And what was more, the poor girl, who had lived for years without a single advantage, would soon show a want of refinement, and give way to little habits of speech or roughness of voice, which, though they might amuse Sheila for a time would assuredly offend her good taste before long. Miss Gregson felt that for the sake of the poor pretty girl who lay upstairs in the blue room, she must at least raise her voice in remonstrance for once. "My dear," she said, "I am afraid you are making a fatal mistake. Is it unalterable?" "Mistake! Fatal!" exclaimed Sheila, turning her surprised eyes on her companion. "What can you mean? Surely if I like to adopt a girl I may do so. And by the bye she is not nearly as old as I am. I thought she was nineteen, I find she is only sixteen. I am so glad, as of course it will make it easier for me to train her. Why, don't you see, that it will be simply lovely to have a sister? I have longed for one." "But you cannot expect a girl who has been on the tramp all her life to be fit company for one who has been born and bred in the lap of luxury." "But that is just the thing which makes it so delightful. It would not be the faintest pleasure to me to adopt a girl who has had the same good things as myself. Everything will be a treat to Meg. You should just hear how she speaks even about the little blue room. It is to her a kind of heaven. Now, Angel dear, do like my plan. You really must sympathise with me, I am full of it." While this conversation was going on, Meg lay in the blue room thinking hard. At first when she found herself awakening, on the morning after her arrival, in a comfortable bed surrounded with every care and luxury, a feeling of great thankfulness overwhelmed her; and when she discovered that the one who had encompassed her about with such good things was a girl not much older than herself, she felt happy and at ease. But when, after confiding her history to Sheila, the latter broached the subject about which her mind was full, Meg drew back. Her love of freedom was too great to allow her to fall in at once with the wonderful suggestion that had been made to her. She was taken so by surprise that her lips were tied for some time. It meant turning her back on all for which she had been striving. She had looked forward too long to Bostock's wild beasts to wish to give them up in a moment, and she felt sure that Jem would never find her under such novel circumstances. Besides, already she began to thirst for the open air. Though it had seemed wonderful at first to be housed in such a comfortable room and to rest her weary limbs on such a soft bed, she was already beginning to pant for the open air and for freedom.