was full of her own thoughts, and somehow they were all connected
with the governess. In fact, her influence seemed to pervade
everything, and Nan often wondered how the house would seem without
her, now that they had "sort of got used to having her around."
Without a doubt she made herself useful. And somehow she managed to
make people depend on her in spite of themselves. And yet she never
made a fuss or exaggerated the things she did. She was always doing
"little things "--little things that didn't make any show, and yet they
were so kind they "sort of made you like her whether you wanted to or
not." This thought came upon Nan with a start, that roused her from
her musing and made her sit bolt upright with surprise. Had Miss Blake
made her like her, then? After all the reproaches she had cast upon
Delia was she no better than a turn-coat herself?

"We had ours built in before we came into the house," Mrs. Newton was
saying. "It is a vast improvement. I wouldn't be without it for the
world."

Nan pricked up her ears. She wondered what this desirable thing might
be.

"Who did the work?" Miss Blake asked.

"Buchanan. And I'll say this for him, he did it well. I haven't a
fault to find. I think you'd be satisfied with him."

"A person doesn't like to put a piece of work like that into the hands
of a man one knows nothing about," resumed Miss Blake. "I'm glad to
profit by your experience. It may save me, too, a great deal of worry
and no little expense."

"Oh, yes," returned Mrs. Newton. "If one can economize on experience
it's a great satisfaction. It's the best school I know of. But it's
so expensive that it ruins some of us before we're done."

"What's the best school you know of?" asked Nan, curiously.

"Experience," replied Miss Blake.

"Oh!"

"Yes; and it's a school we all have to go to at one time or another,"
put in Mrs. Newton. "But we might make it a good deal easier for
ourselves sometimes if we'd take hints from our friends who have
graduated."

"Have you graduated?" Nan asked, half in fun, turning to Miss Blake.

But Mrs. Newton broke in before the governess could reply for herself.
"Graduated! Well, I should think so! Why, she has carried off honors!
She has taken a diploma--with a ribbon 'round it!"

Miss Blake laughed. "Nothing of the sort, Nan. I've had a few
lessons, that is all."

"Oh, tell about some of them, won't you?" cried Nan, eagerly. "It
would be lots o