"Oh, that—as to that, I shall see! Other things might prevent. I may not go, anyhow. It just depends! Of course, I should like it, and I don't see why you should mind! Anybody would like such a treat, and anybody would be provoked when things don't fit in properly. But my wanting to go there doesn't mean that I don't want to have you here too." Euphrasia shook her head, almost imperceptibly. "Why, they can all tell you that I have talked for months of your visit. But of course I have other friends too. And Cecy Fearing is the very dearest girl! If you knew her, you wouldn't wonder at me." "I quite understand," Euphrasia answered, standing gravely near the dressing-table. By this time they were in the little bedroom. "Well, I hope you are not going to have any more fancies. You ought to know me better by this time. Do you think you can find your way downstairs? Shall I send the maid to help you unpack? No? You dear piece of independence! Tea will be up in a few minutes, and there's something I 'must' do first. But don't be long coming down." Letitia hurried off, plainly eager to be free; and Euphrasia gazed solemnly out of the window, seeing nothing. "Father would say that one has to learn what the world is like. And Mrs. Landor would call this being désillusionnée. I did think I had one real friend in Letitia, and now I find I have not! Perhaps it is a good thing to find out early, not to be long deceived. She seemed so different at school. But everything was different there. These Fearings—why, they are quite new people. Letitia didn't know them three months ago. And yet she would rather be with them than with me. But they are somebodies and I am a nobody." Euphrasia laughed faintly. One may be quite as proud of being a Nobody as of being a Somebody, but she did not know this. "Anyhow, I am not going to make a goose of myself, or to let them see that I care. My father being poorly is excuse enough for me to hurry home. I shall not write to-night, because I might say too much. But to-morrow morning I'll tell him plainly that Letitia is not the friend I thought her, and that I'm not really wanted here, and so I mean to go home on Monday or Tuesday. Only he must not think that I am letting out anything he said to me. I shall have to be careful." Meanwhile Letitia ran downstairs, and was greeted in the drawing-room by a— "Really, Letitia—!" "It's all right, mother. She's obliged to go home in a hurry because of her father! So now I can go to Bath." "You will do nothing of the kind," Mrs. Johnston said, for once seriously displeased. "I would not on any account have Miss Mackenzie hurried away in such a fashion, just for your convenience. Of course I should like you to be in Bath with Lady Fearing, but I will not have a guest treated with rudeness, and that would be positive rudeness." "She says she has to go home."