e. The Rhoda of six months or a year ago would
have bitterly resented such a slight, but to-day she found no reason to
blame others for following her own example.

Evie was the supreme consideration, and the girl was so entirely
absorbed in looking after her comfort that she had forgotten all about
her own poor little importance. Love is the gentlest as well as the
cleverest of schoolmasters, and teaches his lessons so subtly that we
are unconscious of our progress, until, lo! the hill difficulty is
overcome, and we find ourselves erect on the wide, breezy plain.

At the station a saloon carriage was waiting labelled "Engaged," inside
which were all manner of provisions for the comfort of the journey.
Hot-water bottles, cushions, rugs, piles of papers and magazines, and a
hamper of dainty eatables from the Chase Evie was wrapped in Mrs
Chester's sable cloak and banked up with cushions by the window, so that
she might look out and be amused by the sight of the Christmas traffic
at the various stations. She stared about her with the enjoyment of a
convalescent who has had more than enough of her own society, and the
lingerers on the platform stared back at the pretty, fragile-looking
invalid who was travelling in such pomp and circumstance.

"They think I am a princess!" cried Evie. "I _hope_ they think I am a
princess!" and she laid her little head against the cushions, and
sniffed at a big silver-mounted bottle of smelling salts with an air of
languid complacency which vastly amused her companions. Presently nurse
lighted an Etna and warmed some cups of soup, while one good thing after
another came out of the hamper to add to the feast; then followed a
stoppage, with the arrival of obsequious porters with fresh foot-
warmers; then, dusk closing in over the wintry landscape, the lighting
of electric lamps, and the refreshing cup of tea. It was Evie's first
experience of luxurious travelling, and she told herself with a sigh
that it was very, very comfortable. Much more comfortable than
shivering in a draughty third class carriage, and changing three times
over to wait in still more draughty stations!

With the arrival at Erley Chase came more pleasant surprises, for she
was not carried upstairs, but into a room on the ground floor, which was
ordinarily used as Mrs Chester's boudoir, and had been transformed into
the most cheerful and delightful of bedrooms. There was really little
to distinguish it from a sitt