exclamation of dismay.
It was the same all round, Hilary told herself. Everyone was miserable
because Lettice had been chosen. Everyone called out in sharp tones of
distress, as if disappointed not to hear another name. Mr Bertrand was
too dear and kind for it to be possible to make a charge of favouritism
against him, but Lettice's striking likeness to her mother seemed to
give her a special claim to his tenderness, while as for the rest of the
household, Miss Briggs was as wax in Lettice's hands, for the simple
reason that she was a solitary woman, and the girl showed her those
little outward signs of affection which make up the sweetness of life;
while the servants would do twice as much for her as for any other
member of the family, because, "bless her pretty face, she had such a
way with her!" Hilary felt indescribably chilled and humiliated as she
realised how little regret her own departure would have caused in
comparison, and when she spied Mr Rayner's figure crossing the lawn,
she shrank back, with uncontrollable repugnance. "You tell him, Norah!
I can't. I am going upstairs."

Meanwhile, Lettice herself had not broken down, nor shown any signs of
the emotion of a few days earlier. She was a creature of moods, but
though each mood was intense while it lasted, it lasted, as a rule, for
a remarkably short space of time. If she were in tears over a certain
subject on Monday, it was ten to one that she had forgotten all about it
before Thursday. If she were wild with excitement over a new
proposition, she would probably yawn when it was mentioned a second
time, and find it difficult to maintain a show of interest. So, in the
present case, she had exhausted her distress at the idea of leaving home
while weeping upon her father's shoulders, and ever since then the idea
of the life in London, in Miss Carr's beautiful house, had been growing
more and more attractive. And to be chosen first--before all the
others! It was a position which was full of charm to a girl's love of
appreciation.

"Come here, dear," said Miss Carr tenderly, when the door had shut
behind the other two girls; and when Lettice seated herself on the sofa,
she took her hands in hers and gazed fixedly into her face. In truth,
it would have been difficult to find an object better worth looking at
than "lovely Lettice" at that moment. The hair which rippled over her
head was of no pale, colourless flaxen, but of a rich coppery bronze,
w