only Lucy Merriman may
be left out of the category," was Rosamund's answer. "But, all the same,
I mean to make Irene Ashleigh my special friend above all others, and
you must none of you be jealous, because--because--well, I can't
explain."

"There are the Singletons," said Laura quickly. "Mr. Singleton came over
this afternoon with two of the girls, the two eldest ones; their names
are Maud and Alice, and they told us a lot about Irene. They seem to
have a perfect horror of her. They are awfully nice girls, and we are to
go there on Wednesday afternoon, and I for one am looking forward to it.
But, Rosamond, it is extraordinary that you should take up with her.
They told us an awful story about how Irene treated their dear
governess, Miss Carter. They wouldn't tell us quite all, but they said
that, for their parts, nothing would induce them to go to The Follies,
although they had been asked ever so often. And as to poor Miss Carter,
her nerves have not yet got over the awful shocks that Irene subjected
her to. Once she was almost drowned."

"Oh! I know all about that," said Rosamund, with a laugh. "Well, don't
keep me now. I see Lady Jane driving away, and I am going straight to
have an interview with the Professor."

The girls watched her, in a little group, as she marched out of the
wood, across the front lawn, and passed into the house by a side-door
which led straight to the Professor's study.

He was alone, expecting no one. He was somewhat tired, and life seemed
to him a little more bewildering than usual. He had never greatly
approved of his wife's scheme of having girls to live with them, but had
yielded to it at last under the pressure of necessity. He had no
objection to the scheme on any score except that he was afraid it might
absorb all his time and thoughts; for he was so constituted that he
could never see a human creature, particularly a human creature in
trouble, without taking that person's part and endeavoring if possible
to set wrong right. And now, just what he feared had happened. He was
weak and ill, and his nerves shaken, and Lady Jane had been to him, and
Rosamund Cunliffe, the girl whom he most admired of all those who had
come to live at Sunnyside, had directly disobeyed him, and Lady Jane had
made a somewhat painful appeal to his sympathy. What was to be done?

Mrs. Merriman had hurried into the room the moment Lady Jane had left.

"Well," she said--"well, and what did Lady Jane say? An