to be and do.

"Oh, I am so glad we came here!" she murmured, "so glad! I am sure it
will be easy to be good here, and I do so want to be good! I wish I
hadn't been so horrid to mother sometimes, and--and now I can't ever be
anything else, to her." And there came back to her mind her mother's
words, "I am sure your Aunt Julia would not have Esther if she knew how
bad her temper had become," and her eyes filled with tears at the
recollection.

"I will try," she whispered. "I will try that no one else shall ever say
that of me--and I will write to mother, and tell her I am sorry."
And it was a very grave and serious Esther who fell asleep at last.

CHAPTER VIII.

When Esther awoke the next morning, she wondered for a moment why she felt
so happy and light-hearted. Then memory returned. She recollected the
talk of last night, Cousin Charlotte's kiss, and the plan for Monday. She
would begin to learn at last! But even greater was her joy at the other
thought--her own plan to help Miss Charlotte. She could hardly lie still
when she thought of all she meant to do. She would dust, and tidy and
sweep, and sew, and polish the furniture, and she even pictured herself
making bread and cleaning windows.

She longed to be dressed, and beginning already. She sat up in bed and
looked across at Poppy. She wanted to tell her and the others all the
news, but Poppy was sleeping in the most aggravatingly persistent way.

Too impatient to wait for her to wake, she slipped out of bed and crept
along the corridor, past Miss Charlotte's room, to Penelope's.

Angela was asleep, but Penelope lay awake reading.

"What is that you are reading?" asked Esther, eyeing the red-covered book
with a sort of feeling that it was familiar to her.

"Oh, it's only _The Invasion of the Crimea_," said Penelope, withdrawing
her eyes almost reluctantly from the page.

"I didn't know you were going on with it," said Esther, a touch of
resentment in her voice. She did not like to feel that Penelope was more
persevering than she herself, and had outstripped her. She was conscious
in her inmost heart that she had not been sorry when the readings were
broken off; the history did not interest her. At the same time it
mortified her a little that it did interest Penelope.

"It's awfully exciting," said Penelope. "Of course I have to skip some,
I can't understand it, but here and there it's lovely."

Esther's first fresh joyful feeling w