arms suddenly round her neck. "You're
tremendously kind," she said; "and now you'll see how good I'll be
always, and always, and always."

Miss Mervyn smiled still more. "That's a very long time, my dear
Philippa," she said; "but at any rate you know now what it is to feel
grateful, don't you? But you haven't thanked your mother yet. Run
down-stairs and tell her how pleased you are."

Philippa's first impulse was, as usual, to refuse to do what she was
told, but this evening she felt quite a new wish to please Miss Mervyn,
and obeyed silently.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

THE GREATEST COMFORT.

"This _is_ a dull room!" exclaimed Philippa.

She had just finished unpacking the basket of good things she had
brought for Becky, and still knelt beside it, with various parcels
spread out round her on the floor. Miss Mervyn had left her at the
Tuvvys' cottage for a quarter of an hour, while she went to do some
shopping in the town, and would call for her again in the pony-carriage,
so that the two children were alone. They had been very silent
hitherto, Philippa occupied with her unpacking, and Becky gazing at her
meanwhile with shy admiration. It was like looking at a pretty picture,
she thought--only better, because it was real; and her dark eyes
examined her visitor's face and dress narrowly, while the kitten,
alarmed at the entrance of a stranger, peeped out from the safe shelter
of her arms. Neither she nor her mistress was accustomed to see such
fine drooping feathers as those in Philippa's hat, nor such a soft white
dress with lace frills. They seemed to make everything round them look
dingier and more shabby. Philippa herself however, was much too busy to
notice anything but the contents of her basket for some time. She
continued to pull out package after package, naming each as she laid it
on the floor, "Arrowroot, eggs, sponge-cakes," in a business-like
manner, until she reached the last. Then tossing back her long hair,
she sat back on her heels, gave a searching look round the room, and
without a moment's hesitation exclaimed: "This _is_ a dull room!"

Becky did not answer. Now that Philippa was there, it did look darker
and more dismal than usual somehow, and the ceiling blacker with smoke.

"Do you lie here alone all day?" asked Philippa. "Don't you hate it?"

"'Tain't so bad as it used to be," said Becky.

"_I_ couldn't bear it," remarked Philippa, after gazing at Becky for a
minute with her m