"Well, you can go to bed, you know, directly you go home. I am sure we would not deprive you of the whole of your Sunday. It is as a favor Miss Baylis asks it; she does not, of course, demand it, but, for my part, I have great pleasure in obliging her, and have no doubt that all who are living in the house will feel the same." "I'm sure I don't though," said Ellen, unhesitatingly; "I don't like to give up my own day to please any one, and I never thought we should be asked." "Only two or three hours of it, my dear," said Miss Robson, soothingly: "in fact, I dare say we can have done all that is really wanted by seven o'clock if we try hard." "And what shall we be fit for after sitting up all night, I should like to know?" said Fanny Ashton, laughing satirically. "However, my mother would not allow it, so it's of no use to ask me, Miss Robson." "Well, I will say no more than this," and Miss Robson looked round with a meaning smile, "that I have always found Miss Baylis knows how to appreciate an obligation; and those of the young ladies who do nothing but lie in bed, or amuse themselves on a Sunday, might as well do something useful for once to please another person. Miss Baylis expressly said that she would not ask any one who she believes makes a conscientious use of her Sunday, as Mary Davis does, going to church and Sunday school regularly, and having a sick mother to attend to, and so on, but only those who do not think it necessary to be so very strict, and have nothing to do for others." Mary Davis, it should be observed, was not present when Miss Robson made her appeal, but was gone down to the shop for some articles required. "Then," said Jane, who had listened hitherto without making any remark, "does Miss Baylis think that we, who are doing a little wrong to please ourselves, might as well do more to please her?" "Doing wrong, Jane Saunders? What a strange speech!" exclaimed two or three at once. "We are doing right to claim our own day, and to keep it too; but it is certainly wrong to work on Sunday." "I am inclined to agree with Miss Robson and Miss Baylis," said Jane; "and if I only wanted to please myself to-morrow, I don't see any great difference in the wrong between my amusement and my work, and wouldn't mind on that account working till noon, or all day." "O, but we need not do that, Miss Saunders. You are very kind, and I'll tell Miss Baylis what you say," said Miss Robson complacently. "O no, pray do not, Miss Robson," exclaimed Jane, "for I cannot consent to work after midnight. I wish to make a better use of Sunday now than I used to do," she added, blushing; "and I hope never again to deserve, as I have done, to be asked to work on that day." "That's Mary Davis's doing," whispered the young woman who sat nearest to Miss Robson.