that Rosalys would look out any that might possibly be missing, and
after telling Miss Neale to keep up a good fire and one or two other
small directions of the kind, she left the schoolroom.

Everything went on most smoothly. Miss Neale could hardly believe that
Bridget was the child she had been warned that she would find 'tiresome
and trying and requiring great patience.' For, for once Biddy really did
her best. She was interested in finding out how much Celestina knew
'compared with me,' and anxious that neither her little friend nor her
new teacher should think her stupid or backward. And though Celestina's
habits of steady attention had made her memory better and her knowledge
more thorough than Biddy's, still Miss Neale could hardly feel that
either of her pupils was more satisfactory than the other; both were so
obedient and attentive and intelligent.

So the morning passed delightfully.

'And won't it be nice?' said Biddy, as she stood at the gate, whither
she had accompanied Miss Neale and Celestina on their way home; 'the day
after to-morrow Miss Neale will come back to take us a walk in the
afternoon, and you may come too, mamma says, and stay to tea if your
mamma will let you.'

How Celestina's eyes sparkled! To be invited to tea at the Rectory
seemed to her far more enchanting than if she had received an invitation
from the Queen of the Fairies to be present at one of her grandest
festivals. She was _so_ delighted that she forgot to speak, and Miss
Neale had to answer for her, and say that she would not forget to ask
Mrs. Fairchild's consent.