al but most valuable part of her
education, which was directed to the strengthening of every womanly
attribute, went on steadily under the influence of Miss Ella.

It would have been well for Beth if she had been left at Miss
Blackburne's for the next three years; but just when the rebellious
beating of her wings against the bars had ceased, and they had folded
themselves contentedly behind her for awhile; just when the wild
flights of her imagination were giving way to wholesome habits of
thought, and her own vain dreams were being dissipated by the honest
ambition to accomplish something actual--she was summoned away. Her
sister Mildred had died suddenly of meningitis, and the immediate
effect of the shock on Mrs. Caldwell, who had dearly loved her eldest
daughter, was a kindlier feeling for Beth, and a wish to have her at
home--for a time at all events. And Beth went willingly under the
circumstances. She sympathised deeply with her mother, and was full of
grief herself for her sister, to whom she had been tenderly attached
although they had seen so little of each other. Beth was not yet
sixteen, and this was the third blow that death had dealt her.

CHAPTER XXXIV

Beth had a natural love of order, and at school she had learnt the
necessity for it. She did not mean to give up work when she went home;
on the contrary, she determined to do more than ever. Miss Ella had
taught her to be deliberate, neither to haste nor to rest, but
steadily to pursue. She insisted that things to be well done must be
done regularly, and Beth, in accordance with this precept, mapped out
her day so as to make the most of it. She got up at seven, opened her
window wider, threw the clothes back from her bed to air it, had her
bath, brushed her hair; left nothing untidy lying about her room; did
her good reading, the psalms and lessons; breakfasted, made her bed,
studied French, went out for exercise, sewed, and read so much, all in
the same order every day. She paid particular attention to her
personal appearance, too, that being the one of her mother's
principles which had also been most particularly enjoined by Miss
Blackburne. At both of her schools marriage was the great ambition of
most of the girls. At St Catherine's it meant a means of escape from
many hardships; to Miss Blackburne's girls it offered the chance of a
better position, and more money and luxury. There was a nicer tone
among the Royal Service girls, and more re