"I can tell you one thing, Cecilia," she said; "you shan't beat
ME in generosity. Strike a light, one of you, and lay the blame
on me if Miss Ladd finds us out. I mean to shake hands with the
new girl--and how can I do it in the dark? Miss de Sor, my name's
Brown, and I'm queen of the bedroom. I--not Cecilia--offer our
apologies if we have offended you. Cecilia is my dearest friend,
but I don't allow her to take the lead in the room. Oh, what a
lovely nightgown!"

The sudden flow of candle-light had revealed Francine, sitting up
in her bed, and displaying such treasures of real lace over her
bosom that the queen lost all sense of royal dignity in
irrepressible admiration. "Seven and sixpence," Emily remarked,
looking at her own night-gown and despising it. One after
another, the girls yielded to the attraction of the wonderful
lace. Slim and plump, fair and dark, they circled round the new
pupil in their flowing white robes, and arrived by common consent
at one and the same conclusion: "How rich her father must be!"

Favored by fortune in the matter of money, was this enviable
person possessed of beauty as well?

In the disposition of the beds, Miss de Sor was placed between
Cecilia on the right hand, and Emily on the left. If, by some
fantastic turn of events, a man--say in the interests of
propriety, a married doctor, with Miss Ladd to look after
him--had been permitted to enter the room, and had been asked
what he thought of the girls when he came out, he would not even
have mentioned Francine. Blind to the beauties of the expensive