's, partly because she could not
have told Lull the offences for which she was reproved--offences no one
would have noticed at home.

In spite of an eager desire to be good and polite Jane was constantly
accused of being wicked and rude. Mr Rannigan had never found fault
with her manners, but Miss Courtney sent her back three times one day
to re-enter the room because she bobbed her head and said: "Mornin',"
when she came in. Jane, in bewilderment, repeated the offence, and was
punished. "I wisht I'd 'a' knowed what it was she wanted," she
complained to Mick. "If I had I'd 'a' done it at wanst."

She gathered that, in school, it was considered a sin to speak like the
poor. Miss Courtney said a lady should have an English accent, and a
voice like a silvery wave. Jane trembled every time she had to speak
to her. In other things besides pronunciation she never knew when she
was doing right or wrong.

She was reproved for shaking hands with a housemaid, and sent into the
corner for putting a spelling-book on the top of a Bible. School was a
strange world to her. To speak with an English accent, to have a
mother who wore real lace and a father who did no work, these things
made you a lady, and if you were not a lady you were despised. Jane
could tell the girls nothing about her father. Her pronunciation was
shocking, and the girls made fun of her magenta stockings and home-made
clothes. If only Mick had been with her Jane felt she could have borne
anything. She was terribly home-sick every day. From the time Andy
left her in the morning she counted the minutes till he would come to
take her back again to Rowallan and people who were kind. But it was
only to Mick she told her trouble. He said Miss Courtney was a fool,
and Jane trembled lest Miss Courtney might overhear it six miles away.
She was almost as frightened of the big girls as of Miss Courtney.
They wore such elegant clothes, and had such power to sting with their
tongues. One day when Jane, in joyful haste, was putting on her hat to
go home three of the big girls came into the cloakroom. They were
talking eagerly. One of them mentioned Jane's name, then asked Jane
how much she was going to give towards Miss Courtney's birthday
present. She explained that they always gave her a beautiful present
each year. "What is the good of asking her?" said another, "she's
hasn't a penny, I'm sure." The scorn in her voice seemed to scorch
Jane.

"I'll g