‘You must be very neat here, you know, my dear,’ she said; to which Celestina meekly replied, ‘Oh yes,’ quite agreeing with Miss Neale.

In a moment or two the door burst open and in came Biddy.  A very pleasant-looking Biddy, with a spotlessly clean apron, tidy hair, and smiling face, and just behind her appeared her mother.

‘Good-morning, Miss Neale,’ said Mrs. Vane.  ’Here is Bridget, whom, you have not seen before.  Good-morning, Celestina.  I hope you will be two very happy and good little girls, and that Miss Neale will have no trouble with you.’

Then she went on to explain a little about the books Biddy used, saying that Rosalys would look out any that might possibly be missing, and after telling Miss Neale to keep up a good fire and one or two other small directions of the kind, she left the schoolroom.

Everything went on most smoothly.  Miss Neale could hardly believe that Bridget was the child she had been warned that she would find ’tiresome and trying and requiring great patience.’  For, for once Biddy really did her best.  She was interested in finding out how much Celestina knew ‘compared with me,’ and anxious that neither her little friend nor her new teacher should think her stupid or backward.  And though Celestina’s habits of steady attention had made her memory better and her knowledge more thorough than Biddy’s, still Miss Neale could hardly feel that either of her pupils was more satisfactory than the other; both were so obedient and attentive and intelligent.

So the morning passed delightfully.

‘And won’t it be nice?’ said Biddy, as she stood at the gate, whither she had accompanied Miss Neale and Celestina on their way home; ’the day after to-morrow Miss Neale will come back to take us a walk in the afternoon, and you may come too, mamma says, and stay to tea if your mamma will let you.’

How Celestina’s eyes sparkled!  To be invited to tea at the Rectory seemed to her far more enchanting than if she had received an invitation from the Queen of the Fairies to be present at one of her grandest festivals.  She was so delighted that she forgot to speak, and Miss Neale had to answer for her, and say that she would not forget to ask Mrs. Fairchild’s consent.

‘And some day, Celestina,’ Biddy went on, ’I want you to ask your mamma to ask me to tea, for I want to see your dolls.’

Celestina looked rather grave.

‘I’ll ask mother,’ she said, but there was a little hesitation in her manner.  This did not come from any false shame—­Celestina did not know what false shame was—­but from very serious doubts as to what her father and mother would think of it.  She had never had any friend to tea in her life; father was always tired in the evening, and she was far from sure that a chattering child like Biddy would not annoy him and make his head ache.  So poor Celestina was rather silent and grave on the way home; Biddy’s thoughtless proposal had taken the edge off her happiness.