The train moved slowly forward, and she was gone.

'Isn't she a stunner?' asked Reginald of his cousin, as they stood on the
platform looking at each other blankly.

'She is the handsomest girl I ever saw, and out and away the nicest,'
answered Brian.




CHAPTER VII.


IN THE RIVER-MEADOW.

The old hackneyed round of daily life at Mauleverer Manor seemed just a
little worse to Ida Palliser after that happy break of six weeks' pure
and perfect enjoyment. Miss Pew was no less exacting than of old. Miss
Pillby, for whose orphaned and friendless existence there had been no
such thing as a holiday, and who had spent the vacation at Mauleverer
diligently employed in mending the house-linen, resented Ida's visit to
The Knoll as if it were a personal injury, and vented her envy in sneers
and innuendoes of the coarsest character.

'If _I_ were to spoon upon one of the rich pupils, I dare say I could get
invited out for the holidays,' she said, _apropos_ to nothing particular;
'but I am thankful to say I am above such meanness.'

'I never laid myself under an obligation I didn't feel myself able to