ree months after his untimely death--saw Cynthia's little box packed,
and herself, arrayed in neat but very unbecoming garments, conveyed by
Mrs. Rumbold to the charitable precincts of St. Elizabeth's Orphanage at
Winstead, where she was introduced to the black-robed, white-capped
Sisters and a crowd of blue-cloaked children like herself as Jane Wood,
orphan, from the village of Beechfield, in Hants.

However, Mrs. Rumbold told the whole of Cynthia's story to the Sister in
charge of the Orphanage, a sweet-faced motherly woman, who looked as if
children were dear to her. The one reservation made by the Rector's wife
referred to the person or persons who were to pay the child's expenses.
Their names, she said emphatically, were never to be mentioned. The good
Sister smiled, and thought to herself that the very reservation told its
own story. Of course it was the Vanes who were thus providing for
Cynthia Westwood's continued absence from their village. It was natural
perhaps.

She noticed that the child showed no sign of sorrow at parting from Mrs.
Rumbold. She looked white, tired, almost stupefied. Sister Louisa took
hold of the little hands, and found them cold and trembling.

When the Rector's wife was gone, the good woman--"the mother of the
children," as she was sometimes called--drew the little girl to her knee
and kissed her tenderly. It needed very little real affection to call
forth a response in Cynthia's yearning heart. She burst into tears and
buried her face in the mother's ample bosom, won from that moment to all
the claims of love and duty, and a religion of which she as yet had
scarcely heard the name.

As time went on, Mrs. Rumbold received letters from Sister Louisa
relative to Jane Wood's progress. Jane Wood was, on the whole, a very
satisfactory pupil. She was a girl of strong will and strong passions,
often in disgrace, and yet a universal favorite. She possessed more than
usual ability, and soon caught up with the girls of her own age who had
at first been far in advance of her in class; then she surpassed them,
and began to attract attention; and at the end of two years Mrs. Rumbold
received a letter which perplexed her so sorely, that she sent it at
once to Mr. Hubert Lepel, who was still living a bachelor-life in
London.

The letter, from Sister Louisa, was to the effect that Jane Wood, the
girl from Beechfield, had developed a great talent for music, and seemed
very superior to the station of