"You are aware, Miss Perowne, that your papa has requested us to resign you to the care of his friend, Dr Bolter, and that in a short time you will cease to be our pupil; but still, while you stay at the Firlawns, we must exact a rigid obedience to our rules, and, as I have said, your liberty must be sadly curtailed while you are in our charge." "As you please," said the girl, indifferently. "You do not deny your fault, then?" "No," said the girl, without turning her eyes from the window. "Who was this gentleman--I should say, who is this gentleman?" "I really do not know," said the girl, turning from the window now with a careless look in her eyes, as if of wonder that she should be asked such a question. "Have you had any epistolary communication?" said Miss Twettenham, sternly. "Not the slightest," said the girl, coldly; and then she added, after a pause, "If I had I should not have told you!" "Miss Perowne!" exclaimed the eldest Miss Twettenham, indignantly. "Miss Twettenham," exclaimed the girl, drawing herself up, and with a flash from her dark eyes full of defiance, "you forget that I am no longer a child. It has suited my father's purpose to have me detained here among school-children until he found a suitable escort for my return to the East; but I am a woman. As to that absurd episode, it is beneath my notice." "Beneath your notice!" exclaimed Miss Twettenham, while her sisters looked astounded. The fair girl laid her hand upon her companion's arm, but Helen Perowne snatched hers away. "I say beneath my notice. A foolish young man thinks proper to stare at me and raises his hat probably at the whole school." "At you, Miss Helen Perowne--at you!" exclaimed Miss Twettenham. "Possibly," said the girl, carelessly, as the flash died out of her eyes, her lids drooped, and she let her gaze wander to the window. "I can scarcely tell you how grieved--how hurt we feel," continued Miss Twettenham, "to find that a young lady who has for so many years enjoyed the--the care, the instruction, the direction of our establishment, should have set so terrible an example to her fellow-pupils." The girl shrugged her shoulders again slightly, and her face assumed a more indifferent air. "The time that you have to stay here, Miss Perowne, is very short," continued the speaker; "but while you do stay it will be under rigid supervision. You may now retire to your room." The girl turned away, and was walking straight out of the room, but years of lessons in deportment asserted themselves, and from sheer habit she turned by the door to make a stately courtesy, frowning and biting her lip directly after as if from annoyance, and passing out with the grace and proud carriage of an Eastern queen.