"What are you thinking of, Mildred?" asked Lady Sarah, watching the changes in the girl's expression with curious eyes, and Mildred answered with her usual frankness. "I was thinking how strange it was that we should be such good friends, when we used to dislike each other so much! You were cross to me,--I was rude to you, and we were always disagreeing! I think I annoyed you the very first night I arrived. You seemed vexed because I was late." "I never disliked you, child. If I seemed to do so, it was because I have grown into the unfortunate habit of fault-finding. On the contrary there is something about you which has always attracted me. I don't know what it is--something in your voice, your laugh, your movements, which brings back memories of my youth. What a long, long way off it seems!--like another life,--and of all that large family of boys and girls there is not one left alive but myself! I am a lonely old woman, Mildred!" "But there is no need that you should be! There are so many people in the world who need a friend, and you are rich--you can do kind things every day in the year! I have often thought how nice it would be to be a dear old lady with curls, and a beautiful big house, and lots of money. It is one of my castles in the air. I would be a sort of fairy godmother to poor people; help struggling young geniuses, pretty girls who had to work for their living, and old women in dingy lodgings. If I had no people of my own, I would go outside to find them, for I couldn't live alone, with no one to love me, and nothing to think of but myself! I couldn't do it!" Mildred looked at Lady Sarah with wistful eyes, as if demanding sympathy for the very thought. She did not know that older people than herself had long been struggling for courage to impress these views of life upon her companion, and was guiltless of pointing a moral. Lady Sarah listened, however, and pondered on her words without being in the least offended. She was never offended at anything that Mildred said or did in these latter days; she seemed to have opened her heart to the girl with an unreserved affection which made Mrs Faucit very hopeful of the future. She said as much in the letter to Mrs Moore which accompanied Lady Sarah's invitation.