Miss Patten's School 



'' Please, ma'am," I said, with my poor 

 little heart beating very fast indeed, "am 

 I to do lessons on this little visit ? " 



''Just a few, 7i2ce ones/' she said, kindly, 

 squeezing my hand as it lay in hers. 



"Sums?" I ventured, with a ghastly 

 sinking. 



''Yes, yes," she said, smiling in the 

 belief that she had lighted on my favourite 

 study. 



'' I wish Mother and Mary would be 

 quick and come," I said, after a melancholy 

 pause. 



Miss Patten stopped before a bush of 

 white roses and began pulling off the dead 

 ones. 



" Well, they zvi7/ come soon, dear," she 

 said ; " in a few days, you know — O yes, 

 quite soon, just to see how you and I are 

 getting on." 



"In a few days," I stammered. " Not 

 now ? Not to-day ? " and I burst into 

 tears. 



I was bitterly unhappy, wounded and 

 hurt as only a child, a helpless dependent 

 thing, can be. My Mother and Mary had 

 tricked me, deliberately trapped me into 

 this place, and had gone away and left me 

 without one kiss or word of good-bye. 

 Miss Patten, whom up to this time I had 

 98 



