name; she makes me shudder!'

'Well, I needn't; but you made such a fuss about securing the Summer
Parlour, and having a fire there, and concocting plans, and having a
lot of the girls with you--a great deal more than half the school; but
you never go near the Summer Parlour, and after to-night you won't have
any further right to it. Do come out, Leucha dear, and make another
effort to build up the fire. If the girls see us with a glowing fire,
a good many of them will come in for certain sure. I have been asking
the servants on the quiet how the thing is done, and it really seems to
be quite easy. You collect faggots, which I know I can get for you,
and small bits of coal; and I tell you what--whisper, Leucha--I have
been saving up a few candle-ends, and they are grand for making a fire
burn. Let's come along and try.'

'No lady ought to know how to light a fire,' said Lady Leucha.

'Oh, nonsense,' replied Daisy. 'It is a very good thing to learn; and,
anyhow, you needn't spoil your dainty fingers if _I_ undertake the job.
Nothing will collect the girls round us--the English girls, I
mean--like seeing us seated by the glowing fire.'

'Well, anything is better than this,' said Leucha. 'And if you have
really collected the candle-ends and the faggots and the morsels of
coal, why, perhaps we 'll succeed.'

'Yes, yes, of course we'll succeed,' said Daisy. 'What in the world is
there to hinder us? We have got our wits, I presume; and when we sit
in the Summer Parlour with a great blazing fire lighting up the place,
I shouldn't be a scrap surprised if Mary Barton, Agnes
Featherstonhaugh, and others joined us.'

'I wouldn't have those Frasers now if they went on their bended knees,'
remarked Leucha; 'but if you will light the fire, Daisy, I don't mind
sitting by and watching you. I really, as the daughter of the Earl of
Crossways, cannot undertake so dirty a task.'

'All right,' replied Daisy, 'if you do think so--and I'm quite as good
as you, remember--I 'll do my best. I 'll just run along now to the
Summer Parlour and see that the materials for lighting the fire are
there, Then I 'll come back and fetch you.'

'Yes,' replied Leucha; 'I may as well see you at the job. You are
certain sure to fail, but conceit will have its way.'

'Dear, dear,' thought Daisy Watson, 'what a very unpleasant girl Leucha
is becoming! I 'd leave her this blessed minute and go over to
Hollyhock, only perhaps Lady Crossways