governess some day, and that is why I ask."

Miss Davis was startled. "Do I look as if I loved nobody?" she asked.

"A little," said Hetty.

"Then I must be wrong. It cannot be good to look as if one loved nobody.
At the same time it _is_ very necessary to curb all one's feelings.
Phyllis, for instance, would not respect me if she thought me what she
would call sentimental. And even Nell would perhaps smile at me as a
simpleton if she saw me looking for particular affection. Even you,
Hetty--you who think so much about love!--could I manage you at all if I
did not know how to look stern?"

"You could," said Hetty; "you could manage me better by smiling at me;
just try, Miss Davis. But oh, I forgot; I have got to be a governess
too, and perhaps I had better be hardened up."

Miss Davis was silent, thinking over Hetty's words. That this ardent
child found her "hardened up" was an unpleasant surprise to her; but she
was not above taking a hint even from one so young and faulty as Hetty.
She would try to be warmer, brighter with this girl. And then she
reflected sadly on the prospect before Hetty. With a nature like hers,
how would she ever become sufficiently disciplined to be fit for the
life of toil and self-repression that lay before her?

The next day Hetty looked out anxiously for an opportunity of speaking
privately to Mark.

"I have something to say to you, Mark," she said; "I had to tell Miss
Davis that we played the trick."

"You had to tell her!" said Mark scornfully; "well, if ever I trust a
tell-tale of a girl again. You are just as sneaky as Nell after all."

"Nell is not sneaky; and you ought not to call me a tell-tale. You ran
away and left me with all Miss Davis's trouble on my shoulders. I
didn't want to tell; but it was better than having her suffer so
dreadfully."

"Oh, very well. You can make a friend of her. Go away and sit up prim
like Phyllis. You shall have no more fun with me, I can tell you."

A lump came in Hetty's throat. She knew Mark was in the wrong, and was
very unkind besides; but still he had so often been good to her that she
could not bear to quarrel with him.

"I am very sorry," she said; "but I don't think you need be afraid that
Miss Davis will complain to anyone about us."

This made Mark more angry; for he did not like to hear the word "afraid"
applied to himself; and yet his chief uneasiness had been lest the
occurrence of last evening should come to the ears of his