pected to find myself quite alone on this first night of
my arrival, and a feeling of hopeless wretchedness came over me as I
sat down at one end of a long green-baize-covered table, and rested
my head upon my folded arms. Of course it was very weak and foolish,
a bad beginning of my new life, but I was quite powerless to contend
against that sense of utter misery. I thought of all I had left at
home. I thought of what my life might have been if my father had
been only a little better off: and then I burst out crying as if my
heart were breaking.

Suddenly, in the midst of that foolish paroxysm, I felt a light hand
upon my shoulder, and looking up, saw a face bending over me, a face
full of sympathy and compassion.

O Milly Darrell, my darling, my love, how am I to describe you as
you appeared before my eyes that night? How poorly can any words of
mine paint you in your girlish beauty, as you looked down upon me in
that dimly-lighted schoolroom with divine compassion in your dark
eloquent eyes!

Just at that moment I was so miserable and so inclined to be sulky
in my wretchedness, that even the vision of that bright face gave me
little pleasure. I pushed away the gentle hand ungraciously, and
rose hastily from my seat.

'Pray don't cry any more,' said the young lady; 'I can't bear to
hear you cry like that.'

'I'm not going to cry any more,' I answered, drying my eyes in a
hasty, angry way. 'It was very foolish of me to cry at all; but this
place did look so cheerless and dreary, and I began to think of my
father and mother, and all I had left behind me at home.'

'Of course it was only natural you should think of them. Everything
does seem so bleak and dismal the first night; but you are very
happy to have so many at home. I have only papa.'

'Indeed!' I said, not feeling deeply interested in her affairs.

I looked at her as she stood leaning a little against the end of the
table, and playing idly with a bunch of charms and lockets hanging
to her gold chain. She was very handsome, a brunette, with a small
straight nose, hazel eyes, and dark-brown hair. Her mouth was the
prettiest and most expressive I ever saw in my life, and gave an
indescribable charm to her face. She was handsomely dressed in
violet silk, with rich white lace about the throat and sleeves.

'You will find things much pleasanter when the girls come back. Of
course school is always a little dreary compared with home; one is
prepared for tha