brilliancy at her books, but the child's character was a remarkable
one, and displayed a strength which might eventually operate either
for good or for evil. With careful training, it seemed at present
very probable that the good would predominate. But the task was not
such as the schoolmistress felt able to undertake, bearing in mind
the necessity of an irreproachable character for her school if it
were to be kept together at all. The disagreeable secret had begun
to spread; all the children would relate the events of yesterday in
their own homes; to pass the thing over was impossible. She
sincerely regretted the step she must take, and to which she would
not have felt herself driven by any ill-placed prudery of her own.
On Monday morning it must be stated to the girls that Ida Starr had
left.

In the meantime, it only remained to write to Mrs. Starr, and make
known this determination. Miss Rutherford thought for a little while
of going to see Ida's mother, but felt that this would be both
painful and useless. It was difficult even to write, desirous as she
was of somehow mitigating the harshness of this sentence of
expulsion. After half-an-hour spent in efforts to pen a suitable
note, she gave up the attempt to write as she would have wished, and
announced the necessity she was under in the fewest possible words.





CHAPTER II

MOTHER AND CHILD