furniture and contents of the abode had been left to her. It was
solid and handsome of its kind, belonging to the days of the retired
Q.C., and some of it would have been displaced for what was more
fresh and tasteful if Magdalen had not consulted economy. So she
depended on basket-chairs, screens, brackets and drapery to enliven
the ancient mahagony and rosewood, and she had accumulated a good
many water colours, vases and knick-knacks. The old grand piano was
found to be past its work, so that she went the length of purchasing
a cottage one for the drawing-room, and another for the sitting-room
that was to be the girls' own property, and on which she expended
much care and contrivance. It opened into the drawing-room, and like
it, had glass doors into the verandah, as well as another door into
the little hall. The drawing-room had a bow window looking over the
fields towards the South, and this way too looked the dining-room, in
which Magdalen bestowed whatever was least interesting, such as the
"Hume and Smollett" and "Gibbon" of her grandfather's library and her
own school books, from which she hoped to teach Thekla.

Her upstairs arrangements had for the moment been rather disturbed by
Mrs. Best's wishing to come with her pupils; but she decided that
Agatha should at once take possession of her own pretty room, and the
two next sisters of theirs, while she herself would sleep in the
dressing room which she destined to Thekla, giving up her own chamber
to Mrs. Best for these few days, and sending Thekla's little bed to
Agatha's room.

And there she stood, on the little terrace, thinking how lovely the
purple light on the moor was, and how all the newcomers would enjoy
such a treat.