f fun."

The governess considered.

"Well, yes. I will tell you of the very first lesson I can remember,
if you care to hear," she answered, with a wistful smile. "I won't
promise it will be 'lots of fun,' though."

"Never mind! Tell it!" And Nan settled herself more comfortably
against the governess' knee quite as if that person were, in reality,
her prop and stay, instead of being only some one she "sort of liked in
spite of herself."

"I think it must have been the first real experience I ever had," began
Miss Blake, musingly. "At least it is the first one I recollect. I
was the littlest bit of a girl when my mother died; too young to
realize it, and my father scarcely outlived her a week. He died very
suddenly. They used to tell me that he died from grief. Anyway, he
was sitting at his desk looking over some important papers connected
with my mother's affairs, when suddenly he put his hand to his heart,
gave a faint gasp--and was gone."

"What an elegant way to die!" broke in Nan impulsively.

Mrs. Newton gave an exclamation of real horror at her flippancy.

"Oh, you know what I mean!" the girl hastened to protest. "I think it
must be worlds better than being sick, or hurt in an accident, or any
of those dreadful, lingering deaths."

"After that I was given over into the charge of some distant
connections of my father," continued the governess. "They were good,
conscientious people, but they had no children of their own, and did
not like other people's. I presume I was not a very captivating baby."

Nan straightened up suddenly. "I bet you were, though," she
interrupted. "You must have been a dot of a thing, with crinkly hair
and dimples, and mites of hands and feet. I should think they would
have loved you--I mean, a poor little lonely baby like you."

Miss Blake smiled. "Well, however that was, Nan, I was brought up very
strictly, and I assure you, I was made to mind my P's and Q's. One
could not trifle with Aunt Rebecca! Well, one morning I was sitting at
the foot of the staircase playing house. I can see myself now,
squatting on the lowest step, my fat little legs scarcely long enough
to reach the floor. I had on a checked gingham pinafore, and my hair
was drawn tight behind my ears and braided into two tiny tails with red
ribbons on the ends. I knew it was against the rule to play house in
the hall, anywhere, in fact, but in my own little room--with the doors
shut, but somehow I