nvers made her belated appearance in the
morning-room. But as there was a goodly supply of magazines and
illustrated papers, Margaret did not find the time hang heavily on her
hands.

Truth to say, she was glad to be alone, and the knowledge that such was
the case depressed her very much. She had looked forward to the society
of other young people as the greatest happiness earth could give her, and
it was discouraging to find that the realisation of her wish was as yet
bringing her very little pleasure. She felt awkward and terribly shy in
their company, and she had an uneasy consciousness that they looked upon
her as a poor sort of creature, and very uninteresting--what, in short,
she said sadly to herself, for she was already picking up some of their
expressions--they would have called a bore.

When at last Mrs. Danvers did make her appearance she was full of
apologies for having kept Margaret waiting so long.

"You must blame the cook, my dear," she said cheerily, "not me. Oh, dear,
I am glad to sit down!"

She sank into a low easy chair with an air of fatigue, and Margaret
seeing her look round for a footstool, brought her one and placed it
under her feet.

"Thank you, my dear," she said, "and now if you will get me my knitting
from that table in the corner we will have a nice, cosy chat. Thank
goodness my work for the day is all done!" Ten minutes spent in the
kitchen assenting to all that a very excellent cook-housekeeper suggested
constituted Mrs. Danvers "work for the day." "There are many things I
wanted to ask you about my old friend and cousin, Miss McDonald. By the
way, what do you think of the children?"

When Margaret answered that she had not yet seen them, Mrs. Danvers,
after a short pause of astonishment, gave a vexed laugh. At least, to
start with, the laugh was tinged with vexation; but as she continued to
laugh the feeling of annoyance was merged into one of hearty amusement.

"That's Hannah all over," she said. "Hannah is jealous of you. She is
their nurse, you know, and has been with them since they have been born.
She's the only person who can manage them. I can't, and their mother
can't, though Joanna would be very angry if she heard I had said that.
But I told Hannah to bring the children down to see you here after
breakfast. However, as she did not choose to do so, it is no good
annoying her by saying anything about it. I will take you up to the
nurseries presently, when we have had tha