“And her sister may thank you that she does not receive her a spoiled, passionate, unmanageable monkey.  Your prudent treatment of the girl has had admirable results.  Her demeanour has pleased me very much of late.  Meekness and obedience have taken the place of her wilfulness and pride.”

Nell was perfectly wild with excitement and delight, clapped her hands over her head and danced about the room.

“I was always the one who liked Hetty the best,” she said triumphantly, “and now she will remember it.  She will ask me to France to stay with her.  And nobody can warn me any more not to give her too much encouragement.  I can be allowed to make a companion of Miss Helen Gaythorne.”

“What a very unpleasant way you always have of twisting things!” said Phyllis, who had been remarkably silent all along as to the change in Hetty’s circumstances.  “I am as glad as anyone of Hetty’s discovery; but I do not see why it should make any difference to us.”

“Phyllis takes a more disinterested view of the matter than you do, Nell,” said Mrs. Enderby smiling; “but then my Phyllis was always a wise little girl.”

Nell pouted, and Phyllis held her head high.  Mrs. Enderby thought she knew the hearts of both.  But the woman who could be so exceedingly prudent in the management of “nobody’s child” was blind to a great deal that required skilful treatment in the characters and dispositions of her own daughters.

Miss Davis was more affected than anyone in the house by the news of Hetty’s extraordinary good fortune.  Unconsciously to herself she had learned to love the girl, whom she had counted upon having by her side for many years to come, and it was not without a pang that she saw the young figure disappear suddenly out of her future.  Hetty alone knew nothing of the change that had befallen her.

“No, my dear,” said Mrs. Enderby to Nell, “I will not allow you to tell her.  Indeed, I am a little nervous about the matter, for Hetty is such a strangely impressionable girl one never knows what way she will take things.  I must break the truth to her myself.”

So Hetty was sent for to Mrs. Enderby’s dressing-room, and went with rather a heavy heart, thinking some complaint had been made of her.  She had never been so sent for except when trouble was impending.

“I must try to be patient,” she was thinking as she went up the stairs.  “I do not know what I can have done so very wrong, but I suppose there must be something.”

But her sadness was soon turned into amazement and joy.

“Hetty,” said Mrs. Enderby, “Miss Gaythorne wishes to have you with her in London, on a visit.  Mr. Enderby and I have consented to allow you to go; and I suppose you will not object to give her pleasure.”

“Miss Gaythorne!” exclaimed Hetty, scarcely believing she had heard rightly.

“She has taken a fancy to you, and wishes to have you with her.  She is a charming girl, and I am sure she will make you happy.”