e with which she was painfully familiar.

Norah! By all that was inexplicable, Norah West herself, standing
calmly in the midst of Newstead Market Square, more than a hundred miles
distant from her home, to which she had travelled a short week before!

Dreda gazed back in stupefied amazement, and even as she looked a second
figure detached itself from the crowd and advanced towards her.

"Dreda! I didn't expect to meet you here. I was going to write!"

"Susan! What is Norah doing with you? Don't tell me you have asked her
to _stay_!"

"I didn't--but she _is_ here, all the same. Her brother came home ill
from school, and the others had all to be sent off at once in case it
was something infectious. She telegraphed to know if she might come to
us."

"Like her cheek!"

"Oh, Dreda, it was horrid for her, too. Just think if you missed your
holidays at home! And she had often invited me there."

"Oh, of course, she adores you, so you enjoy having her company. Don't
let me interfere! It's delightful that you are so well entertained. I
congratulate you, I'm sure."

Susan's lips quivered. Her face was pinched by the chill wind, which
gave increased pathos to her look.

"Dreda, I always tell you the truth; it's horrid of me--but I'm _not_
glad! I didn't want her one bit. I thought you and I would be often
together, and now that she is here that can't be, I'm afraid. But--poor
Norah! None of the girls like her very much; there were so few places
she could go to, and just because she isn't--isn't _quite_ what one
would wish, there is all the more reason why one should be nice to her.
You remember what you said yourself."

"What did I say?"

"It wasn't about Norah exactly, but one day we were talking about people
we didn't like, and you said the best way was to be perfectly sweet
oneself, and to behave always as if we loved them, and expected only
good things from them, and so elevate them in spite of themselves. I
thought it was such a beautiful idea. I've never forgotten it, and now
I'm trying to put _it_ into practice."

"Oh-h!" exclaimed Dreda blankly. She herself had forgotten her fine
sentiments almost as soon as they were uttered, and was not pleased to
be reminded of them at the moment. "Oh-h! Well, if you want to
experiment, you must; but I do think it's a little inconsiderate to
choose Norah as your subject, and in the Christmas holidays, too! Where
do I come in, please? Really, Susa