"How can I help it?" I replied. "Is the room mine? Doesn't it belong to Mrs Grant--I mean to my step-mother? How can I question any of her wishes? You come to our house, and you snuggle into her good favour; you worm yourself in, and you have got yourself invited, and I suppose-- oh dear, I wish I wasn't so cross!" "If it were not such a very great thing I would take offence at your words, Rachel," said Augusta, "and not come with you; but being such a magnificent thing, and so all-important to me, I will not take offence, even though you do compare me to a snuggler (I don't quite know what the creature is), and even to a worm. I will come with you on the 24th to Hedgerow House, and when you look at my face you will perhaps realise that you are looking at perfect happiness--yes, Perfect Happiness; spell the words with capitals, for I have attained to that great height." "This is the Twopenny Tube," I said. "Perhaps you would like to go back to your mother and make arrangements?" "But where are you going?" "I'm going to meet the Swan girls; they said they would be round the corner waiting for me." Augusta looked at me rather longingly, but I would not reply to her look. "Good-bye," I said. "I'll try not to do anything to interfere with your bliss." I left her. When I looked back she was already standing as one in a dream. I doubted if she would catch the next train in the Twopenny Tube, but I concluded that in the course of hours she would return to her commonplace mother. PART TWO, CHAPTER TWO. A QUARTERLY ALLOWANCE. Rita Swan and Agnes had both been exceedingly interested with regard to my conduct at the time of my father's second marriage. My absence from school had caused their wonder. I was not blamed for that absence, and I often wondered why the form mistress and the head-mistress said nothing whatever to me on the subject. I went back to school on the Monday after my father's marriage, and the girls had tittered and laughed and made remarks. I had been quite silent and gone stoically through my lessons. Now this marriage was an old story, but still Rita and Agnes were never tired of expatiating on the great change for the better which had taken place in my circumstances. I told them that my step-mother had a great deal of common-sense (I had not the slightest idea of giving her away to strangers); I said that father had now been told what was necessary to the well bringing up of his children, and accordingly things were altered in our home. The girls were in great spirits on this occasion, and when I met them I suddenly resolved to enjoy myself. "What do you think has happened to me?" I said. "What can it be?" said Rita. "Oh, dear me! Rachel, you look very nice." In the old days they did not pet me much, and they often told me I looked very ugly, and I was not elated by the compliment.