t that Mr Chute
was watching her attentively, so was Mr William Forth Burge; and, to
make matters worse, half the boys in the classes were following their
teachers' eyes, so that it was with something like a feeling of relief
that Hazel saw that the clock pointed to half-past ten, the time for
closing for the morning, and marshalling the girls in order for walking
two-and-two as far as the church.

CHAPTER TWO.

THE VICAR SEES A GENTLEMAN.

Mr Chute rang a bell and said, "Sh! sh!"

Books were put away, the lady teachers rose, and, with the exception of
Miss Burge, moved towards the door, the latter lady glancing at the new
mistress, and, apparently pitying her strangeness, seeming disposed to
hang back and walk with her; but Hazel Thorne's attention was too much
taken up by her task, and getting her little force of about
eight-and-thirty or forty girls two-and-two, she started them for
church, herself taking the smallest morsel--to wit, little Jenny
Straggalls--under her wing.

Now, the only ways to march forty girls two-and-two to church with
anything like order are either to put the two smallest pupils in the
front, and then go on rising in years till you have the two eldest in
the rear, or to pair off the largest and smallest children together.

If neither of these plans is adopted, discipline is liable to fail. One
black sheep will corrupt a flock, and though not a black sheep but a
very red-haired frisky lamb, there were qualities in Ophelia, or more
commonly "Feelier," Potts sufficiently mischievous to corrupt any flock
of girls.

The experiences she had picked up at Whitelands were forgotten by Hazel
Thorne in the flurry and excitement of this her first morning with her
school. The stern looks of the lady teachers had made her feel nervous.
It was tiresome, too, just at starting that Mr Chute should be holding
his boys in hand at the door, with a politeness of which he had never
before been guilty, to allow the girls to go on first to church; and Mr
William Forth Burge was standing by him, smiling all over his round,
closely-shaven face, which was so smooth that it shone in the sun, and
preparing himself for the incense of forty bobs, that he would receive
from the girls as they went by.

This was Feelier's opportunity. As one of the biggest girls, she had
been placed first with Ann Straggalls, the fair, round eyed, and fat;
and as Feelier went marching on with head erect, she turned the said
he