is the matter?"

"Let me come with you? Oh, I'm so homesick, and I just hate some of the
girls. They laugh when I blunder. I don't know things. I just hate
school! Papa _would_ send me here. Mamma begged to take me abroad. I'm
sure I could have learned a great many things. People say travel is an
education. I hate to study books. Do you really love it?"

"Yes, very much, and for all it brings to you. Were you never at school
before?"

"Only a little. Then I had a governess. You see, I was growing fast and
mamma thought I oughtn't study. She wasn't very well and papa wanted to
take her somewhere in Italy, and he sent me here, and some of the girls
_do_ make fun of me. Can't you _feel_ it when they are laughing at you?"

Lilian flushed. "I try to think of something else. They are not really
worth minding."

"I know I'm not pretty. Oh, I wish I were! And you have such a lovely
complexion. How is it made up?"

"Made up? What do you mean?"

"One of the girls said it was, and that sometimes you painted."

Lilian was angry then.

"My paint and powder are soap and water," she returned, indignantly. "It
is a shame for a young girl to do such things."

"But you _are_ pretty. Must your mother be the caretaker here? What does
she have to do?"

"She looks after the sewing and the mending. Yes, because we are poor,
we both have to earn our living. Some day I mean to teach and take care
of her."

"Where is your father?"

"Oh, he died when I was a baby."

"Well--I'm awful sorry. Do you like that Phillipa Rosewald?"

"I don't know much about her."

"She makes fun of so many things, and she tells you words that sound
wrong when you pronounce them. I said something yesterday and the girls
giggled and Miss Davis thought I did it purposely and I was marked
down."

"It was a very mean thing," Lilian's cheek glowed with indignation.

"Then Miss Rosewald tells such funny stories. Four or five of the girls
just hang together and they think they are everything. But I guess
father is as rich as any of their fathers. Only I wish I was real
handsome."

"Oh, my dear, I would think of my studies instead. Now let us talk them
over. What is it that bothers you most?"

"Oh, everything."

"But you _must_ study. Now, won't you try this evening. I'll help you
all I can."

"Oh, I wish I was with mamma. I shall just tell her that I hate school.
What's the use of so much education anyhow? Girls get married."

Lilian felt that M