Alice will be able to run over to both places and make enquiries, and ascertain where the best opening would be.' Miss Nunn's suggestion, hitherto but timidly discussed, had taken hold upon their minds as soon as Alice received the practical call to her native region.

Both were enthusiastic for the undertaking.

It afforded them a novel subject of conversation, and inspirited them by seeming to restore their self-respect.

After all, they might have a mission, a task in the world.

They pictured themselves the heads of a respectable and thriving establishment, with subordinate teachers, with pleasant social relations; they felt young again, and capable of indefinite activity.