Then she sat as if expecting that I should speak, for she played with her eyeglass, and occasionally took a glance at me; but I would not have said a word, no, not even if they had pinched me. "But I think we can raise the standard of your acquirements, Miss Bozerne. What do you say, ladies?" "Oh, quite so," chorused the satellites, as if they had said it hundreds of times before; and I feel sure that they had. "And now," said Mrs Blunt, "we will close this rather unsatisfactory preliminary examination. Miss Bozerne, you may retire." I was nearly at the door--glad to have it over, and to be able to be once more with my thoughts--when the old creature called me back. "Not in that way, Miss Bozerne," she exclaimed, with a dignified, cold, contemptuous air, which made me want to slap her--"not in that way at the Cedars, Miss Bozerne. Perhaps, Miss Sloman, as the master of deportment is not here, you will show Miss Laura Bozerne the manner in which to leave a room.--Your education has been sadly neglected, my child." This last she said to me with rather an air of pity, just as if I was only nine or ten years old; and, as a matter of course, being rather proud of my attainments, I felt dreadfully annoyed. But my attention was now taken up by Miss Sloman, a dreadfully skinny old thing, in moustachios, who had risen from her seat, and began backing towards the door in an awkward way, like two clothes-props in a sheet, till she contrived to catch against a little gipsy work-table and overset it, when, cross as I felt, I could not refrain from laughing. "Leave the room, Miss Bozerne," exclaimed Mrs Blunt, haughtily. This to me! whose programme had been rushed at when I appeared at a dance, and not a vacant place left. Oh, dear! oh, dear! I feel the thrill of annoyance even now. Of course I made my way out of the room to where Clara was waiting for me; and then we had a walk out in the grounds, with our arms round each other, just as if we had been friends for years; though you will agree it was only natural I should cling to the first lovable thing which presented itself to me in my then forlorn condition. CHAPTER THREE. MEMORY THE THIRD--INFELICITY. AGAIN A CHILD. The next day was wet and miserable; and waiting about, and feeling strange and uncomfortable, as I did, made matters ever so much worse.