must crib
a little more time for my hand and foot. Don't you know?--Drawing my own
hand and foot from their reflection in a looking-glass till I can put
them in any position, and foreshorten them to my mind."

Rose competed for the scroll-work order, and did it so well that she got
the order, and along with it a note of commendation, a tolerably large
extension of the commission, and the first instalment of a liberal
payment for the kind of work. Her elation knew no bounds--

"Oh! Hester, I should never, never even have heard of this delightful
job but for you. What can I ever do for you?"

"Don't hug me," said Hester, retreating in veritable terror, for she had
a peculiar genuine aversion to caresses, still more than to thanks.
"Don't knock off my hat, for I cannot spare another minute to put it
straight again."

The next thing Hester heard was a half-impetuous, half-shamefaced
admission from Rose that she had resigned her post as assistant
drawing-mistress at the Misses Stone's school.

Hester looked grave on the instant. "What did you do that for?" she
demanded gruffly. "Did you mention it to your sister? Have you told them
at home?"

"No," Rose was forced to own--at least not till the deed was done. She
had acted on her own responsibility. "But indeed, Hester, it is the best
plan," she argued volubly. "Annie and all of them will say so when they
know how I mean to cultivate this scroll-work, which is paying me twice
as well already. I put it to you if I could do two things at once, and
if it would be wise to sacrifice the more profitable for the less
remunerative. Why it would be quite shortsighted and cowardly."

"Humph," said Hester, without the smallest disguise, "much experience
you have had of it! Do you know, Rose Millar, these decorators' fads are
constantly changing? Perhaps in three months they will all be for
mosaic, or tiles, or peacocks' feathers again. If I had thought you were
such a rash idiotic little goose, I should never have breathed a word to
you of this man and his scroll-work."

"Oh! but, Hester," pled Rose, determined not to be offended, "I was only
relieving the poor Misses Stone of a painful necessity. I am sure they
have never put any dependence on me since the day I broke down--I grant
you idiotically. I cannot stand the repression--suppression--whatever
you like to call it. Now that there is a way out of it, I have felt
like a wild beast in the school--the girls are so very tame