eumatic. I like the door into the conservatory left open. Yes, that's
right. And now come and talk to me for a few minutes before you take off
your things. There is still half an hour to luncheon. Tell me what you
have been doing these last few days--busy at lessons? That fair-haired
little sister of yours doesn't look as if she _over_worked.'

Jacinth smiled.

'No,' she said, 'I don't think Francie _over_works, but she does very
well. The being at school has really been a good thing for her, for she
feels herself that she is the better for emulation.'

'And the Scarletts are gentlewomen, thorough gentlewomen,' said Lady
Myrtle, musingly. 'That makes a difference. And I suppose a good many of
the pupils are really nice--lady-like and refined?'

'Yes,' said Jacinth, readily. 'The boarders are all nice--some of them
really as nice in every way as they can be, clever, too, and anxious to
learn. I don't seem to know them quite as well as Frances does, for,
somehow, I am not very quick at making friends,' and she looked up at
Lady Myrtle with a slight questioning in her eyes. The confession did
not sound very amiable. But the old lady nodded reassuringly.

'Just as well or better that it should be so,' she said. 'Few friends
and faithful has been my motto. Indeed, as for _great_ friends I never
had but one, and you know who that was, and I verily believe she never
had any one as much to her as I was.' She sighed a little. 'Your sister
is quite a child--a very nice child, I am sure, but she is not a
Moreland at all. I have heard of some girls at Miss Scarlett's--let me
see, who were they? What are the names of the ones you like best?'

Jacinth hesitated.

'There are the--the Eves,' she said, 'two sisters, and the Beckinghams,
and Miss Falmouth. She is almost too old for us.'

But the Harpers she did not name, saying to herself that her aunt had
advised her not to do so. In this she deceived herself. Miss Mildmay
would never have counselled her direct avoidance of mention of the two
girls whom Frances--and she herself in her heart--thought the most
highly of among their companions.

Lady Myrtle caught at the last name.

'Falmouth,' she repeated. 'Yes, it must have been of her I heard. I know
her aunt. Very nice people.'

Then she went on to talk a little of Jacinth's own special tastes and
studies, to ask what news the girls had last had from India, how often
they wrote, and so on, to all of which Jacinth replied w