lub; even in the beautiful order of the
book-shelves and the neat clerk-like writing of the savings-bank
entries. It was all so complete and accurate, with no loose ends left
about--all so perfect in its way, thought Jacinth, as she cut and folded
and manipulated the brown paper entrusted to her charge for the books'
new coats, rewarded by her aunt's 'Very nice--very nice indeed, my
dear,' when it was time to go home, and she pointed out the neat little
pile of clean tidy volumes.

Frances on her side had enjoyed herself greatly. She was the only
outsider, otherwise day-scholar, at the garden tea, which fact in no way
lessened her satisfaction while it increased her importance.

'I wish you were a boarder, Frances,' said Margaret Harper, the younger
of her two friends, as they were walking up and down a shady path in
the intervals of the games all the girls had joined in. 'Don't you? It
would be so nice, and I am sure we should be great, _great_ friends--you
and Bessie and I.'

'And not Jass?' said Frances. 'I shouldn't like to be a boarder unless
Jass was too. Then, I daresay, I wouldn't mind.'

'We'd like to be friends with Jacinth too,' said Margaret, 'but Bessie
and I don't think she cares very much about being great friends. She
seems so much older, though she's only a year more than Bessie, isn't
she?'

'She's fifteen,' said Frances. 'She is old in some ways, but still she
and I do everything nearly together. She's very good to me. She's very
nice about you, and I'm quite happy about having you and Bessie for my
best friends, for Jacinth and Aunt Alison think you're the nicest girls
here.'

Margaret coloured with pleasure, but with some shyness too.

'I'm glad they think we're nice,' she said; 'and I'm sure, if your aunt
knew father and mother, they'd think we _should_ be far, far better than
we are, at least than I am. I don't think Bessie _could_ be much better
than she is. But a good many others of the girls are very nice indeed;
they are none of them not nice, except that Prissy Beckingham talks too
much and says rather rude things without meaning it, and Laura French
certainly has a very bad temper. But she's always sorry for it
afterwards. And who could be nicer than the Eves or Honor Falmouth.'

'I don't know them much; they're too big for me, you see,' said Frances.
'Of course I'd know them better if we were boarders. Do you like my gray
frock, Margaret? It's the first day I've had on anything but