welcome. "I told you I should
get my way!" she said triumphantly, and, after her warm greeting, she
looked with some respect at the face of the Miss May who was so very
clever. It certainly was not what she expected, not at all like either
of the four sisters she had already seen--brown, sallow, and with that
sharp long nose, and the eager eyes, and brow a little knit by the
desire to see as far as she could. It was pleasanter to look at Flora.

Ethel left the talk chiefly to Flora--there was wonder and study enough
farther in the grounds and garden, and when Mrs. Larpent tried to enter
into conversation with her, she let it drop two or three times while
she was peering hard at a picture and trying to make out its subject.
However, when they all went out to walk to church, Ethel lighted up,
and talked, admired, and asked questions in her quick, eager way, which
interested Mrs. Larpent greatly. The governess asked after Norman, and
no more was wanted to produce a volume of histories of his successes,
till Flora turned as she walked before with Meta, saying, "Why, Ethel,
you are quite overwhelming Mrs. Larpent."

But some civil answer convinced Ethel that what she said was
interesting, and she would not be stopped in her account of their
anxieties on the day of the examination. Flora was pleased that Meta,
catching some words, begged to hear more, and Flora gave an account
of the matter, soberer in terms, but quietly setting Norman at a much
greater distance from all his competitors.

After church came the feast in the school. It was a large commodious
building. Meta declared it was very tiresome that it was so good inside,
it was so ugly, she should never rest till papa had built her a real
beauty. They found Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wilmot in the school, with a
very nice well-dressed set of boys and girls, and--But there is no need
to describe the roast-beef and plum-pudding, "the feast ate merrily,"
and Ethel was brilliantly happy waiting on the children, and so was
sunny-hearted Meta. Flora was too busy in determining what the Riverses
might be thinking of her and her sister to give herself up to the
enjoyment.

Ethel found a small boy looking ready to cry at an untouched slice of
beef. She examined him whether he could cut it, and at last discovered
that, as had been the case with one or two of her own brothers at the
same age, meat was repugnant to him. In her vehement manner she flew
off to fetch him some pudding,