'O, Mary Crofton, Mary Crofton--may I call you Mary, please? we are
going to be such friends--if you begin by flattering me like that,
how am I ever to trust you and lean upon you? I want some one with a
stronger mind than my own, you know, dear, to lead me right; for I'm
the weakest, vainest creature in the world, I believe. Papa has
spoiled me so.'

'If you are always like what you are to-night, I don't think the
spoiling has done much mischief,' I said.

'O, I am always amiable enough, so long as I have my own way. And
now tell me all about your home.'

I gave her a faithful account of my brothers and my sister, and a
brief description of the dear old-fashioned cottage, with its white-
plaster walls crossed with great black beams, its many gables and
quaint latticed windows. I told her how happy and united we had
always been at home, and how this made my separation from those I
loved so much the harder to bear; to all of which Milly Darrell
listened with most unaffected sympathy.

Early the next day my new life began in real earnest. Miss Susan
Bagshot did not allow me to waste my time in idleness until the
arrival of my pupils. She gave me a pile of exercises to correct,
and some difficult needlework to finish; and I found I had indeed a
sharp taskmistress in this blighted lady.

'Girls of your age are so incorrigibly idle,' she said; 'but I must
give you to understand at once that you will have no time for