gh. 'Father
wasn't born when he died.'

'No, but just because of that, Lady Myrtle should make up for it now,'
said Frances. 'I daresay I shouldn't call her "horrid," and of course
she's your aunt, and I can scarcely believe she _does_ know all about
you. Perhaps she never got your other aunt's letter.'

'Oh yes, she did,' said Bessie. 'She answered it by sending it back
with a note saying that none of the descendants of the late Bernard
Harper were kith or kin of hers.'

'How wicked!' exclaimed Frances.

'No, no, it's not right to say that, Frances dear,' said both sisters.
'Father says,' Bessie went on, 'that no one knows what her brothers made
her suffer, and how good she was to them, standing between them and her
father, and devoting herself to them, and hoping against hope, even
about our grandfather, till I suppose she _had_ to give him up. It is
awfully sad, and for her sake as well as ours, mother and I have often
said how we wished she knew father. He would make up to her for the
disappointment in her brothers.'

'Isn't Lord Elvedon nice?' asked Frances; 'that's her other nephew,
isn't he?'

'Oh yes, I think he's a good sort of a man, but not clever,' said
Bessie. 'Not like _father_.'

'And then our boys,' added Margaret. 'They are so good and so clever.'

Her pale little face flushed with rosy pleasure.

'How nice!' said Frances, with ready sympathy. 'How many brothers have
you?'

'Two big--older than we are, and one little one of eleven. There are six
of us,' Margaret replied.

CHAPTER VI.

BESSIE'S MISGIVINGS.

But just then came the sound of approaching voices.

'Bessie, Bessie, where are you? Haven't you found them? Tea's quite
ready.'

And Bessie started. She had forgotten the errand on which she had come.

'Oh, we must be quick!' she said. 'That's Honor and the others calling
us; I forgot how the time was going. But Frances, I must speak to you
for a moment before you go. Don't forget.'

And then the three ran off to rejoin their companions.

Never had Frances enjoyed herself more, her only regret being that
Jacinth was not there to share her pleasure. There was the element of
novelty to add zest to the whole, and then as the 'boarders' looked upon
her as in some sense their guest, they vied with each other in making
much of her--for her own sake too, for Frances was a great favourite, a
much greater favourite than her sister, among their companions. It is to
be doubted i