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words, you will live to regret it!"
    "If I do, Maria, you will have the comfort of being able to say that you told me so! But what reason could I possibly have for not rescuing that child from a very awkward predicament?"
    "It's my belief," said Miss Farlow darkly, "that the story she told you was a take-in! A very hurly-burly young female I thought her! So coming—quite brass-faced indeed! Such a want of delicacy, running away from her home, and in the company of a young gentleman! No doubt I am old-fashioned, but such conduct doesn't suit my sense of propriety. What is more, I am very sure dear Sir Geoffrey would disapprove quite as strongly as I do!"
    "Probably more strongly," said Annis. "But I hardly think he could be so foolish as to call her either coming or brass-faced!"
    Miss Farlow quailed under the sparkling look of anger in Annis's eyes, and embarked on a confused speech which incoherently mixed an apology with a great deal of self-justification. Annis cut her short, telling her that she expected her to treat Lucilla with civility. She spoke with most unusual severity, and when the afflicted Miss Farlow sought refuge in tears was wholly unmoved, merely recommending her to go upstairs and to unpack her trunk.
     
    CHAPTER 2
     
    W hen Miss Wychwood had changed her travelling dress for one of the simple cambric gowns she wore when she meant to spend the evening by her own fireside, and had endured a scold from Miss Jurby on the subjects of wilfulness, imprudence, and what her papa would have said had he been alive, she went to tap on the door of the Pink bedchamber, and, upon being bidden to come in, found her protégée charmingly attired in sprig muslin, only slightly creased from having been packed in a portmanteau, and with her dusky curls brushed free of tangles. They clustered about her head, in the artless style known as the Sappho, which, to Miss Wychwood's appreciative eyes, was not only very becoming, but which emphasized her extreme youth. Round her neck was clasped a row of pearls. This demure necklace was the only jewellery she wore, but Miss Wychwood did not for a moment suppose that the absence of trinkets denoted poverty. The pearls were real, and just the thing for a girl newly emerged from the schoolroom. So was that sprig muslin dress, with its high waist and tiny puff sleeves, but its exquisite simplicity stamped it as the work of a high class modiste. And the shawl which Lucilla was about to drape around her shoulders was of Norwich silk, and had probably cost its purchaser every penny of fifty guineas. It was plain to be seen that Lucilla's unknown aunt had ample means and excellent taste, and grudged the expenditure of neither on the dressing of her niece. It was equally plain that such a fashionable damsel, bearing all the appearance of one born to an independence, would never find favour with Mrs Nibley.
    Lucilla said apologetically that she feared her dress was sadly crumpled. "The thing was, you see, that I haven't been in the way of packing, ma'am."
    "I shouldn't think you've ever done so before, have you?"
    "Well, no! But I couldn't ask my maid to do it for me, because she would have instantly told my aunt. That," said Lucilla bitterly, "is the worst of servants who have known one since one was a baby!"
    "Very true!" agreed Annis. "I am afflicted with several myself, and know just how you feel. Now, tell me by what name I am to present you to people!"
    "I did think of calling myself Smith," said Lucilla doubtfully. "Or—or Brown, perhaps. Some very ordinary name!"
    "Oh, I shouldn't choose anything too ordinary!" said Annis, shaking her head. "It wouldn't suit you!"
    "No, and I am persuaded I should come to hate it," said Lucilla naively. She hesitated for a moment. "I think I'll keep my own name, after all, on account of not being rag-mannered, which I'm afraid I was, when I wouldn't let Ninian tell you what it is. I was in dread that you might betray me to my horrid uncle, but that was