A little--in a schoolgirlish fashion kind of way.'

'Quite as well as I do, I daresay,' Miss Darrell answered, laughing
gaily, 'only you are more modest about it. O, here comes your
supper; may I sit with you while you eat it?'

'I shall be very glad if you will.'

'I hope you have brought Miss Crofton a good supper, Sarah,' she
went on in the same gay girlish way.--'Sarah is a very good creature,
you must know, Miss Crofton, though she seems a little grim to
strangers. That's only a way of hers: she _can_ smile, I assure you,
though you'd hardly think so.'

Sarah's hard-looking mouth expanded into a kind of grin at this.

'There's no getting over you, Miss Darrell,' she said; 'you've got
such a way of your own. I've brought Miss Crofton some cold beef;
but if she'd like a bit of pickle, I wouldn't mind going to ask cook
for it. Cold meat does eat a little dry without pickle.'

This 'bit of pickle' was evidently a concession in my favour made to
please Emily Darrell. I thanked Sarah, and told her that I would not
trouble her with a journey to the cook. I was faint and worn-out
with my day's pilgrimage, and had eaten very little since morning;
but the most epicurean repast ever prepared by a French chef would
have seemed so much dust and ashes to me that night; so I sat down
meekly to my supper of bread and meat, and listened to Milly
Darrell's chatter as I ate it.

Of course she told me all about the school, Miss Bagshot, and Miss
Susan Bagshot. The elder of these two ladies was her favourite. Miss
Susan had, in the remote period of her youth, been the victim of
some unhappy love-affair, which had soured her disposition, and
inclined her to look on the joys and follies of girlhood with a
jaundiced eye. It was easy enough to please Miss Bagshot, who had a
genial matronly way, and took real delight in her pupils; but it was
almost impossible to satisfy Miss Susan.

'And I am sorry to say that you will be a good deal with her,' Miss
Darrell said, shaking her head gravely; 'for you are to take the
second English class under her--I heard them say so at dinner to-day--
and I am afraid she will fidget you almost out of your life; but you
must try to keep your temper, and take things as quietly as you can,
and I daresay in time you will be able to get on with her.'

'I'm sure I hope so,' I answered rather sadly; and then Miss Darrell
asked me how long I was to be at Albury Lodge.

'Three years,' I told her; 'and aft