'll teach me," said Nelly, her bright brown eyes sparkling through
tears, for her warm Irish heart had been touched by the kind words and
tones of her teacher, whom she expected never to see again.

Bessy Ford's sunshiny face also looked unusually sorrowful, and Lucy
Raymond's trembling lip bespoke a deeper emotion, with difficulty
repressed.

"I shall see _you_ again, Lucy," Miss Preston said, with a smile, as
she affectionately detained her a moment, for Lucy had been invited to
be present at her teacher's marriage, at which her father was to
officiate. Lucy and Bessie walked away together, the former with her
first experience of a "_last time_" weighing on her mind and spirits;
and Nelly Connor slowly stole away among the trees toward the spot she
called her "home."

Bessie's momentary sadness quickly vanished as she engaged in a brisk
conversation with another girl about her own age, who was eager to
gossip about Miss Preston's approaching marriage, where she was going,
and what she was to wear. Lucy drew off from her companion as soon as
Nancy Parker joined them, partly from a real desire of thinking
quietly of her teacher's parting words, partly in proud disdain of
Bessie's frivolity. "How _can_ she go on so," she thought, "after what
Miss Preston has been saying?" But she forgot that disdain is as far
removed from the spirit of the loving and pitying Saviour as even the
frivolity she despised.

"Come, Lucy, don't be so stiff," said Nancy as they approached the
shady gate of the white house where Mr. Raymond lived; "can't you tell
us something about the wedding? You're going, aren't you?"