clean breast of
everything, own that she was at The Cedars under a false name, and that
she had no right there at all, and go to Mrs. Murray.

The moment in which she took that resolve was the happiest she had known
since she had come to The Cedars. For though she had been slow in
confessing it even to herself, it was a fact that, quite apart from
Hilary's quiet persecution of her, Margaret was not enjoying herself. It
was quite evident to her by that time that none of the family, excepting
her two pupils, and even they were to go away on the morrow to stay for
a fortnight with an aunt of their father's, cared in the least for her.
None of them included her in their plans or sought her society. Maud was
out playing golf or tennis all day long; Hilary and Joan were
inseparable, and though Nancy was kind it was only in a lazy,
good-natured way that in the end counted for very little. The boys,
though they were all, especially Geoffrey and Edward, quite nice to her
rarely met her, except at meals, so that she could not depend upon them
for companionship. And against all that Margaret had to set the constant
necessity of weighing all her actions and words. It was even a strain
always to have to remember that her name was Eleanor Carson.

What an immense relief it would be to be herself again, even though it
meant going up to that solitary house on the downs where she would have
only an old deaf lady for company!

Poor Margaret, she was terribly disillusioned, and bitterly now did she
regret the hasty act that had landed her in her present predicament. She
must have been mad, she thought gloomily, to have planned and carried out
such a brazen piece of imposition; and how could she ever have imagined
that she would have had the temerity to have carried it on for weeks and
weeks. She knew now that she was incapable of carrying it on for another
day, and suddenly the impulse arose in her to go straight to Mrs. Danvers
and tell her her real name and confess her shameful behaviour. With that
idea in her mind she even started to her feet, but paused before she had
taken one step in the direction of the morning-room where Mrs. Danvers,
unconscious of the bombshell that her holiday governess had been
momentarily minded to throw at her feet, was enjoying her usual
after-dinner nap.

It was not that Margaret's courage failed her at the thought of the
astounding revelation she had to make. In her present mood confession
would have