"Of course not," said Maggie lightly; "but, you see, I meant him to give his consent--I meant it all the time. I own that there were several favoring circumstances; but I want to tell you now, Merry, in the strictest confidence of course, that from the moment I arrived at the rectory I determined that you and Cicely were to come with Molly and Isabel to Aylmer House." "It was very kind of you, Maggie," said Merry; but she felt a certain sense of distress which she could not quite account for as she spoke. "Why do you look so melancholy?" said Maggie, turning and fixing her queer, narrow eyes on the pretty face of her young companion. "I am not really melancholy, only I would much rather you had told me openly at the time that you wished me to come to school." Maggie gave a faint sigh. "Had I done so, darling," she said, "you would never have come. You must leave your poor friend Maggie to manage things in her own way. But now I have something else to talk about." They had gone far down the glade, and were completely separated from their companions. "Sit down," said Maggie; "it's too hot to walk far even under the shade of the trees." They both sat down. Maggie tossed off her hat. "To-morrow," she said, "you will perhaps be having another picnic, or, at any rate, the best of good times with your friends." "I hope so," replied Merry. "But I shall be in hot, stifling London, in a little house, in poky lodgings; to-morrow, at this hour, I shall not be having what you call a good time." "But, Maggie, you will be with your mother." "Yes, poor darling mother! of course." "Don't you love her very much?" asked Merry. Maggie flashed round an excited glance at her companion. "Love her? Yes," she said, "I love her." "But you must love her tremendously," said Merry--"as much as I love my mother." "As a rule all girls love their mothers," said Maggie. "We are not talking about that now, are we?" "What do you want to say to me in particular, Maggie?" was Merry's response. "This. We shall meet at school on the 20th of September. There will be, as I have told you already, twenty boarders at Aylmer House. You will arrive at the school as strangers; so will Molly and Isabel arrive as strangers; but you will have two friends--Aneta Lysle and myself. You're very much taken, with your cousin Aneta, are you not?" "Taken with her?" said Merry. "That seems to me a curious expression. She is our cousin, and she is beautiful." "Merry, I must tell you something. At Aylmer House there are two individuals who lead the school." "Oh," said Merry, "I thought Mrs. Ward led the school."