in Miranda's presence,
showed signs of activity. The first time this occurred Miranda opened
her large eyes very wide and said, "What's come over my young friend,
has it got the hydrophobia? I shall try and cure it by kindness and give
it some chocolate."

Henrietta's clouds dispersed, but she was not always so easily restored
to good-humour; and Miranda, with the whole school at her feet, was not
going to stand bad temper, the fault on the whole least easily forgiven
by girls. Henrietta had a heartrending scene with her: at fifteen she
liked heartrending scenes. Miranda was too fond of popularity to give
Henrietta up entirely, so the two remained friendly, but they were no
longer intimate.

Miss Arundel was the head-mistress's sister, and undertook all the
serious teaching that was not in the hands of masters. She did not have
many outward attractions of face and form, but schoolgirls will know
that that is not of much importance. She was adored, possibly because
she had a bad temper (bad temper is an asset in a teacher), which was
liable to burst forth unexpectedly; then she was clever and
enthusiastic, and gave good lessons. She marked out Henrietta, and it
came round that she had said, "Etta Symons is an interesting girl, she
has possibilities. I wonder how she will turn out." It came round also
that Miss Arundel had said, "I only wish she had more control and
tenacity of purpose," but this sentence Henrietta put out of her head.
The first sentence she thought of for hours on end, and set to work to
be more interesting than ever; in fact for some days she was so affected
and exasperating that Miss Arundel could hardly contain herself. Still,
even Miss Arundel's sarcasm was endurable, anything was endurable, after
that gratifying remark.

When Miranda ceased to be her special friend, she transferred her whole
heart and soul to Miss Arundel. She waylaid her with flowers, hung about
in the passage on the chance of seeing her walk by, and waited on her as
much as she dared. Some teachers apparently enjoy girl adorations, and
even take pains to secure them. Miss Arundel had had enough of them to
find them disagreeable. She therefore gave out in the presence of two or
three of Henrietta's circle that she thought it was a pity Etta Symons
wasted so much of her pocket-money on buttonholes which gave very little
pleasure to anyone, certainly not to her, who particularly disliked
strong scents; she thought the money could