o do or look forward to. 'I shall be very glad
when it's time to begin lessons again.'

'I don't see why you should feel so particularly gloomy just now,' said
Jacinth, not unkindly. 'Things might have been a good deal worse than
they are.'

'People can always say that,' replied Frances. 'If you've got to have a
leg cut off, you can say to yourself it might have been both legs. I
daresay having Robin Redbreast to go to makes it much nicer for you; I
suppose you'll go there a good deal during the holidays. But it doesn't
make much difference to me. Lady Myrtle doesn't ask me often, and I
don't want her to. I'm quite glad for you to go there, but it's not the
same for me.'

And again she sighed.

'What _would_ make you happier, then?' asked Jacinth.

'Oh, I don't know. Nothing that could be, I suppose. Nothing will make
very much difference till papa and mamma come home. There are one or two
things that are making me particularly unhappy, besides the thinking
it's Christmas and how changed everything is, but--I daresay it's no
good speaking of them.'

'I know what one of them is,' said Jacinth. 'I can guess it: shall I
tell you what it is?'

'If you like,' Frances replied.

'It's about the Harpers--Bessie and Margaret--not coming back again to
school,' said her sister.

'How did you know about it?' inquired Frances. 'They didn't tell even
me--not really. But I know they were very sad about their father being
so much worse, and once, a few days ago, Bessie said it was almost
settled they were going to let their house at that place where they
live, and that their father and mother were going to be a long time in
London, and of course that will cost a lot of money--the going to
London, I mean. And--I could tell,' and Frances's voice sounded rather
suspicious--'I could tell--by the way, they kissed me--when--when they
said good-bye--I could _tell_ they weren't coming back,' and here the
choking down of a sob was very audible.

For a wonder Jacinth did not seem at all irritated. Truth to tell, she,
too, had felt very sorry for the Harper girls--Bessie especially--and as
we know, though she did not allow it to herself, her conscience was not
entirely at ease about them. Something had touched her, too, in Bessie's
manner when they bade each other good-bye.

'Will you kiss me, Jacinth?' Bessie had said. 'I have been so glad to
know you.'

'I have not felt sorry enough for them perhaps,' Jacinth had allowed to
her