ways possible to keep their grievances from her; and she was so
certain her children must be sharing the pleasures with herself, it
never occurred to her to suspect that anything was wrong.

"It wouldn't be us spoiling her trip," Nesta objected; "it would be
Brenda's and Herbert's faults, because they are so disagreeable."

"It would be because of us," Eustace held out, "and I'll never
forgive you if you go whining about it to mother or any one. We can
bear it for a year, or we aren't worth anything."

But even Eustace's courage received a check one evening when he and
Nesta were called into their mother's room for a talk before she
dressed for dinner. Her face was aglow with some pleasant thoughts,
yet she was very serious--a strange mixture that immediately struck
the twins as portending something very big and out of the way.

"Chicks," she said, drawing them down on each side of her on
the sofa, "I have got something very special to say to you
to-day--something I scarcely know whether to be most glad or
sorry about, for it cuts two ways. It fulfils the ambition of
my life for you, and at the same time it costs me my twins."

There was a breathless, expectant silence.

"I think for you the happiness will outweigh the pain," she went on
gently, "because it means new interests, new life, everything you
must most desire. And, dears, we have to thank grandfather for it;
he insists on sending you both to school."

"To school!" shouted the twins simultaneously.

"Yes," Mrs. Orban said, "actually to school. He wishes you to have
exactly the same advantages as Brenda and Herbert. Won't it be
splendid for you?"

There was dead silence. Mrs. Orban glanced from one grave face to
the other. Nesta's was crumpled and bewildered; Eustace's very
white, and his expression sadly strained.

"Why, darlings," Mrs. Orban said, "you have always wanted to go to
school. Hasn't it nearly made me cry again and again to hear you
craving for a thing we could not give you? And now your wishes have
been granted as it were by magic, I do believe you are not glad
after all."

There was such a ring of disappointment in their mother's voice
that even Nesta was roused.

"We've wanted it awfully," stammered Eustace awkwardly, "but we--we
didn't think of it coming quite so soon."

"Oh, is that it, you dears?" Mrs. Orban said in a tone between
laughter and tears. "I was afraid something much worse was the
matter--that you had changed your