incident. After listening to her, Miss Rutherford turned to the
schoolchildren, who were now seated in the usual order on benches,
and spoke to them with some degree of calm.

"I am going to take Harriet home. Lucy Wood, you will please to see
that order is preserved in my absence; I shall only be away twenty
minutes, at the most. Ida Starr, you will go up into my
sitting-room, and remain there till I come to you. All take out your
copy-books; I shall examine the lines written whilst I am away."

The servant, who had been despatched for a cab, appeared at the
door. Harriet Smales was led out. Before leaving the house, Miss
Rutherford whispered to the servant an order to occupy herself in
the sitting-room, so as to keep Ida Starr in sight.

Miss Rutherford, strict disciplinarian when her nerves were not
unstrung, was as good as her promise with regard to the copy-books.
She had returned within the twenty minutes, and the first thing she
did was to walk along all the benches, making a comment here, a
correction there, in another place giving a word of praise. Then she
took her place at the raised desk whence she was wont to survey the
little room.

There were present thirteen pupils, the oldest of them turned
fifteen, the youngest scarcely six. They appeared to be the
daughters of respectable people, probably of tradesmen in the
neighbourhood. This school was in Lisson Grove, in the north-west of
London; a spot not to be pictured from its name by those ignorant of
the locality; in point of fact a dingy street, with a mixture of
shops and private houses. On the front door was a plate displaying