Outside the bedroom the night was black and still.

The small rain fell too softly to be heard in the garden; not aleaf stirred in the airless calm; the watch-dog was asleep, thecats were indoors; far or near, under the murky heaven, not asound was stirring.

Inside the bedroom the night was black and still.

Miss Ladd knew her business as a schoolmistress too well to allownight-lights; and Miss Ladd's young ladies were supposed to befast asleep, in accordance with the rules of the house. Only atintervals the silence was faintly disturbed, when the restlessturning of one of the girls in her bed betrayed itself by agentle rustling between the sheets. In the long intervals ofstillness, not even the softly audible breathing of youngcreatures asleep was to be heard.

The first sound that told of life and movement revealed themechanical movement of the clock. Speaking from the lowerregions, the tongue of Father Time told the hour before midnight.

A soft voice rose wearily near the door of the room. It countedthe strokes of the clock--and reminded one of the girls of thelapse of time.

"Emily! eleven o'clock."

There was no reply. After an interval the weary voice triedagain, in louder tones:

"Emily!"

A girl, whose bed was at the inner end of the room, sighed underthe heavy heat of the night--and said, in peremptory tones, "Isthat Cecilia?"

"Yes."

"What do you want?"

"I'm getting hungry, Emily. Is the new girl asleep?"

The new girl answered promptly and spitefully, "No, she isn't."

Having a private object of their own in view, the five wisevirgins of Miss Ladd's first class had waited an hour, in wakefulanticipation of the falling asleep of the stranger--and it hadended in this way! A ripple of laughter ran round the room. Thenew girl, mortified and offended, entered her protest in plainwords.

"You are treating me shamefully! You all distrust me, because Iam a stranger."

"Say we don't understand you," Emily answered, speaking for herschoolfellows; "and you will be nearer the truth."

"Who expected you to understand me, when I only came here to-day?I have told you already my name is Francine de Sor. If want toknow more, I'm nineteen years old, and I come from the WestIndies."

Emily still took the lead. "Why do you come _here?_" she asked."Who ever heard of a girl joining a new school just before theholidays? You are nineteen years old, are you? I'm a year youngerthan you--and I have finished my education. The next big girl inthe room is a year younger than me--and she has finished hereducation. What can you possibly have left to learn at your age?"

"Everything!" cried the stranger from the West Indies, with anoutburst of tears. "I'm a poor ignorant creature. Your educationought to have taught you to pity me instead of making fun of me.I hate you all. For shame, for shame!"

Some of the girls laughed. One of them--the hungry girl who hadcounted the strokes of the clock--took Francine's part.

"Never mind their laughing, Miss de Sor. You are quite right, youhave good reason to complain of us."

Miss de Sor dried her eyes. "Thank you--whoever you are," sheanswered briskly.

"My name is Cecilia Wyvil," the other proceeded. "It was not,perhaps, quite nice of you to say you hated us all. At the sametime we have forgotten our good breeding--and the least we can dois to beg your pardon."

This expression of generous sentiment appeared to have anirritating effect on the peremptory young person who took thelead in the room. Perhaps she disapproved of free trade ingenerous sentiment.

"I can tell you one thing, Cecilia," she said; "you shan't beatME in generosity. Strike a light, one of you, and lay the blameon me if Miss Ladd finds us out. I mean to shake hands with thenew girl--and how can I do it in the dark? Miss de Sor, my name'sBrown, and I'm queen of the bedroom. I--not Cecilia--offer ourapologies if we have offended you. Cecilia is my dearest friend,but I don't allow her to take the lead in the room. Oh, what alovely nightgown!"

The sudden flow of candle-light had revealed Francine, sitting upin her bed, and displaying such treasures of real lace over herbosom that the queen lost all sense of royal dignity inirrepressible admiration. "Seven and sixpence," Emily remarked,looking at her own night-gown and despising it. One afteranother, the girls yielded to the attraction of the wonderfullace. Slim and plump, fair and dark, they circled round the newpupil in their flowing white robes, and arrived by common consentat one and the same conclusion: "How rich her father must be!"

Favored by fortune in the matter of money, was this enviableperson possessed of beauty as well?

