Bridgie was different. She was invariably anxious to hear further anecdotes concerning relations and friends, and was such a docile pupil in domestic matters, that the old lady had the felicity of practically ruling two households instead of one. In the fervour of her resolve to turn over a new leaf, Bridgie had made no reservations, but had placed herself and her accounts in Miss Munns's hands, and from that moment there was no drawing back. The weekly orders were supervised and cut down, the accounts carefully checked and paid to the hour, the receipts were endorsed and filed, so that they could be produced at a moment's notice; extras were faithfully entered into the housekeeping ledger at the end of each day, and the whole account balanced to a laborious penny. When the penny was very difficult to find, Bridgie pleaded hard to be allowed to supply it from her private purse, and could never be quite brought to see that the result would not be the same, but it was a proud moment when Jack surveyed the ledger on Saturday evenings and wrote, "Examined, and found correct!" with a big flourish underneath the final addition. Then he would stroke his moustache and twinkle at her with amused eyes, as he said-- "Bravo, Bridgie, right to a fraction! I'll ask Miss Munns to take me in hand next--since she has scored such a triumph out of you. Evening classes two or three times a week, with Sylvia to sit by me and sharpen my pencils--that would be a happy way of combining instruction and amusement for the winter evenings, wouldn't it?" and--shades of Esmeralda!--Bridgie smiled, and ejaculated, "You naughty boy!" in a tone as far removed from fault-finding as it is possible to imagine. Sylvia Trevor, however, being a young woman of spirit, was by no means disposed to provide amusement for Master Jack or any other masculine flirt. If any man wished to win her, she was worth wooing seriously, so she told herself with a tilt of the pretty dark head, but when Jack said one thing with his lips, beseeching Miss Munns to take pity on his ignorance, and put him on the path whereon he should walk, and another with his eyes, mutely inviting her to stay and flirt with him the while he pretended to listen--then her pride was roused, and she determined to teach him a wholesome lesson. She waited until Miss Munns had produced half a dozen ledgers to demonstrate the elaborate system of book-keeping by which she conducted her miniature establishment--until Jack had seated himself by her side and was irrevocably victimised for the evening; then she rose from her chair and said amiably-- "I mustn't disturb you. You will like to be quiet, so I'll run across and chat to Bridgie for an hour, while you are away!"