, fierce outbreaks, and lazy moods. There were moments
when the girl seemed to be fairly tractable, but there was no knowing
when the whim would seize her to fall back into her old ways, so that,
at the best of times, Miss Blake did not dare relax her control. Then
Nan would kick her heels sulkily, and comfort herself with the thought
that when her father came home all this would be put an end to. Miss
Blake would go. Hadn't she said so herself? And that would finish up
this studying business quick enough. She could cajole her father
easily into letting her stay away from school, and then--here she would
be, as happy as you please, with only those two, Delia and her dear
daddy, to look after her, and no one at all would say no to anything
she might choose to do. It was a blissful prospect. In the meantime
there were lessons, and--Miss Blake.

But after a few days Nan found that, somehow, the lessons were not so
hard after all, and she never would have believed that they could be so
interesting. While as for Miss Blake--Well, a woman who sits reading
"Treasure Island" and such books to one for hours together can't be
regarded entirely in the light of a nuisance.

"I never knew geography was so nice before," Nan admitted one day after
lessons were over. "I used to hate it, but now, why it's downright
jolly! I never saw such beautiful pictures! Where in the world did
you ever get so many?"

"I took them myself!"

Nan's eyes widened. "Why, have you been to all these places?" she
asked, not a little awe-struck.

Miss Blake confessed she had.

"And you took all these photographs your own self?" persisted the girl.

The governess laughed. "I'm like George Washington, Nan," she said.
"I cannot tell a lie! I did them with my little--Kodak!"

Nan fairly gulped. She would have said "Jiminy!" but she knew Miss
Blake disapproved of "Jiminy!" and somehow, she was willing to humor
her just now.

"Only," went on the governess, "it isn't a little Kodak at all. It is
a very fine camera indeed. Some day, if you like, I will show it to
you, and then, perhaps you will be interested enough to care to learn
how to take some photographs yourself."

Nan bounced up and down on the sofa with delight. "Oh, won't I,
though!" she exclaimed feverishly. "Just won't I!"

"But mind you, my dear," warned Miss Blake. "If you once undertake it,
I want you to persist. It is not to be any
'You-press-the-button-and-we-do-th