to-night on a silver sea, and the place looked calm and
peaceful, as if no storms had ever ruffled those waters: as if no
trouble had ever visited those shores.

Kitty, whose heart was full of song and her face of delight, almost
danced as she walked. Florence's steps were also full of spring, but
they were a little slower than her companion's.

"What are you thinking of, Flo?" said the younger girl.

"All sorts of things," replied Florence; "about that man, Maurice
Trevor, for instance. I don't envy him."

"Nor do I. I wonder he submits to it," said Kitty. "But don't let us
think of him. He has nothing whatever to do with us."

"No more he has," answered Florence; "but to eat the bread of
dependence: to eat _her_ bread! Oh, he must be a horror! I only trust I
shall never meet him."

Kitty now linked her arm inside her companion's.

"You must often come and stay with me," she said: "it would be
delightful. I will coax and beg of father to have a house where you can
come; then you will have two homes, you know, Florry: the little Mummy's
home, as you always call your mother, and my home. You will be equally
welcome at both. Oh, dear, you are quite my very greatest friend--the
greatest friend I have in all the world."

"You are wonderfully good to put up with me," said Florence; "but there,
I have repented of that old sin, and it is not going to darken my
life."

"There is only one thing I dislike about you, Florence," said Kitty. She
frowned slightly as she spoke.

"What is that?"

"You always will revert to the old times. Just do promise me that you
won't speak of them again, at least to me."

"I will try not, darling; but you are good to forget."

CHAPTER II.

THE LITTLE MUMMY'S ARRANGEMENTS.

Those who remember "A Bunch of Cherries" will recall the fact that
Florence Aylmer left Cherry Court School under a cloud: that Kitty
Sharston won the prize offered by Sir John Wallis, and of course stayed
on at the school; and that Bertha Keys, finding her game was up and her
wickedness discovered, disappeared--it was hoped by the unhappy girl
whom she had injured never to show her face again.

In this old world of ours, however, bad people do not always receive
their punishment, and it came to pass that Bertha Keys, although she had
failed in the case of Cherry Court School, did manage to feather her
nest and to secure a very comfortable post for herself.

So daring an adventuress was this young w