
with defeat. At the various schools where she had been taught she had
always been popular and had won friends and never created an enemy-but
at Aylmer House, extraordinary and delightful as the life was, there
was one girl who excited her enmity--who, in short, roused the worst
that was in her. That girl's name was Aneta Lysle. No sophistries on
the part of Maggie, no clever speeches, no well-timed and courteous
acts, could win the approval of Aneta; and just because she was
impossible to get at, because she carried her young head high, because
she had that which Maggie could never have--a stately and wonderful
beauty--Maggie was jealous of her, and was determined, if she could
not win Aneta over to be her friend, to use her own considerable
powers against the girl. She had not for a single moment, however,
thought that she could be helped by Cicely and Merry in this
direction, and had intended to ge