them.

Miss Stearne considered the matter seriously. Then she said with warning
emphasis:

"My dear, I do not think it advisable for you to waste your funds on
shoes, especially as those you have are in fairly good condition. Of
course, your grandfather left some money with me, to be expended as I
saw fit, but now that he has abscon--eh--eh--secreted himself, so to
speak, we can expect no further remittances. When this term is ended any
extra money should be applied toward your further board and tuition.
Otherwise you would become an outcast, with no place to go and no
shelter for your head. That, in common decency, must be avoided. No; I
do not approve of any useless expenditures. I shall hoard this money for
future emergencies."

In happier times Mary Louise would have been indignant at the thought
that her grandfather would ever leave her unprovided for, but she had
been so humbled of late that this aspect of her affairs, so candidly
presented by Miss Stearne, troubled her exceedingly. She had written a
letter every week to her grandfather, addressing it, as he had
instructed her to do, in care of Mr. Peter Conant at Dorfield. And
always she had stolen out, unobserved, and mailed the letter at the
village post office. Of course she had never by a single word referred
to the scandal regarding the Colonel or her mother, or to her own
unhappy lot at school because of that scandal, knowing how such a report
would grieve them; but the curious thing about this correspondence was
that it was distinctly one-sided. In the three months since they had
gone away, Mary Louise had never received an answer to any of her
letters, either from her grandfather or her mother.