y means of
some underhand action on her part she could win the Scholarship for
Florence, Florence would help her in the future, and even if Bertha's
theft was known to her, would never dare to betray her. It is well
known that it is the first step which costs, and Bertha's first theft
was followed by the purloining of several letters from poor Mrs. Aylmer
to her daughter.

At first Florence, relieved with regard to her mother's financial
condition, did not bother about this silence. She was very much
occupied and intensely anxious on her own account, but when more than a
week went by and she had no letter from Dawlish, she began to get
alarmed. What could be wrong?

In these days it would be easy for a girl to satisfy her nervous
terrors by means of a telegram, but in 1870 a telegram cost a shilling,
and Florence was now saving every penny of her money to send to her
mother. She hoped soon to have another two pounds to transmit to her
by means of a post-office order. For Mrs. Aylmer the great was
thoroughly generous now to Florence, and never a letter arrived which
did not contain a money remittance.

"She never guesses that it all goes to the little Mummy, that it helps
to cheer her life and to give her some of the comforts she needs,"
thought the anxious girl; "but why, why does not Mummy write?"

When ten days had gone by, Florence sat down one morning and wrote to
her mother:

"DARLING MUMMY: I cannot understand your silence. You have not even
acknowledged the post-office order which I sent to you. I meant to
wait until I could send you another postoffice order for two pounds,
but I won't delay any longer, but will send you a postoffice order for
one pound to-day. Darling, darling Mummy, I do wonder how you are.
Please write by return mail to your loving daughter, FLORENCE
AYLMER."

Having written and signed her letter, Florence addressed it, stamped
it, and laid it by her desk. She then took out some sheets of
manuscript paper on which she was vainly endeavoring to sketch out a
scheme for her essay on Heroism. The conditions which attached to this
essay were already neatly written out by Mrs. Clavering's directions,
and were placed opposite to her on her desk: "The essay must contain
not less than two thousand words. It must be the unaided work of the
competitor. It must further be written without reference to books."

Florence, smart enough about most things, was altogether foiled