In the meantime Florence Whittaker and her aunt, having been set down by Wyn, waited in the housekeeper's room at Ravenshurst till Lady Carleton was ready to see them. Mrs Warren was by no means confident of Florence's success, and felt that she stretched a point in recommending her. But Maud Florence Nellie was not quite the same girl as she had been three weeks or a month before. Many new influences had been brought to bear on her some very ordinary, and others not quite so commonplace, and, like all young people, she was greatly influenced by her surroundings. If she had found herself on the Rapley road beside Carrie and Ada, she would probably have talked and acted exactly like her old self; but she had thoughts that did not belong to her old self at all. Her head had been filled with wider, other ideas than her own little follies, faults, and pleasures. The mystery of the lost jewels, the excitement of the strangers in the wood, the old grandmother, the Cunningham family--the trees, even the birds and beasts--were all apart from her own little selfish narrow interests, and were a great improvement on Carrie's new hat, Ada's new acquaintance, and her own newest scrape. Moreover, Mrs Warren's quiet refinement had a subduing influence; Wyn was a thoroughly well-behaved little boy. Nobody nagged at the keeper's lodge, and nobody quarrelled. To be saucy at Sunday school to gentle old Mrs Murray, who taught the girls with all the assured ease of long custom, was so out of keeping with the place that she never dreamed of it. Besides, she was usually occupied with the pleasure of sitting beside Miss Geraldine, who, when Mrs Murray was there, took her place in the class with the others. All these influences were doing Florence a great deal of good; and an odd sort of partisanship for the lost Harry was stirring up all sorts of new ideas in her mind. It did not begin very worthily: chiefly consisting of the notion that he was probably much nicer than George, and wondering whether he would have been down upon herself for her tricks; but the thought of him, and of "Miss Geraldine's brother," filled Ravenshurst with interest. Besides, "dressing up to frighten people," if they were so silly as to be frightened, was a proceeding with which Florrie had far too much sympathy. "Florrie, my dear," said Mrs Warren gently as they waited, "it's a good deal that I'm undertaking for you. You've all to learn, remember, and the nurse must tell you if you make mistakes; don't think to answer her back. Remember she's your better, and set over you. And when you're trusted with the little lady and gentleman you'll be a careful girl, and never let them hear a word from you that isn't fitting. Put it in your prayers, my dear, that you may do your duty by them. I'm not one to talk, Florrie, but there's nothing _but_ praying can help us through life."