amuse herself with a piece of cake till my little girls come in from
their walk. I have got such a nice governess for them, Amy. Mark, you
know, is gone to Eton."

The ladies continued to converse, and Hetty sat forgotten for the
moment, eating her cake. She ate it very slowly, anxious to make it last
as long as possible, for she felt that when it was finished she should
not know what to do with herself. When even the crumbs were gone she
folded her hands and counted the flowers on the wall-paper, and
discovered among them a grinning face which certainly had been no
acquaintance of the designer's, but had started suddenly out of the
pattern merely to make cruel fun of Hetty's uneasiness.

At last, after some time which seemed to the little girl quite a year at
least, Mrs. Enderby rang the bell and asked if the young ladies had come
in from walking. The servant said they were just going to tea in the
school-room, and Mrs Enderby turned to Hetty, saying:

"Go, my dear, with Peter, and he will show you the school-room. Tell
Phyllis and Nell that I sent you to play with them."

Hetty followed the servant; but as she went across the hall and up the
staircase she felt with a swelling heart that had she been the real
cousin of these children, and not an "upstart" (Grant's favourite word),
they would perhaps have been sent for to the drawing-room to be
presented to her.

Accustomed as she was to be alternately petted and snubbed, she had
acquired the habit of watching the movements of her elders with
suspicion, and now concluded that because no fuss was made about her she