w I must have a good name or two to set me going, so I just wrote
and asked Mrs. D. if she would help me. She came and saw us and was very
kind, and has got these pupils for me, like a dear, good woman as she
is."

"Where did you learn so much worldly wisdom, Polly?" asked Mr. Shaw,
as his wife fell back in her chair, and took out her salts, as if this
discovery had been too much for her.

"I learnt it here, sir," answered Polly, laughing. "I used to think
patronage and things of that sort very disagreeable and not worth
having, but I 've got wiser, and to a certain extent I 'm glad to use
whatever advantages I have in my power, if they can be honestly got."

"Why did n't you let us help you in the beginning? We should have been
very glad to, I 'm sure," put in Mrs. Shaw, who quite burned to be known
as a joint patroness with Mrs. Davenport.

"I know you would, but you have all been so kind to me I did n't want
to trouble you with my little plans till the first steps were taken.
Besides, I did n't know as you would like to recommend me as a teacher,
though you like me well enough as plain Polly."

"My dear, of course I would, and we want you to take Maud at once,
and teach her your sweet songs. She has a fine voice, and is really
suffering for a teacher."

A slight smile passed over Polly's face as she returned her thanks for
the new pupil, for she remembered a time when Mrs. Shaw considered her
"sweet songs" quite unfit for a fashionable young lady's repertoire.
"Where is your room?" asked Maud.

"My old friend Miss Mills has taken me in, and I am nicely settled.
Mother did n't like the idea of my going to a strange boarding-house,
so Miss Mills kindly made a place for me. You know she lets her rooms
without board, but she is going to give me my dinners, and I 'm to get
my own breakfast and tea, quite independently. I like that way, and it
's very little trouble, my habits are so simple; a bowl of bread and
milk night and morning, with baked apples or something of that sort, is
all I want, and I can have it when I like."

"Is your room comfortably furnished? Can't we lend you anything, my
dear? An easy-chair now, or a little couch, so necessary when one comes
in tired," said Mrs. Shaw, taking unusual interest in the affair.

"Thank you, but I don't need anything, for I brought all sorts of home
comforts with me. Oh, Fan, you ought to have seen my triumphal entry
into the city, sitting among my goods and chatt