ough
perhaps she is too pretty; anyway, it's being made easier for her than
for many a girl who is just as good,' objected Mr. Murchison.

'It's worse for her, because she's so beastly proud--always was as a
child; but she's a good sort, and I only hope Jones will get his way,
though I "ha'e ma douts," as we say up north. He daren't come and see
you, he says,' said Lord Rothery.

But Stella knew nothing of all this, and only found the day drag, as she
had so little to do.

Vava too found the day long. She was half-an-hour late for school, and
as she brought no written excuse, and her own was not considered
satisfactory, she was not allowed to go in to the examination at all;
and although she had said Stella was more important than fifty
examinations, she was very disappointed to miss this one, which was
history, in which she hoped to do well, as it was her strong point.
However, she said nothing about this to Stella, who seemed depressed, on
the way home. Although they had only been in the new house a month,
things did not seem to be going very smoothly. Eva was like a
thundercloud all dinner-time, and snapped at any one who spoke to her,
until in desperation they left her severely alone.

'Everything's downright horrid, nursie,' said Vava, going into the
kitchen after dinner to pour out her woes into the housekeeper's
sympathetic ear.

'When night's blackest, dawn's nearest--not that I think it's a very
black night; we must all pay for our experience, and you are paying at
this minute,' replied the old woman.

'But I don't see why I should pay to-day! I had not done anything wrong.
I couldn't have left Stella sitting on that horrid bench all alone,
could I?' protested Vava.

'You are too fond of that word "horrid." I don't expect there was
anything the matter with the bench; it's no good being too high and
mighty in this world, and there's no disgrace or degradation in honest
labour,' said the old housekeeper; for however much she might regret the
necessity of her 'young leddies' earning their living, she was not going
to tell them so, or put foolish notions into their heads; moreover, she
thought they both needed a lesson in humility.

'It was not a pleasant place for a girl to sit alone, anyway, and you
would have said the same yourself, and it was horrid, for sitting there
made me miss my best exam, which was a horrid bore--well, a shame,' said
Vava.

'It was no shame if it was the rules of the school, a