, forcing myself to speak,--"and mamma:--and we
used to have these flowers--"

"Yes, yes; I know. I know very well," said my friend. "The flowers
didn't know but you were there yet. They hadn't discretion. Mrs.
Sandford wants to go, dear. Will you come again and see them? They
will say something else next time."

"Oh, may I?" I said.

"Just whenever you like, and as often as you like. So I'll expect
you."

I went home, very glad at having escaped notice from my schoolmates,
and firmly bent on accepting Miss Cardigan's invitation at the first
chance I had. I asked about her of Mrs. Sandford in the first place;
and learned that she was "a very good sort of person; a little queer,
but very kind; a person that did a great deal of good and had plenty
of money. Not in society, of course," Mrs. Sandford added; "but I dare
say she don't miss that; and she is just as useful as if she were."

"Not in society." That meant, I supposed, that Miss Cardigan would not
be asked to companies where Mrs. Randolph would be found, or Mrs.
Sandford; that such people would not "know" her, in fact. That would
certainly be a loss to Miss Cardigan; but I wondered how much? "The
world knoweth us not,"--the lot of all Christ's people,--could it
involve anything in itself very bad? My old Juanita, for example, who
held herself the heir to a princely inheritance, was it any harm to
her that earthly palaces knew her only as a servant? But then, what
did not matter to Juanita or Miss Cardigan might matter to somebody
who had been used to different things. I knew how it had been with
myself for a time past. I was puzzled. I determined to wait and see,
if I could, how much it mattered to Miss Cardigan.

CHAPTER XII.

FRENCH DRESSES.

My new friend had given me free permission to come and see her whenever I
found myself able. Saturday afternoon we always had to ourselves in the
school; and the next Saturday found me at Miss Cardigan's door again as
soon as my friends and room-mates were well out of my way. Miss Cardigan
was not at home, the servant said, but she would be in presently. I was
just as well pleased. I took off my cap, and carrying it in my hand I
went back through the rooms to the greenhouse. All still and fresh and
sweet, it seemed more delightful than ever, because I knew there was
nobody near. Some new flowers were out. An azalea was in splendid beauty,
and a white French rose, very large and fair, was just blossoming, an