at vinegar
does it."

"Vinegar?"

"I have heard tell, but I have never tried it. You drink it three times a
day, a wine-glass at a time. It's horrid nasty stuff, but if you want to
change your complexion you must put up with some sort of inconvenience."

"Suppose, Betty, you and me both drink it. Your nose might get white, and
I might go to the seaside."

"No, miss, I'm not tempted to interfere with nature. I've got good
'ealth, and I'll keep it without no vinegar."

"But will you give me some? You shall have the pin-cushion and the tidy
if you do."

"'Arriet would like that tidy," contemplated Betty, looking with round
eyes at the hideous ornament.

"You sneak round to the boot-house, and I'll have it ready for you," she
said. "Come at eleven, come again at half-past three, and come at seven
in the evening."

This was arranged, and Pen, faithfully to the minute, did make her
appearance in the boot-house. She drank off her first glass of vinegar
with a wry face; but after it was swallowed she began to feel intensely
good and pleased with herself.

"Will it pale me in an hour?" was her thought.

She ran upstairs, found a tiny square of looking-glass, concealed it in
her pocket, and came down again. During the remainder of the day she
might have been observed at intervals sneaking away by herself, and had
any one followed her, that person would have seen her taking the
looking-glass from her pocket and carefully examining her cheeks.

Alas! the vinegar had only produced a slight feeling of discomfort; it
had not taken any of the bloom out of the firm, fat cheeks.

"It's horrid, and it's not doing it," thought the child. "I wish I hadn't
gived her that tidy and that pin-cushion. But I will go on somehow till
the color is out. They will send for me when they hear that I'm bad.
Perhaps I'll look bad to-night."

But Pen's "perhapses" were knocked on the head, for Miss Tredgold made a
sudden and most startling announcement.

"Why wait for the morning?" she exclaimed. "We are all packed and ready.
We can easily get to Easterhaze by a late train to-night."

Accordingly, by a late train that evening Miss Tredgold, Verena, and
Pauline departed. They drove to Lyndhurst Road, and presently found
themselves in a first-class carriage being carried rapidly away.

"I am glad I thought of it," said Miss Tredgold, turning to the two
girls. "It is true we shall arrive late, but Miss Pinchin will have
things ready, as s