"You can call me any names you like, Maggie; I shall simply do what I consider my duty." "Oh, but----I hate you!" said Maggie again. "I am sorry you hate me, for it isn't necessary; and if I saw you in the least like others I should do all in my power to help you. Now, will you give me your promise that you won't interfere with Cicely and Merry?" "But does this mean--does this mean," said Maggie, who was almost choking with rage, "that I am to have nothing to do with the Cardews?" "You are on no account to draw the Cardews into the circle of your friends, who are, I am thankful to say, limited. If you do, you know the consequences, and I am not the sort of girl to go back when I have firmly made up my mind on a certain point." Maggie suddenly clutched hold of her companion's arm. "I am miserable enough already," she said, "and you make my life unendurable! You don't know what it is to have a mother like mine, and to be starvingly poor." "I am very sorry you are poor, Maggie, and I am very sorry for you with regard to your mother, although I do not think you ought to speak unkindly of her. But your father was a very good man, and you might live up to his memory. I saw you and Merry together to-day. Beware how you try to influence her." "Oh, I can't stand you!" said Maggie. "I have said my say. Shall we return to the others?" said Aneta in her calm voice. "If she would only get into a rage and we might have a hand-to-hand fight I should feel better," thought Maggie. But she was seriously alarmed, for she well remembered something which had happened at school, which Aneta had discovered, and which, if known, would force Mrs. Ward to dismiss her from the establishment. Such a course would spell ruin. Maggie had strong feelings, but she had also self-control; and by the time the two joined the others her face looked much as usual. On the following morning early a little girl ran swiftly from the Manor to the rectory. Maggie was to leave by the eleven o'clock train. Merry appeared on the scene soon after nine. "I want you, Maggie, all quite by yourself," said Merry, speaking with such excitement that Molly and Belle looked at her in unbounded amazement. "You can't keep her long," said Peterkins and Jackdaw, "for it is our very last day, and Spot-ear and Fanciful want to say good-bye to her. You can't have the darling more than three minutes at the most." "I am going to keep Maggie for ten minutes, and no longer.--Come along at once, Maggie," said Merry Cardew. They went out into the grounds, and Merry, putting her hand into her pocket, took out a little brown leather bag. She thrust it into her companion's hand. "What is it?" said Maggie.