anticipate; nor, indeed, did she feel the veiled antagonism to
herself that had previously disappointed her.

The talk was about St. Robert's, about Oxford in general, the new
friends, the principal, the games, the debates, the lectures, the
sermons, the celebrities, the undergraduates, the concerts, the
chapels, the boats, the architecture; all were touched on for further
discussion by and by as they sat at the evening meal, and then on the
chairs and cushions in the verandah; and through all there was no
exclusion of the elder sister, but rather she was the one who could
appreciate the interest of what Agatha had seen and heard; and even
she was allowed to enter into the amusement of an Oxford bon mot,
sometimes, indeed, when it was far beyond Paula and Vera.

There was no doubt that the term had much improved Agatha even in
appearance and manner. She held herself better, pronounced better,
uttered no slangish expressions, and twice she repressed little
discourtesies on the part of her sisters, and neglects such as were
not the offspring of tender familiarity, but of an indifference akin
to rudeness. Magdalen had endured, knowing how bad it was for their
manners, but unwilling to become more of an annoyance than could be
helped. The indescribable difference in Agatha's whole manner sent
Magdalen to bed happier than she had been since the arrival of her
sisters, and feeling as if Agatha had come to her own side of a
barrier.

Perhaps it was quite true; for the last two months had been a time of
growth with the maiden, changing her from a schoolgirl to a student,
from the "brook to the river." She had, indeed, studied hard, but
that she had always done, as being clever, intellectual and