ing
childish face into that of a troubled and pained woman. She sat down
meekly on her little three-legged stool and, taking up her tiny cup and
saucer, sipped some of the cold tea.

Cecil Temple was the first to speak.

"How could you?" she said, in an indignant voice for her. "Annie is not
the girl to be driven, and in any case, it is not for you to correct her.
Oh, Mrs. Willis would have been so pained had she heard you--you were not
_kind_, Miss Thornton. There, I don't wish to be rude, but I fear I must
leave you and Miss Russell--I must try and find Annie."

"I'm going back to my own drawing-room," said Miss Russell, rising to her
feet. "Perhaps," she added, turning round with a very gracious smile to
Hester, "you will come and see me there, after tea, this evening."

Miss Russell drew aside the curtains of Cecil Temple's little room, and
disappeared. Hester, with her eyes full of tears, now turned eagerly to
Cecil.

"Forgive me, Cecil," she exclaimed. "I did not mean to be unkind, but it
is really quite ridiculous the way you all spoil that girl--you know as
well as I do that she is a very naughty girl. I suppose it is because of
her pretty face," continued Hester, "that you are all so unjust, and so
blind to her faults."

"You are prejudiced the other way, Hester," said Cecil in a more gentle
tone. "You have disliked Annie from the first. There, don't keep me--I
must go to her now. There is no knowing what harm your words may have
done. Annie is not like other girls. If you knew her story, you would,
perhaps be kinder to her."

Cecil then ran out of her drawing-room, leaving Hester in sole possession
of the little tea-things and the three-legged stools. She sat and thought
for some time; she was a girl with a great deal of obstinacy in her
nature, and she was not disposed to yield her own point, even to Cecil
Temple; but Cecil's words had, nevertheless, made some impression on her.

At tea-time that night, Annie and Cecil entered the room together.
Annie's eyes were as bright as stars, and her usually pale cheeks glowed
with a deep color. She had never looked prettier--she had never looked so
defiant, so mischievous, so utterly reckless. Mdlle. Perier fired
indignant French at her across the table. Annie answered respectfully,
and became demure in a moment; but even in the short instant in which the
governess was obliged to lower her eyes to her plate, she had thrown a
look so irresistibly comic at her