atrice visited the kitchen and ordered the
supper. She went further in her innocent cunning. Betty asked her what
she would like for breakfast on the following morning, and she told her
to cook some bacon, and to be careful how she cut it, as she did not
like thick bacon. Then, after one long last look at the Vicarage, she
started for the lodging of the head teacher of the school, and, having
found her, inquired as to the day's work.

Further, Beatrice told her assistant that she had determined to alter
the course of certain lessons in the school. The Wednesday arithmetic
class had hitherto been taken before the grammar class. On the morrow
she had determined to change this; she would take the grammar class
at ten and the arithmetic class at eleven, and gave her reasons for so
doing. The teacher assented, and Beatrice shook hands with her and bade
her good-night. She would have wished to say how much she felt indebted
to her for her help in the school, but did not like to do so, fearing
lest, in the light of pending events, the remark might be viewed with
suspicion.

Poor Beatrice, these were the only lies she ever told!

She left the teacher's lodgings, and was about to go down to the beach
and sit there till it was time, when she was met by the father of the
crazed child, Jane Llewellyn.

"Oh, Miss Beatrice," he said, "I have been looking for you everywhere.
We are in sad trouble, miss. Poor Jane is in a raving fit, and talking
about hell and that, and the doctor says she's dying. Can you come,
miss, and see if you can do anything to quiet her? It's a matter of life
and death, the doctor says, miss."

Beatrice smiled sadly; matters of life and death were in the air. "I
will come," she said, "but I shall not be able to stay long."

How could she better spend her last hour?

She accompanied the man to his cottage. The child, dressed only in a
night-shirt, was raving furiously, and evidently in the last stage of
exhaustion, nor could the doctor or her mother do anything to quiet her.

"Don't you see," she screamed, pointing to the wall, "there's the Devil
waiting for me? And, oh, there's the mouth of hell where the minister
said I should go! Oh, hold me, hold me, hold me!"

Beatrice walked up to her, took the thin little hands in hers, and
looked her fixedly in the eyes.

"Jane," she said. "Jane, don't you know me?"

"Yes, Miss Granger," she said, "I know the lesson; I will say it
presently."

Beatrice too