She rose with an impatient movement, and taking her grammar, which she had brought home, she set herself determinedly to commit to memory the notes under the rules, and to frame examples to illustrate them; and she grew so interested in her work as to be surprised when the clock struck seven, the signal for breakfast. "Oh, Calista, why didn't you stay yesterday?" said Belle Adair, as Calista entered the school-room. "We had such a nice afternoon! Miss McPherson sat with us and told us stories about the time she went to school in Scotland and in Paris." "That must have been lovely," said Calista. "I wish I had staid." "Why didn't you?" "I thought of something I wished to do at home, but I didn't accomplish it, so I might as well have been here, and better, too. What work did you do?" "I worked at my lace veil, and Tessy began her curtains, and did quite a piece upon one; and Mary Burns has a rug of sewed-on work, and Elizabeth Howell a tucked skirt, and Clary Whitman a painted velvet stool, and I can't tell you all, only we had a lovely time!" "All but Antoinette!" remarked Emma. "Why, what was the matter with Antoinette?" "Well, several things. In the first place, you must know that Miss McPherson has been changing the rooms about. She has put Tessy in the little room that opens from Miss Jessy's." "Poor Tessy! She will have to learn to keep her things in order." "Well, Tessy says she doesn't care: she wants to learn to be neat. And Antoinette is in the other little room by herself, next to Miss Meeks. She doesn't like it one bit, because she can't borrow of Tessy now without being found out, and none of the other girls will lend to her. Even Elizabeth Howell said to her, when she wanted some hairpins, 'Thee is just as well able to buy hairpins as I am!'" "Well, so she is. Now Mary Burns is really poor, but you don't find her sponging!" said Emma. "Well, but that needn't have spoiled Antoinette's comfort yesterday afternoon. What was the matter then?" "Oh, Miss McPherson would not let her work the grand picture with the spangled shepherdess that she had set her heart on! She said that such things were going out of fashion, and that this would be so expensive no one would buy it, and she should do something less ambitious. Antoinette said pertly she did not care whether any one bought it or not, she should have the credit of it, and if the picture did not sell, she should have that too. You should have seen Miss McPherson look at her! And then Elizabeth Howell asked Miss McPherson if she did not think it would be better to have the things sent in just from the school, without any individual names at all." "That is just like Elizabeth—especially as she is doing the prettiest piece of all; I mean her muslin apron. Well, what did Miss McPherson say?" "She said we could take time and think the matter over, and then we could decide."