.'

This conversation took place, as I said, on the Sunday afternoon. Very
early the next morning the brougham took Jacinth back to Market Square
Place, in time for her to start for school with Frances at their usual
hour.

Frances did not receive with rapturous delight the news of her
invitation to Robin Redbreast.

'Must I go?' she said. 'Wouldn't it do for just Eugene to go with you,
Jacinth? He would enjoy it.'

'Yes, I should,' said Eugene, 'pertickerly if we have some of those
little brown cakes for tea.'

'Eugene,' said Frances in a tone of disgust, 'I'm sure Lady Myrtle would
not have asked you if she had known you were such a greedy little boy.'

They were in the dining-room waiting for their aunt, who, for once, was
a few minutes late for dinner. Just then she came in. She greeted
Jacinth pleasantly, and seemed glad to hear that she had enjoyed
herself. Then she was told of the invitation for the following week, and
Frances appealed to her to say she 'needn't go.' But Frances's hopes
were speedily disappointed.

'Not go!' said Miss Mildmay; 'of course you must go. It would be most
ungrateful to Lady Myrtle, and would, besides, put Jacinth in a very
disagreeable position. You are the grand-daughter of Lady Myrtle's old
friend as well as Jacinth, even though her special interest may be in
Jacinth.'

'It would make me look so selfish too,' said Jacinth, who, now that she
felt sure of her own place with the old lady, was far from wishing to
deprive Frances of her share in the pleasures and advantages of their
acquaintance with Robin Redbreast.

So Frances had to give in.

And when the day came she enjoyed the visit, on the whole, very much.

'If only,' she said to herself before starting, 'if only I could have
got mamma's letter in answer to mine before going. I would have known
then exactly how to do about the Harpers. Of course I can't tell
stories, and _they_ would never have wanted me to do that. I only hope
nothing will be said about school or about anything to do with them.'

Then she tried to recall the exact words of Camilla Harper's letter, by
this time two-thirds on its way to India to her mother.

Jacinth said nothing at all about the Harpers in connection with Lady
Myrtle, and Frances began to think her sister had forgotten all about
the question of their possible relationship, which in the meantime at
least the younger girl was not sorry for.

It was again a lovely day--the weather s