nowhere else.

"Lottie, please!" she cried quickly; and the other girls realised at
once that the cure had begun, for Pixie was already forgetting herself,
and considering how she could make other people happy!

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

THE SISTERS' VISIT.

Pixie did not go home for the Easter holidays, for everything at the
Castle was so sad and unsettled that Bridgie felt it advisable that she
should stay away a little longer, and an invitation from Mr and Mrs
Vane came as a happy alternative.

On the whole she spent a happy three weeks, thoroughly enjoying the
luxury of her surroundings and the attention lavished upon her by every
member of the household. Mr Vane still remained grey and serious, but
he was unfailingly kind; while his wife belonged to the type designated
by schoolgirls as "simple darlings," and seemed to find no greater
pleasure in life than in making young people happy. It was evident that
they were both devoted to their only remaining child, though there was a
reserve in their manner which seemed to Irish Pixie perilously allied to
coldness. She was all unconscious that her own fearless intimacy of
manner made a precedent for little demonstrations of affection which had
hitherto been unknown in the household; but so it was, and her host and
hostess felt that they owed her a second debt of gratitude, whenever
Lottie volunteered a caress, or added a second kiss to the morning
greeting. Perhaps, in their determination to overcome their daughter's
faults, they had erred on the side of firmness, and so brought about
another temptation in the girl's terror of discovery; and if this were
so, what better instrument could have been found to draw them together
than fearless, loving, audacious Pixie?

When the time came to return to school, she received many pressing
invitations to return to a home where she would always be welcome, and
was able truthfully to assure the girls at Holly House that Lottie had
been "an angel" to her throughout the holidays.

After that the ordinary routine went on for a few weeks, broken by
nothing more exciting than the weekly letters from home; then came an
episode of thrilling interest, when Geoffrey Hilliard was shown into the
drawing-room, and Miss O'Shaughnessy summoned from her class and sent
upstairs to brush her hair, before going to interview him. He was
leaning against the mantelpiece as she entered, looking very tall and
handsome in his long frock coat,