"Quite sure, Miss Dale. Mamma was Miss Carew of Keppe-Carew." "Miss Carew of Keppe-Carew!" she exclaimed, with a little scream of surprise; for the Keppe-Carews were of note in the world. "Mrs. Hemson was a Keppe-Carew also," I continued. "She forfeited her position to marry Mr. Hemson; and she says she has not repented it." Miss Dale paused; said she remembered to have heard the noise it made when a Miss Carew, of Keppe-Carew, quitted her home for a tradesman's; but had never known that it related to Mrs. Hemson. "I was a stranger to Dashleigh until I came here as teacher," she observed, beckoning up the two young ladies, Miss Tayler and Miss Peacock. "When next you young ladies take a prejudice against a new pupil, it may be as well to make sure first of all of your grounds," she said to them, her tone sarcastic. "You have been sending this child to 'Coventry' on the score of her not being your equal in point of family; let me tell you there's not one of you in the whole school whose family is fit to tie the shoes of hers. She is the daughter of Colonel Hereford, and of Miss Carew of Keppe-Carew." They looked blank. Some of the other girls raised their heads to listen. Miss Peacock and one or two more—as I found afterwards—were but the daughters of merchants; others of professional men. "She is related to the Hemsons," spoke Miss Peacock, defiantly. "She has acknowledged that she is." "If she were related to a chimney-sweep, that does not take from her own proper position," returned Miss Dale, angrily. "Because a member of the Keppe-Carew family chose to forfeit her rank and sacrifice herself for Mr. Hemson, is Miss Hereford to be made answerable for it? Go away, you silly girls, and don't expose yourselves again." The explanation had its weight in the school, and the tide set in for me as strenuously as it had been against me. The avowal that I was to be a governess appeared to be ignored or disbelieved, and the elder girls begun a system of patronage. "How much money have you brought, little Anne Hereford?" I exhibited my purse and its three half-crowns, all the money Mrs. Hemson had allowed me to bring. "Seven and sixpence! That's not much. I suppose you would wish to act in accordance with the custom of the school?" I intimated that I of course should—if I knew what that was. "Well, the rule is for a new girl to give a feast to the rest. We have it in the bedroom after Dale has been for the candle. Ten shillings has been the sum usually spent—but I suppose your three half-crowns must be made sufficient; you are but a little one."