"Fanny, look down deep into your heart, and tell me if, in keeping something to yourself which you evidently know concerning your cousins, you are doing right or wrong." "I will answer your question to-morrow," replied Fanny. "Now, may I go back to the others; they are waiting for me?" "Yes, you may go, dear." "The Vivians come here on Monday?" said Fanny as she rose. "Yes, dear, on Monday. By the way, Miss Ludlow is arranging to give them the blue room, next to yours. You don't object, do you?" "No," said Fanny. The next minute the girl was out of sight. Miss Symes sat very still. What was the matter? What was Fanny Crawford trying to conceal? That evening Mrs. Haddo said to Miss Symes, "You have told Fanny that her cousins are coming?" "Yes." "And how did she take it?" "Fanny is very much upset about her father's absence," was Miss Symes's unexpected answer. Mrs. Haddo looked attentively at the English teacher. Their eyes met, but neither uttered a single word. The next day, after school, Fanny went up to Miss Symes. "I have been thinking over everything," she said, "and my conscience is not going to trouble me; for I know, or believe I know, a way by which I may help them all." "It is a grand thing to help those who are in sorrow, Fanny." "I will do my best," said the girl. That evening, to Miss Symes's great relief, she heard Fanny's merry laugh in the school. The girls who formed the Specialities, as they were called, had met for a cheerful conference. Mary and Julia Bertram were in the highest spirits; and Margaret Grant, with her beautiful complexion and stately ways, had never been more agreeable. Olive Repton, the pet and darling of nearly the whole of the upper school, was making the others scream with laughter. "There can be nothing very bad," thought Miss Symes to herself. "My dear friend will soon see that the charitable feeling which prompted her to receive those girls into the house was really but another sign of her true nobility of character." Meanwhile Fanny, who was told not to keep the coming of the Vivians in any way a secret, was being eagerly questioned with regard to them. "So you really saw them at their funny home, Craigie Muir?" exclaimed Olive. "Yes; I spent a week there," said Fanny. "And had a jolly good time, I guess?" cried Julia Bertram. "Not such a very good time," answered Fanny, "for Miss Vivian was ill, and we had to be very quiet." "Oh! don't let's bother about the time Fanny spent in that remote part of Scotland," said Olive. "Do tell us about the girls themselves, Fan. It's so unusual for any girls to come straight into the upper school, and also to put in an appearance in the middle of term. Are they very Scotch, to begin with?" "No, hardly at all," replied Fanny. "Miss Vivian only took the pretty little cottage in which they live a year ago." "I am glad they are not too Scotch," remarked Susie; "they will get into our ways all the sooner if they are thoroughly English."