, and she is very vexed about it.'

'Of course she is. My dear Hilda, I am glad. I think I must tell you
now about it. She is a clever woman, but not a good one. Do you know
that it has been a regular trap for you? Governesses are not supposed
to have ears--and yesterday I was giving Violet a music lesson, when
she and Mr. Kenneth and Miss Forsyth came in. They went over to the
window seat, and there began talking over these tableaux. They did not
lower their voices, and she made a bet with Mr. Kenneth that she would
make you take part in them. He laughed at her, but she said she was in
earnest, and then when he had left the room she propounded her plan to
Constance. If you had agreed to play for them,--which she said she was
pretty sure she would make you do,--she was going to arrange that just
before the curtain fell the screen should be suddenly shifted from in
front of you, and you would then be in full view of the audience. You
were, in fact, to personify the girl for whom the two rivals were
fighting.'

'But,' I said, quite bewildered, 'I should not have been dressed for
the occasion. How could she imagine such a plan would succeed?'

'It was all to be arranged. She said your cream silk would be just the
thing, and Mr. Forsyth was to tell you to wear it that night for
dinner. I assure you Miss Willoughby was quite determined that she
should succeed. I am very glad she has failed, for it would be a
shabby trick to play any one, and I was very vexed that it should be
played on you.'

I was silent. Miss Graham's words were a revelation to me, and I
wondered what I had done to cause Miss Willoughby to act so. And I
understood her anger at having had her plans so frustrated. How
thankful I was that I had not yielded to her entreaties! After a
pause, Miss Graham said, 'You must have a wonderful grip of unseen
things, Hilda, to live your life here so cheerily and brightly, when
you have such constant difficulties and disagreeables arising between
you and the girls.'

I looked up at her. 'It is a happy life, Miss Graham, and no
circumstances can ever make it otherwise.'

She leant forward in the firelight, and, taking one of my hands in
hers, said rather brokenly, with tears glistening in her eyes,--

'I have wanted to tell you--I must to-night; I think it will cheer you
to know that I have found what you have. Do you remember those few
words you said to me in the wood soon after you first came