The Mark Of Cain

arming these features may become in a year or two, or even may be in the holidays) appear somehow of a frosty temperature in the long dull months of school-tim

rlhood-school-girlhood, that is. In fact, one thinks of a girls' school as too frequently a spot where no one takes any lively exercise (for walking in a funereal procession

wn to the fields, all level with snow, stood at a little distance from the main road, at the end of a handsome avenue of Scotch pines. But the fires at Miss Marlett's were not good on this February morning. They never were good at the Dovecot. Miss Marlett was one of those people who, fortunately for themselves, and unfortunately for persons dwelling under their roofs, never feel cold, or never know what they feel. Therefore

at deal to her shivering pupils, three of whom were just speeding their morning toilette, by

een pink and white, but was mottled with alien and unbecoming hues, "why won't that o

garet, holding up two very pretty dripping

of false

hands was

anied by an icy draught, from the door, which was opened just en

arlett," replied the maiden thus reb

of false

ether the best of it in this affair of outposts, and could no

re a little black, Janey. You forget that it's my week to be Stoker. Already, girls

isplayed a small deposit of coals, stored, f

ke a stoker," exclaimed the third girl, who by this time

, the girls were driven to make predatory attacks on fuel wherever it could be found. Sometimes, one is sorry to say, they robbed each other's fireplaces, and concealed the coal in their pockets. But this conduct-resembling what is fabled of the natives of the Scilly Islands, that they "eke out a precarious livelihood by taking in each other's washi

ranks of

ce forbear

t. Miss Shields had not studied Mr. Matthew Arnold, and was mercifully unaware t

d, when still young in philanthropy, had seen the clever, merry, brown-eyed child at some school treat, or inspection, or other function; had covenanted in some sort with her shiftless parent; had rescued the child from the streets, and sent her as a pupil to Miss Marlett's. Like Mr. Day, the accomplished author of "Sandford and Merton," and creator of the imm

oice of a partner he had no relations to please-no one but the ele

rlett's shuddering establishment, and by the frosty light of a single candle. This young lady was tall and firmly fashioned; a nut-brown maid, with a ruddy glow on her cheeks, with glossy hair rolled up in a big tight knot, and with à smile (which knew when it was well off) always faithful to her lips. These features, it is supe

old educational formation (Silurian, I believe), and to fumble with the greasy slate-pencil? With her Colenso in her lap, Margaret Shields grappled for some time with the mysteries of Tare and Tret. "Tare an' 'ouns, I call it," whispered Janey Harman, who had taken,

rts of beer, how much cider will thirteen Devonshire laborers consume in building

he was playing at "oughts and crosses" with Janey Harman when the arithmetic master came round. He sat down, not unwillingly, beside Miss Shields, er

follow with intelligent interest. But the rapidity of the processes quite dazed Margaret: a result not unusual when the teacher unde

ree quarts. You see, it's quite simple,"

most heart of the Binomial Theorem, or the nature of the duties of cover-point, or the latest hypothesis about the frieze of the P

dy in Miss Marlett's establishment was so hungry, or so glad when eig

support growing girls, who had risen at seven, till dinnertime at half-past one, is a problem which, perhaps, the inexperienced intellect of man can scarcely approach with confidence. But, if girls do not always learn as much at school as could be desired, intellectually speaking, it is certain that they have every chance of acquiring Spartan habits, and of becoming accustomed (if familiarity really breeds contempt) to despise hunger and cold.

tartines à l'Anglaise," sai

est la simplicité prime-sautière d

Livingstone" calls breakfast) that the young ladies were all compell

ran?aises, dans cet établissement peu recré

aret answered, "mais je le pré

e?" asked Miss Marlett, who had heard the word, an

," answered Margaret, caught unawares. She certai

rectly, perhaps not too severely. But perhaps it is not easy to say,

t, as the post-bag was brought in and deposited before Miss

nd mothers. Then she picked out the other letters, those directed to young ladies whom she thought she could trust, and handed them over in honorable silence. These

ve a few, at stated intervals, from Maitland. These Miss Shields used to carry about in her pocket without opening them till they

nt?" Margaret asked. We ar

us-lieutenant dans les Berkshires à Aldershot Pourquoi ne d

votre

oici, elle à deux dépêches télégraphiques," Janey added, observing two

al epistle of Lieutenant Wyville, which she fold

Miss Marlett severely; and Miss Herman, becoming a little blanched, d

ten to one by a lieutenant at Aldershot, whom one has known for

ondence, which, as Janey had noticed, included two

Any other woman would have done so, but it was Miss Marietta rule to dispose of the pupils' correspondence

ving the room for the tasks of the day

ress in English, and in a tone to which Margaret was so unaccustomed that s

whispered to her friend, who was hardenin

said poor Janey, apprehensively, and th

low white hills far away. Just under the window one of the little girls was standing, throwing crumbs, remains of the tartines, to robins and sparrows, which chattered and fought over the spoil. One or two blackbirds, with their yellow bills, fluttered shyly on the outside of the ring

boudoir door open, and Janey came ou

rgetting the dread interview before

t when I go home for good; and I'm to go hom

aret, petting the blond

!" cried Miss Marlett, in a

ou," the other girl whispered. And Margaret marched

middle of the boudoir. She ought to have been sitting grimly, fortified behind her bureau

rembled a little as the school-mistress drew

ked. Her lips were so dry t

ur mind to be very b

well what was coming. Often she had foreseen the end, which it

ay. You are to be called

omehow she was kneeling now, with her head buried in the eld

frolic." She had known herself to be a kind of outcast, and she determined to hold her own with the other girls who had homes and went to them in the holidays. Margaret had not gone home for a year. She had learned much, working harder than they knew; she ha

ou," she repeated. "I wi

ept stroking the girl's beautiful head. Surrep

y of you; I understood. Now you must go and get ready for your jou

even ask which of the girls was to be chosen for this se

d affections of her own. She had once, it is true, taken the word legibus (dative plural of lex, a law) for an adjective of the third declension, legibus, legiba, legibum; and Margaret had criticised this grammatical subtlety with an unsparing philological acumen, as if she had been Pr

while she was thus deadening her eyes again and again. She felt as if she never wished to raise her eyes from this chilling consolation. Then, when she thought she

m, Janey," she

eir bedrooms during school-hou

nto another scrape,"

ot leave for you. You'

ne nothing. You've not even had a perfectly harmless letter from a bo

d turned away, Janey following

hings as she would need for a short journey. She said nothing till she had finished, and then she sat down on a bed

aney, when, as Homer says, "they had ta

n't k

one else in a

myrna. Since then we have wandered all about; we were a long t

a guardian,

not thirty, and he's so stupid, and so stiff, and thinks so much about Oxford, and talks so like a book. And he's

sions, nor explain more lucidly why she had s

other friends who could tak

been an officer in father's ship, I think, or had known him long ago a

now any of your

e in black morocco with silver clasps. "This was a book my father gave me," she said. "It has a name on it-my grand

er it may have belo

aret replied, lookin

away long, dear," sai

and Janey, reminded of her private griefs, was about to break down, when t

ing to the window. "Two horses! and a gentleman