workers, and she knew you'd do well wherever
you went. There, you needn't blush! It wasn't anything very particular,
after all. If she'd been talking about me, I'd far rather she'd said I
was a good runner, and could catch a ball without missing it every time
it was thrown to me."

"She did say something about you, though: I heard her," volunteered
Robin.

"Then you shouldn't have listened, and you've no need to tell. I hate
tell-tales!" said Milly, forestalling his offered confidence. "If you've
finished tea, you'd better go and feed the guinea-pigs. Patty, do come
and help me to trace my map, it's the last evening but one that you'll
be here; and I want you to show me how to do G.C.M., because I was
looking out of the window this morning when Miss Dawson told us, and I
can't work any of my sums until I know. Come into the summer-house,
where we can get a little peace and quiet;" and hastily swallowing her
last fragment of bread and butter, she caught up her school satchel, and
beckoning persuasively to her sister, led the way downstairs, and out
into the garden.

CHAPTER II

The Priory

As this story mostly concerns Patty, I should like to describe her
exactly as she looked when she made her first start into that new,
strange world where everything was going to be so different from the
quiet home where she had spent the thirteen years of her life. She was
not very tall nor very short, just an ordinary, healthy, well-grown
girl, with a round, rather childish face, plump rosy cheeks, a nose that
had not yet decided what shape it meant to be, a mouth that for beauty
might certainly have been smaller, a frank pair of blue eyes, and hair
that had been flaxen when she was younger, but now, to her mother's
regret, was fast turning as brown as it could. No one could really call
Patty pretty, but she had such a merry, pleasant, sunny, smiling look
about her, that she always somehow made people feel like smiling too,
and put them into a good temper in spite of themselves. She was neither
dull nor particularly clever, only possessed of average abilities, able
to remember lessons when she tried hard, and gifted with a certain
capacity for plodding, but not in the least brilliant over anything she
undertook. She was never likely to win fame, or set the Thames on fire,
but she was one of those cosy, thoughtful, cheery, lovable home girls,
who are often a great deal more pleasant to live with than some who have
great