hanging over her hands, the
trimmings of every sort just as they ought to be, the hat which she was
to wear with the dress, specially chosen by the London dressmaker for
the purpose, no one could look more elegant than Florence did as she
stood in the hall of Cherry Court School just before she started for
Cherry Court Park.

Kitty, on the other hand, had thought very little about her dress; she
had no fine clothes to wear, so she just put on a clean white muslin
dress, tied a colored sash round her waist, put her sailor hat on her
head, and ran downstairs, a light in her eyes and a pleased smile round
her lips.

"I cannot be anything great," she whispered to her heart, as she
glanced for a moment at Florence, who looked something like a fashion
plate as she stood in the hall, "but at least I'll be myself. I'll
try--yes, I'll try very hard to forget all about the Scholarship
to-day. I want to make dear Sir John happy, and I hope, I do hope
he'll tell me something about father and the time they spent together
outside Sebastopol."

Mary Bateman was the downright sort of girl who never under any
circumstances could trouble herself about dress. She wore her best
Sunday frock, that was all, and her best hat, and her gloves were a
little darned at the tips, but she looked like a lady and was not the
least self-conscious.

Sir John's own carriage was to arrive to fetch the ladies to the Park.
Cherry Court Park was between two and three miles away from Cherry
Court School, and Mrs. Clavering and her three pupils greatly enjoyed
their drive to the splendid old place. Kitty had been there twice
before, once with her father and once without him, but neither Florence
nor Mary had ever seen the interior of the Park. Mary's exclamations
of rapture as they drove under the overhanging trees and down the long
winding avenue were frequent and enthusiastic. Florence, however,
scarcely spoke; she was not a girl to be much impressed by external
beauty; she was thinking all the time how she could keep the best and
most amiable part of her character to the fore. What did Sir John mean
to do? What sort of test was he going to apply to her? She felt that
she must be armed on every point.

"My dear girls," said Mrs. Clavering, just as they were approaching the
house, "I see you are all a little nervous, thinking that a somewhat
strange test will be applied to you to-day, but I assure you, my dears,
that nothing of the kind is int