"This is your home when you are here. You must put up any belongings
that you do not want to take to St. Robert's."

"Thank you; it is a nice pleasant room."

"And, my dear, may I stay a few minutes? I think we had better have
a talk, and quite understand one another."

"Very well."

It was not quite encouraging, but Agatha really wished to hear, and
she advanced a wicker chair for her elder sister, and sat down on the
window seat.

"Thank you, my dear; I do not know how much Mrs. Best has told you."

"She told us that you had always been very good to us, and that you
had been our guardian ever since we lost our mother."

"Did she tell you what we have of our own that our father could leave
us?"

"No."

"What amounts to about 40 pounds a year apiece. Mrs. Best in her
very great goodness has taken you four for that amount, though her
proper charge is eighty."

"And she never let any one guess it," said Agatha, more warmly, "for
fear we might feel the difference. How very good of her."