892, but their serial stories had been written by
authors of repute, and were so excellent as to eclipse more modern work.
Lesbia read tale after tale with unflagging interest, and had not
exhausted the mine before her visit was over. She was very thankful when
the time came for her to return to Kingfield. It happened to be her
sixteenth birthday. Mrs. Newton, really striving to be kind, had
remembered the present which she had promised for so many years, and
astonished her great-niece with quite a nice copy of Longfellow's poems.
Miss Parry gave her a thimble in a red plush case. Both old ladies were
quite affected at bidding her good-bye.

"It's been nice to see somebody young about the house, my dear. I wish
we could have kept you," said Aunt Newton, wiping her spectacles.

"You've been such a help, Lesbia! I don't know how I should have got
through Christmas without you," murmured Miss Parry.

Lesbia, whose newly awakened mind was beginning to register and weigh
impressions, went off in the train winking back something suspiciously
moist. She was fearfully and furiously glad to get away, but the Celtic
side of her nature responded to the pathos of all she had left behind.
The remembrance of Aunt Newton's feeble trembling hands clinging to her
strong young ones, and of Miss Parry's faded wistful face breaking into
a smile as she waved a good-bye, haunted her like a strain of sad music.
The episode seemed a chapter of late autumn, with withered whirling
leaves and frost-stricken flowers. She stored it away in her memory
along with many other vivid mental notes, still only half understood,
but adding nevertheless to her increasing stock of human experience.

Lesbia half anticipated and half dreaded the coming term. She wondered
how she would get on as a governess-pupil. She had never leaned towards
teaching, but then she had never seriously thought of any career, or of
anything except a rather butterfly existence. She walked with a very
grave face into the study, to be instructed by Miss Tatham in her new
duties.

"You'll take the First Form for arithmetic, French, and reading," said
the Principal, consulting her time-table, "and IIB for dictation,
French, and English History. You'll sit in IIA and keep order while the
girls write their exercises, and you'll give IIA French dictation.
You'll help both Miss Edwards and Miss Harrison to correct exercises,
and you'll check the registers on Friday afternoons. Do you th