rstand it well
enough, and I have no doubt your father and mother would like you to go
to Robin Redbreast now and then; of course, not to any extreme, or so as
to interfere with your lessons or regular ways.'

'Does Lady Myrtle ask you to go to see her too?' inquired Jacinth, half
timidly.

'Oh dear, no,' replied Miss Mildmay: 'she is straightforward enough. She
does not pretend to want to make _my_ acquaintance, and after all why
should she? She has had plenty of time to do so if she had wished it
during all these years; and honestly,' and here again she smiled quite
naturally, 'I don't want to know her. I have no time for fresh
acquaintances. And her interest in you children, Jacinth especially, has
nothing to do with our side. It is entirely connected with the
Morelands.'

'I wonder how she and our grandmother came to be such friends,' said
Jacinth. 'Lady Myrtle's old home was near here, and the Morelands didn't
belong to this neighbourhood.'

'No, but the Elvedons have another place in the north near your
grandmother's old home,' said Miss Mildmay, who was very well posted up
in such matters. 'They have never lived all the year round at Elvedon, I
fancy, and now of course it is let.'

'Lady Myrtle's name used to be Harper, she told us,' said Frances, who
never cared to be very long left out of the conversation, 'and there are
some girls called Harper at our school. But Jacinth says it's quite a
common name.'

'No, Frances, I didn't say that,' said Jacinth. 'I said it wasn't an
_un_common name; that sounds quite different.'

'Possibly the Harpers at Miss Scarlett's may be some
connection--distant, probably--of the Elvedons,' said Miss Mildmay,
carelessly. 'But of course it is not, as Jacinth says, an uncommon
name.'

But her remark set Frances's imagination to work.

'They are very, _very_ nice girls--the nicest at the school,' she said.
'Their names are Bessie and Margaret. If you could only see them, Aunt
Alison! I do _so_ wish you would let us ask them to tea some Saturday.'

'Nonsense, child,' said Miss Mildmay, impatiently. 'I cannot begin
things of that kind, as you might understand. You have companionship at
school, and when you are at home you must be content with your own
society. Now you must leave me: I have to see the cook, and I have made
myself late already.'

'Frances,' said Jacinth on their way up-stairs to their own little
sitting-room, 'I do think you are the _silliest_ girl I ever kn