ould be kept.

But Nan had no such misgivings. She knew perfectly well that she was
"in for it" now, but, strange to say, she felt no exultation in the
prospect.

"Oh, dear!" she snapped out peevishly, with a last vicious dig of her
heel into the snow, "every bit of enjoyment is taken out of it, I never
saw anything so provoking, in the whole of my life. If Miss Blake only
hadn't been so mean, I might have been spared all this fret and bother
and been just as jolly as any of them. But how can a person have a
good time when they know there's some one at home pulling a long face
and making one feel as if one were breaking all the laws. It's just
too bad, that's what it is."

But Miss Blake neither "pulled a long face" nor by any other means
tried to impress Nan with a sense of her disapproval. She took her
decision quietly, and made no comment upon it one way or the other.
But when it neared dressing time, and the girl had gone to her room to
prepare, she tapped gently for admittance and came in, bearing in her
hand a coquettish sealskin hood which she generously offered to Nan,
saying:

"It's bitterly cold, and I know you won't want to tie a comforter about
your ears. If you will wear this I shall be only too happy to lend it
to you. See, the cape is so full and deep your chest and back can't
get chilled, and it is not at all clumsy, as so many of them are. Try
it on. I think it will be becoming and I know it will keep you warm."

Nan was at a loss for words. Miss Blake had none of the air of heaping
coals of fire on her head, but just for a second the girl suspected her
of it and hung back reluctantly. Then she looked into the frank,
honest eyes and all her suspicion vanished.

"You're--you're awfully kind," she stammered, hastily.

"Try it on," repeated Miss Blake, cordially.

Nan took the soft, warm thing by its rich brown ribbons and, setting it
snugly on her head, tied the strings into a big broad bow beneath her
chin.

"It's not so unbecoming!" commented the governess, observing Nan
critically with her head on one side.

Nan looked in the mirror. What she saw there was the reflection of a
flushed, excited face with keen, young eyes that were just now
unusually large and bright. Sundry riotous tendrils of hair had
escaped from their restraining combs and were flying loose at the
temples, and, framing all, was a circle of dusky, flattering fur which
lent a look of softness and roundness to t