Miss Lyster, after a few more words, quitted the room.

"My dear Marion," said Lady Ridsdale, "I am almost glad that
circumstances do prevent you from carrying out this arrangement."

"Why?" she asked simply.

"Because I have lived in the world long enough to be a judge of
character, and your friend's face does not please me. Do not trust her
too far."




CHAPTER IX.


Life at Miss Carleton's and life at Thorpe Castle were very different.
Marion had not been there very long before she began to feel most
perfectly happy, and to wonder how she endured the monotonous routine of
school.

The parting from Allan had really been terrible to her, his love had
for so long been her chief comfort and her only pleasure. She said to
herself that she should miss him most terribly; yet, if she had looked
into her own heart, she would have seen it was not so much him she
should miss as it was the novelty of his letters, his plotting, his
poetry, the stolen interviews, the hidden romance that she thought so
beautiful.