Miss Stearne was a woman fifty years of age, tall and lean, with a deeply lined face and a tendency to nervousness that was increasing with her years.  She was a very clever teacher and a very incompetent business woman, so that her small school, of excellent standing and repute, proved difficult to finance.  In character Miss Stearne was temperamental enough to have been a genius.  She was kindly natured, fond of young girls and cared for her pupils with motherly instincts seldom possessed by those in similar positions.  She was lax in many respects, severely strict in others.  Not always were her rules and regulations dictated by good judgment.  Therefore her girls usually found as much fault as other boarding school girls are prone to do, and with somewhat more reason.  On the other hand, no one could question the principal’s erudition or her skill in imparting her knowledge to others.

“Sit down, Mary Louise,” she said to the girl.  “This is an astonishing change in your life, is it not?  Colonel Weatherby came to me last evening and said he had been suddenly called away on important matters that would brook no delay, and that your mother was to accompany him on the journey.  He begged me to take you in as a regular boarder and of course I consented.  You have been one of my most tractable and conscientious pupils and I have been proud of your progress.  But the school is quite full, as you know; so at first I was uncertain that I could accommodate you here; but Miss Dandler, my assistant, has given up her room to you and I shall put a bed for her in my own sleeping chamber, so that difficulty is now happily arranged.  I suppose your family left Beverly this morning, by the early train?”

“They have gone,” replied Mary Louise, non-committally.

“You will be lonely for a time, of course, but presently you will feel quite at home in the school because you know all of my girls so well.  It is not like a strange girl coming into a new school.  And remember, Mary Louise, that you are to come to me for any advice and assistance you need, for I promised your grandfather that I would fill your mother’s place as far as I am able to do so.”

Mary Louise reflected, with a little shock of pain, that her mother had never been very near to her and that Miss Stearne might well perform such perfunctory duties as the girl had been accustomed to expect.  But no one could ever take the place of Gran’pa Jim.

“Thank you, Miss Stearne,” she said.  “I am sure I shall be quite contented here.  Is my room ready?”

“Yes; and your trunk has already been placed in it.  Let me know, my dear, if there is anything you need.”

Mary Louise went to her room and was promptly pounced upon by Dorothy Knerr and Sue Finley, who roomed just across the hall from her and were delighted to find she was to become a regular boarder.  They asked numerous questions as they helped her to unpack and settle her room, but accepted her conservative answers without comment.