It was not Miss Hardy's way to make a grand scene about anything. She led Miss Burtis to her room in the third story, and quietly turned the key on the outside. Then she went back to where Rhoda was picking up the pieces of the broken pitcher. "How did it happen?" she asked. Rhoda told the story. "Did you see anything unusual when you were down stairs?" "No, ma'am; I went to the dining-room, and came straight back again." "Are you afraid to go over and call Mrs. Marshall? Don't make any noise about it." Rhoda called Mrs. Marshall, and then went back to Isa, who was wondering at her delay. "What kept you so long?" she asked. "I was getting frightened." "Well, you might be, if you heard the noise," answered Rhoda. "I thought I should rouse the house. I ran against something and dropped my pitcher all the way down stairs." "Didn't any one hear you?" "Only Miss Hardy. There! Lie down and go to sleep." The next day there was some telegraphing back and forth, and in the course of the next, Miss Burtis's guardian appeared and took her away. There was a rumor of some misbehaviour on her part, and nobody was sorry when she was gone; but Rhoda kept her own counsel, and the encounter on the stairs was known to nobody but herself and Miss Hardy. This was Rhoda's only serious trouble in school. She would have been altogether happy, only for her anxiety about Isa, whose health did not improve, as Rhoda in her ignorance had confidently expected it would do, when the pressure of lessons was taken off. Only for this care, Rhoda would have been happier than ever before in her life. "Yes, some folks has all the luck," grumbled Hester one day. Hester had come back to Cohansey, confidently expecting to take her former situation with Miss Hardy. She was utterly astonished when she found her place filled by a quiet, steady young girl, and was informed that Mrs. Hallowell had no occasion for her services. She could not perceive or would not own that she was in the least to blame for Miss Hardy's accident, and could not see any reason why Mrs. Hallowell should decline to take her on that account. "I suppose Rhoda is in the dining-room yet?" she said to Aunt Sarah, after Mrs. Hallowell had left the kitchen. "I thought she was coming down to Cape May with Mrs. Elsmore?" "She was, but she stayed home to nurse Miss Hardy." "It must have been stupid and dull," said Hester. "I should have died in a week. Where is Rhoda now?" "Oh, she's one of the scholars now, and rooms up in eighteen with Miss Hardy's niece," said Sarah, secretly delighted with the chance of "taking down" Hester. "The family has adopted her, and she's going to have a first-rate education." "Oh dear me!" said Hester, sarcastically. "She will be more stuck up than ever. Well, some folks has all the luck."