“Well, my dear, I’ve just one word of advice to give you.  Don’t let that child tyrannize over you.  She means well, but is wilful and thoughtless, and it is not your duty to be made a slave of.  Assert yourself and she will obey and respect you, and you will help her a great deal.  I know all about it; I was a companion in my youth, and had a hard time of it till I revolted and took my proper place.  Now let us go up and enjoy the fine air while we can.”

“Thank you, I will remember;” and Jane offered the good lady her arm, with a feeling of gratitude for such friendliness, all being new and strange to her, and many doubts of her own fitness for the position lying heavy at her heart.

But soon all was forgotten as she sat on deck watching the islands, lighthouses, ships, and shores glide by as she went swiftly out to sea that bright June day.  Here was the long-cherished desire of her life come to pass at last, and now the parting with mother and sisters was over, nothing but pleasure remained, and a very earnest purpose to improve this unexpected opportunity to the uttermost.  The cares of life had begun early for little Jane, she being the eldest of the three girls, and her mother a widow.  First came hard study, then a timid beginning as nursery governess; and as year by year the teaching of others taught her, she ventured on till here she was companion to a fine young lady “going abroad,” where every facility for acquiring languages, studying history, seeing the best pictures, and enjoying good society would all be hers.  No wonder the quiet face under the modest gray hat beamed, as it turned wistfully toward the unknown world before her, and that her thoughts were so far away, she was quite unconscious of the kind eyes watching her, as Mrs. Homer sat placidly knitting beside her.

“I shall like the Mouse, I’m quite sure.  Hope Lemuel will be as well satisfied.  Ethel is charming when she chooses, but will need looking after, that’s plain,” thought the lady as she glanced down the deck to where her husband stood talking with several gentlemen, while his charge was already making friends with the gay girls who were to be her fellow-passengers.

“Daisy Millers, I fear,” went on Mrs. Homer, who had a keen eye for character, and was as fond of studying the people about her as the Professor was of looking up dead statesmen, kings, and warriors.  The young ladies certainly bore some resemblance to the type of American girl which one never fails to meet in travelling.  They were dressed in the height of the fashion, pretty with the delicate evanescent beauty of too many of our girls, and all gifted with the loud voices, shrill laughter, and free-and-easy manners which so astonish decorous English matrons and maids.  Ethel was evidently impressed with their style, as they had a man and maid at their beck and call, and every sign of ostentatious wealth about them.  A stout papa, a thin mamma, evidently worn out with the cares of the past winter, three half-grown girls, and a lad of sixteen made up the party; and a very lively one it was, as the Professor soon found, for he presently bowed himself away, and left Ethel to her new friends, since she smilingly refused to leave them.