"Do you mean to manage me here?" asked Robina. "I hope so," replied the headmistress. "Nobody else has been able to do it," said Robina in a very calm voice. Then she got up, allowing a lot of crumbs to fall upon the floor, and walked to the window. She stood--perhaps with intention--her broad back to her governess. Mrs Burton looked at the back, the well-squared shoulders, the sturdy little figure, the thick hair which fell in luxuriant masses far below the child's waist. Mrs Burton was not one either to sigh or despair; but she knew quite well that she had undertaken no mean task in introducing Robina Starling into her orderly school. After a minute's pause she got up, and, going to her little pupil, took her hand. "I want you to help me, Robina," she said. The wild eyes darted a quick glance into her face. "How?" asked Robina. "I am not much good at that sort of thing." "I won't tell you how to-night, my dear; but perhaps to-morrow we will have a talk. There is one rule in the school which has never been broken yet; and that is, that a new pupil--quite a new pupil--has tea with me all by herself on the day after her arrival. So you, Robina, will have the privilege of having tea alone with me to-morrow evening. You must come to me here at five o'clock--sharp at five o'clock, remember--and then you and I will have a little talk and I hope a nice time together. It is considered an honour, my love." "That depends on who is considering, doesn't it?" said Robina very calmly. "I am sure you will think it an honour," said Mrs Burton in as calm a voice. Then she took her pupil's hand, and led her into the school parlour. "You will find books here," she said, "and every single thing you want until the other girls come back. I expect them at eight o'clock, when you will all have supper, and then you will go to bed." Robina said nothing, and the headmistress went away. There were three special parlours in the school. They were called by the old-fashioned name of parlour, but they were in reality ordinary sitting-rooms. One was devoted to the sixth form girls, and this was a large and truly elegant apartment, furnished well, with a grand piano, and easels, and beautiful pictures on the walls. The sixth form girls had all sorts of comfortable chairs and everything to conduce to that feeling of being grown-up which is so much liked by girls of from sixteen to eighteen years of age. The little ones had also a parlour which was more like a play-room than anything else; and the third form parlour, in which Robina now found herself, was a large, square room with a round table in the middle, a book-shelf full of story-books, another book-shelf full of histories and works of travel, a pair of globes, and several bird-cages. A bird-cage hung down before each of the four windows, and in the cages were canaries, bullfinches, and other tame birds. There was also a parrot in a large cage in one corner of the room.