ng waited in vain for a reply, Emily turned
away, and resumed the train of thought which her schoolfellow had
interrupted.

By an association of ideas, of which she was not herself aware, she
now passed from thinking of her aunt to thinking of Miss Jethro. The
interview of the previous night had dwelt on her mind at intervals, in
the hours of the new day.

Acting on instinct rather than on reason, she had kept that remarkable
incident in her school life a secret from every one. No discoveries had
been made by other persons. In speaking to her staff of teachers,
Miss Ladd had alluded to the affair in the most cautious terms.
"Circumstances of a private nature have obliged the lady to retire from
my school. When we meet after the holidays, another teacher will be
in her place." There, Miss Ladd's explanation had begun and ended.
Inquiries addressed to the servants had led to no result. Miss Jethro's
luggage was to be forwarded to the London terminus of the railway--and
Miss Jethro herself had baffled investigation by leaving the school
on foot. Emily's interest in the lost teacher was not the transitory
interest of curiosity; her father's mysterious friend was a person
whom she honestly desired to see again. Perplexed by the difficulty of
finding a means of tracing Miss Jethro, she reached the shady limit of
the trees, and turned to walk back again. Approaching the place at which
she and Francine had met, an idea occurred to her. It was just possible
that Miss Jethro might not be unknown to her aunt.

Still meditating on the cold reception that she had encountered, and
still feeling the influence which mastered her in spite of herself,
Francine interpreted Emily's return as an implied expression of regret.
She advanced with a constrained smile, and spoke first.

"How are the young ladies getting on in the schoolroom?" she asked, by
way of renewing the conversation.

Emily's face assumed a look of surprise which said plainly, Can't you
take a hint and leave me to myself?

Francine was constitutionally impenetrable to reproof of this sort; her
thick skin was not even tickled. "Why are you not helping them," she
went on; "you who have the clearest head among us and take the lead in
everything?"

It may be a humiliating confession to make, yet it is surely true that
we are all accessible to flattery. Different tastes appreciate different
methods of burning incense--but the perfume is more or less agreeable to
all