e not at all rich ourselves, though I
suppose papa and mamma seem so in India with all the parties and things
they're obliged to have. And I never said the girls weren't "quite
ladies," as you say. But I know how it will end: in a little while you
won't like Bessie and Margaret any better than Prissy Beckingham. You
fly at people so at first.'

'I don't think it will be that way this time,' said Frances in a tone
of quiet conviction. 'There's something _different_ about the Harpers.'

'It isn't a very uncommon name,' said Jacinth. 'There are all sorts of
Harpers. Why, at Stannesley, the village schoolmaster's wife was called
Harper before she married, I remember. And then Lord Elvedon's family
name is Harper.'

They had drawn nearer to the other two by this time, and Phebe overheard
the last words.

'If you please, Miss Jacinth, that is Lady Myrtle's family. Her father
was Lord Elvedon, two or three back, and the Lord Elvedon now is a
nephew or a cousin's son to her, though they never come near the place;
it's been let ever since I can remember.'

'I wonder if she was brought up at Elvedon,' said Frances. 'It must seem
rather sad to her, if she was there when she was a little girl, to have
no one belonging to her there now.'

Altogether the adventure--and a real adventure it was--gave them plenty
to think of and to talk about all the way home and after they got there.
Eugene forgot his fatigue, and chattered briskly about the goodness of
the little brown cakes, till he got a snub from Jacinth about being so
greedy. His appetite, however, did not seem to have suffered, and he was
quite ready to do justice to the tea waiting for them at home, though
not without some allusions to Lady Myrtle's delicious cakes, and wishes
that Aunt Alison would sometimes give them 'a change from bread and
butter.'

For one of Miss Mildmay's fixed ideas about children was that they could
not be brought up too plainly.

'We do have a change sometimes,' said Jacinth. 'We always have golden
syrup on Saturdays and jam on Sundays, and you know we've had buns two
or three times on birthdays.'

'Other children have buns and cakes far oftener than us,' said Eugene.
'Like we used to at Stannesley.'

'It was quite different there,' said Jacinth; 'a big country-house and
baking at home.'

'_Everything_ was nice at Stannesley,' said Frances with a sigh. 'Granny
and Uncle Marmy really loved us; that makes the difference.'

'Aunt Alison lo