orning prayers.

"You have missed prayers this morning, Pauline," she said. "There was no
reason for this inattention. I shall be obliged to punish you. You cannot
have your usual hour of recreation before dinner. You will have to write
out the first page of Scott's _Lay of the Last Minstrel_; and you must do
it without making any mistake either in spelling or punctuation. On this
occasion you can copy from the book. Now, no words, my dear--no words.
Sit down immediately to your work."

Pauline did sit down. She felt almost choking with anger. Was she, an
important person who was soon to be queen of a birthday, one about whom
her sisters talked and whispered and made presents for, to be treated in
this scant and ungracious fashion? She would not put up with it.
Accordingly she was very inattentive at her lessons, failed to listen
when she should, played atrociously on the piano, could not manage her
sums, and, in short, got more and more each moment into Miss Tredgold's
black books.

When recreation hour arrived she felt tired and headachy. The other girls
now went out into the pleasant sunshine. Pauline looked after them with
longing. They would sit under the overhanging trees; they would eat fruit
and talk nonsense and laugh. Doubtless they would talk about her and the
birthday so near at hand. At noon the schoolroom was hot, too, for the
sun beat hard upon the windows, and Pauline felt more stifled and more
headachy and sulky than ever.

"Oh! please," she said, as Miss Tredgold was leaving the room, "I can't
do this horrid writing to-day. Please forgive me. Do let me go out."

"No, Pauline; you must take your punishment. You were late this morning;
you disobeyed my rules. Take the punishment which I am obliged to give
you as a lady should, and make no more excuses."

The door was shut upon the angry girl. She sat for a time absolutely
still, pressing her hand to her aching brow; then she strolled across the
schoolroom, fetched some paper, and sat down to her unwelcome task. She
wrote very badly, and when the hour was over she had not half copied the
task assigned to her. This bad beginning went on to a worse end. Pauline
declined to learn any lessons in preparation hour, and accordingly next
morning she was absolutely unprepared for her tasks.

Miss Tredgold was now thoroughly roused.

"I must make an example," she said to herself. "I shall have no influence
over these girls if I let them think I am all softn