In the disposition of the beds, Miss de Sor was placed betweenCecilia on the right hand, and Emily on the left. If, by somefantastic turn of events, a man--say in the interests ofpropriety, a married doctor, with Miss Ladd to look afterhim--had been permitted to enter the room, and had been askedwhat he thought of the girls when he came out, he would not evenhave mentioned Francine. Blind to the beauties of the expensivenight-gown, he would have noticed her long upper lip, herobstinate chin, her sallow complexion, her eyes placed too closetogether--and would have turned his attention to her nearestneighbors. On one side his languid interest would have beeninstantly roused by Cecilia's glowing auburn hair, herexquisitely pure skin, and her tender blue eyes. On the other, hewould have discovered a bright little creature, who would havefascinated and perplexed him at one and the same time. If he hadbeen questioned about her by a stranger, he would have been at aloss to say positively whether she was dark or light: he wouldhave remembered how her eyes had held him, but he would not haveknown of what color they were. And yet, she would have remained avivid picture in his memory when other impressions, derived atthe same time, had vanished. "There was one little witch amongthem, who was worth all the rest put together; and I can't tellyou why. They called her Emily. If I wasn't a married man--"There he would have thought of his wife, and would have sighedand said no more.

While the girls were still admiring Francine, the clock struckthe half-hour past eleven.

Cecilia stole on tiptoe to the door--looked out, andlistened--closed the door again--and addressed the meeting withthe irresistible charm of her sweet voice and her persuasivesmile.

"Are none of you hungry yet?" she inquired. "The teachers aresafe in their rooms; we have set ourselves right with Francine.Why keep the supper waiting under Emily's bed?"

Such reasoning as this, with such personal attractions torecommend it, admitted of but one reply. The queen waved her handgraciously, and said, "Pull it out."

Is a lovely girl--whose face possesses the crowning charm ofexpression, whose slightest movement reveals the supple symmetryof her figure--less lovely because she is blessed with a goodappetite, and is not ashamed to acknowledge it? With a grace allher own, Cecilia dived under the bed, and produced a basket ofjam tarts, a basket of fruit and sweetmeats, a basket ofsparkling lemonade, and a superb cake--all paid for by generalsubscriptions, and smuggled into the room by kind connivance ofthe servants. On this occasion, the feast was especiallyplentiful and expensive, in commemoration not only of the arrivalof the Midsummer holidays, but of the coming freedom of MissLadd's two leading young ladies. With widely different destiniesbefore them, Emily and Cecilia had completed their school life,and were now to go out into the world.

The contrast in the characters of the two girls showed itself,even in such a trifle as the preparations for supper.

Gentle Cecilia, sitting on the floor surrounded by good things,left it to the ingenuity of others to decide whether the basketsshould be all emptied at once, or handed roundfrom bed to bed, one at a time. In the meanwhile, her lovelyblue eyes rested tenderly on the tarts.

Emily's commanding spirit seized on the reins of government, andemployed each of her schoolfellows in the occupation which shewas fittest to undertake. "Miss de Sor, let me look at your hand.Ah! I thought so. You have got the thickest wrist among us; youshall draw the corks. If you let the lemonade pop, not a drop ofit goes down your throat. Effie, Annis, Priscilla, you are threenotoriously lazy girls; it's doing you a true kindness to set youto work. Effie, clear the toilet-table for supper; away with thecombs, the brushes, and the looking-glass. Annis, tear the leavesout of your book of exercises, and set them out for plates. No!I'll unpack; nobody touches the baskets but me. Priscilla, youhave the prettiest ears in the room. You shall act as sentinel,my dear, and listen at the door. Cecilia, when you have donedevouring those tarts with your eyes, take that pair of scissors(Miss de Sor, allow me to apologize for the mean manner in whichthis school is carried on; the knives and forks are counted andlocked up every night)--I say take that pair of scissors,Cecilia, and carve the cake, and don't keep the largest bit foryourself. Are we all ready? Very well. Now take example by me.Talk as much as you like, so long as you don't talk too loud.There is one other thing before we begin. The men always proposetoasts on these occasions; let's be like the men. Can any of youmake a speech? Ah, it falls on me as usual. I propose the firsttoast. Down with all schools and teachers--especially the newteacher, who came this half year. Oh, mercy, how it stings!" Thefixed gas in the lemonade took the orator, at that moment, by thethroat, and effectually checked the flow of her eloquence. Itmade no difference to the girls. Excepting the ease of feeblestomachs, who cares for eloquence in the presence of asupper-table? There were no feeble stomachs in that bedroom. Withwhat inexhaustible energy Miss Ladd's young ladies ate and drank!How merrily they enjoyed the delightful privilege of talkingnonsense! And--alas! alas!--how vainly they tried, in after life,to renew the once unalloyed enjoyment of tarts and lemonade!

In the unintelligible scheme of creation, there appears to be nohuman happiness--not even the happiness of schoolgirls--which isever complete. Just as it was drawing to a close, the enjoymentof the feast was interrupted by an alarm from the sentinel at thedoor.

Put out the candle!" Priscilla whispered "Somebody on thestairs."