it.'

'I _am_ going to try,' said Mrs Mildmay. Her voice was low and quiet,
but it carried assurance with it. 'Your father and I talked a great deal
about it after we heard the worst of things from Mrs Lyle. And we
decided that it would be only right, even at the risk of annoying or
even offending Lady Myrtle. It seems "meant" as you say, Francie--the
coincidences of it all--my coming straight here, and that letter
reaching Mrs Lyle just before I left. So we quite made up our minds
about it.'

Frances drew a deep breath of thankfulness.

'It does seem as if everything I have most wanted was going to come,'
she said.

Then, as her mother, after kissing her again, was turning to leave the
room, telling her she really 'must go to sleep,' the little girl called
her back for a moment.

'Mamma, dear,' she said. 'If you don't mind, would you please not say
anything to Jass about what we've been talking of.'

Mrs Mildmay looked a little surprised.

'Why not, dear? Why should I not tell her as well as you?'

'Oh well, because Jass didn't know Bessie and Margaret nearly as well as
I did, and you must have seen by her letters that she didn't care about
them like me,' said Frances.

'But that does not, in one way, much signify,' replied her mother. 'Once
Jacinth knows all about them she will feel as we do: your father and I
do not know any of them personally. It is not as friends of ours that I
would in any way plead their cause with their own near relation.'

'No, of course not,' said Frances. But still she did not seem satisfied.
'Jacinth has always been so afraid of vexing Lady Myrtle by seeming to
interfere,' she said. 'And even Aunt Alison said it was better not.'

'Very likely not. You are both too young to have it in your power to do
anything. Still, I am sure you have lost no opportunity of speaking
highly of the girls whom you _do_ think so highly of.'

'Yes,' said Frances, quietly. 'I have done that. But somehow, mamma, I
have vexed Jass about it several times. I shouldn't like her to think I
had "spoilt" your first evening, by beginning about the Harpers. That's
what she might say.'

'I will give her no reason for being vexed with you, dear. I can
understand her fear of vexing Lady Myrtle--I feel the same myself--and
when I tell her, Jacinth, all about it, it will be in no way mixed up
with you, Francie. She will only need to understand the whole thing
thoroughly to agree with us.'

And Frances fell a