“Our lavatory,” remarked Mrs. Florence blandly.

Opening from the wash-room was a very long hall, lighted at each end by a window.  The doors on either side were numbered “one, two, three,” and so on.  Some of them were half open; as they went by, Katy and Clover caught glimpses of girls and trunks, and beds strewed with things.  At No. 6 Mrs. Florence paused.

“Here is the room which I propose to give you,” she said.

Katy and Clover looked eagerly about.  It was a small room, but the sun shone in cheerfully at the window.  There was a maple bedstead and table, a couple of chairs, and a row of hooks; that was all, except that in the wall was set a case of black-handled drawers, with cupboard-doors above them.

“These take the place of a bureau, and hold your clothes,” explained Mrs. Florence, pulling out one of the drawers.  “I hope, when once you are settled, you will find yourselves comfortable.  The rooms are small; but young people do not require so much space as older ones.  Though, indeed, your elder daughter, Dr. Carr, looks more advanced and grown-up that I was prepared to find her.  What did you say was her age?”

“She is past sixteen; but she has been so long confined to her room by the illness of which I wrote, that you may probably find her behind in some respects, which reminds me” (this was very adroit of papa!) “I am anxious that she should keep up the system to which she has been accustomed at home,—­among other things, sponge-baths of cold water every morning; and, as I see that the bedrooms are not furnished with wash-stands, I will ask your permission to provide one for the use of my little girls.  Perhaps you will kindly tell me where I would look for it?”

Mrs. Florence was not pleased, but she could not object; so she mentioned a shop.  Katy’s heart gave a bound of relief.  She thought No. 6, with a wash-stand, might be very comfortable.  Its bareness and simplicity had the charm of novelty.  Then there was something very interesting to her in the idea of a whole house full of girls.

They did not stay long, after seeing the room, but went off on a shopping excursion.  Shops were few and far between at Hillsover; but they found a neat little maple wash-stand and rocking-chair, and papa also bought a comfortable low chair, with a slatted back and a cushion.  This was for Katy.

“Never study till your back aches,” he told her:  “when you are tired, lie flat on the bed for half an hour, and tell Mrs. Florence that it was by my direction.”

“Or Mrs. Nipson,” said Katy, laughing rather ruefully.  She had taken no fancy to Mrs. Nipson, and did not enjoy the idea of a divided authority.

A hurried lunch at the hotel followed, and then it was time for Dr. Carr to go away.  They all walked to the school together, and said good-by upon the steps.  The girls would not cry, but they clung very tightly to papa, and put as much feeling into their last kisses as would have furnished forth half a dozen fits of tears.  Lilly might have thought them cold-hearted, but papa did not; he knew better.