with my children."

"I'll have a fascinating time," said Maggie. "I'm just too delighted
to come. It was sweet of you to have me; and may I, please, give you a
kiss?"

"Of course you may, dear child," said Mrs. Tristram.

Maggie bestowed the kiss, and immediately afterward was conducted to
her room by the worshiping Belle.

"I do hope you'll like it," said Belle in an almost timorous voice. "I
prepared it for you myself."

"Why, it's sweet," said Maggie, "and so full of the country! Oh, I
say, what roses! And those carnations--Malmaisons, aren't they? I must
wear a couple in this brown holland frock; they'll tone with it
perfectly. What a delicious smell!"

Maggie sniffed at the roses. Belle lounged on the window-seat.

"Molly will be jealous," she said. "Think of my having you these few
moments all to myself!"

"I am delighted to come, as you know quite well," replied Maggie.
"It's all right about school, isn't it, Belle?"

"Yes, quite, quite right. We are to join you there in September."

"It's a perfectly splendid place," said Maggie. "I will describe it to
you later on."

"But can it be nicer," said Belle, "than our darling school at
Hanover?"

"Nicer!" exclaimed Maggie. "You couldn't compare the two places. I
tell you it's perfect. The girls--well, they're aristocratic; they're
girls of the Upper Ten. It's the most select school. You are in luck
to be admitted, I can tell you. You will learn a lot about society
when you are a member of Mrs. Ward's school."

"But what possible good will that do us when we are never going into
it?" said Belle.

Maggie slightly narrowed her already narrow eyes, took off her hat,
and combed back her crisp, dark hair from her low, full, very broad
forehead. Then she said, with a smile, "You are to stay two years at
Mrs. Ward's, are you not?"

"Yes, I think that is the arrangement."

"And I am to stay there for two years," said Maggie; "I mean two
more. I will ask you, Isabel Tristram, what good society is worth at
the end of your two years. I expect you will tell me a very different
story then."

At this moment there came a hurried, nervous, excited knock at the
room door.

"Aren't you coming, Miss--Miss--Maggie? Clover and Dove and Spot-ear
and Angelus are all waiting. Their hutch is beautiful and clean, and I
have all their lettuces waiting for them just outside, so they sha'n't
begin to nibble till you come. Do, do come, please, Miss Maggie."

"Of course I