Margaret was much pleased to have succeeded so well in her endeavour to make friends with poor Miss Edge. She had been practically acquainted long enough with governess-life to be able to enter into many of its trials, and to understand many things which she used to think mere absurdities. She could see how it was, and why it was, that misunderstandings arose; and how accidental occurrences were magnified into supposed intentional slights. She could make some allowance now for over-sensitiveness. Uninteresting as Miss Edge certainly appeared to be, she was now a decided interest to Margaret, who fell asleep that night during a fancied conversation with her.

She wrote to her, and received a long letter in reply, at the end of which Miss Edge told her she had no idea she could have written so much to any one she knew well, much less to one she scarcely knew at all.

They did meet again, very soon; when the children spent another day at Lady Harriett's. Miss Edge, in the course of their conversation, told Margaret a good deal of her own history. She was at least ten years older than Margaret. She mentioned having lived three years with the family of a Lady Vaux, who, according to her account, had two most disagreeable daughters, and was herself extremely proud. This seemed to be her chief fault. She also mentioned that Lady Vaux had an only son by a first marriage, who, "although perhaps rather proud, too," was yet very

amiable and kind-hearted, and much beloved by all who knew him.

"What was his name?" asked Margaret.

“Greville-Greville Stratton; but it is now many years since I saw him last. I was always so glad when he was at home for holidays. He and his cousin, Fergus Malcolm, who went to sea and died, poor boy! used often to come home at the same time. Mr. Stratton was so fond of Fergus."

Margaret was much interested in the account of Miss Edge's life at that time, and Miss Edge seemed to like going over various recollections. It appeared that Mr. Stratton and Fergus were always kind to her, and felt, she was sure, the cold unthinking neglect she met with in the house. In reply to questions of Margaret's, she went on to mention other particulars about the family. Lady Vaux, she said, had lived a good deal at her son's place, as her second husband, Colonel Sir John Vaux, had had no objection to the plan, and had let his own house. Mr. Stratton had been at Oxford, where he had taken honours, she believed; and he had, she thought, been a good deal abroad since that. He must be about six-and-twenty now. The Vauxes had a house in London, but she heard that they still continued to go to Stratton Park during the summer.

CHAPTER XI.

"""Twas in that mellow season of the year
When the hot sun singes the yellow leaves."

M

HOOD.

JARGARET had been long enough with her pupils to have become really fond of them, for she found a great deal to love, and a great deal to interest her; while at the same time there was a great deal in their different characters which kept alive her energies. Maude was very sweet-tempered, rather imaginative, and not much interested in her regular lessons generally, though she often became deeply absorbed in parts of history-in the accounts of individual characters or heroes who possessed the particular qualities which she admired. She was fond of poetry, too, and whatever she liked she learnt with great ease; but it was often difficult to get her to apply her mind to the necessary school-room tasks which were appointed for her, and Margaret was obliged now and then to appeal to her sense of duty in a grave and serious manner. Fanny was much the most industrious of the two.

Maude and Caroline Shirley were great friends: Caroline was quite devoted to Maude, whose

opinion on the various questions of (to them) great importance which arise in the minds of girls of their age, she generally thought conclusive: not but that sometimes she found she could not agree with Maude's view of a case, and under those circumstances they generally consulted Margaret, who was always ready to listen with attention to the arguments on both sides, entering into the difficulties of the questions to be decided, and giving her judgment impartially. Of course, sometimes the children gave her more trouble than at others, but on the whole they were obedient and tractable, and very affectionate, which ensured her success in the end. It was but seldom, therefore, that she had to show any real displeasure.

During the warm summer weather they frequently spent the greater part of the afternoon under the shade of some wide-spreading trees at no great distance from the house, and not far from the Rectory. Here they were generally joined by the younger members of the Shirley party, and various amusements, chiefly of the children's own devising, occupied them very happily. What these amusements were, Margaret did not much care; provided they did nothing positively wrong, she left them pretty much to themselves. Sometimes they built little houses, or they made bridges across the brook, at the risk of a scolding from their respective nurses if they made themselves wet or muddy. The brook, with its primrose border, ran murmuring along at a few feet below the platform on which

the trees grew; for on that side there was a steep descent of five or six feet, where the roots of the trees formed a sort of interlaced ladder as they spread over the bank laid bare by time, and the effects of the rains which in wet weather carried the earth down the slope to mingle with the waters in the little stream below. Beyond the brook there was a copse, through which went the church path from Northcourt House.

The children had a habit of considering Maude and Caroline Shirley as leaders, and in their more active games, when they took opposite sides, the two elder sisters were always at the head of the rival parties; but when the weather was hot, they more usually played together in one party.

Before Lady North left home, she had given a pretty copy of "The Lady of the Lake" to Maude; and another, bound exactly like it, of "Marmion to Caroline. The two girls had taken a sudden fancy to read them to each other out of doors, as they sat together under Maude's tree. Each of the children had a favourite tree which they called their own, and which each considered more beautiful than all the rest. One of their amusements was, watering their trees, in order to accomplish. which they arranged themselves in a long line from the brook, handing a water-can from one to the other. It was observed that the watered trees looked much healthier and fresher than the rest of the group. Of this, of course, there could be no manner of doubt.