CHAPTER I.
"But O, th' important budget! Who can say what are its tidings ?" COWPER.
"There is the bell for prayers, Florry; are you ready ?" said Mary Irving, hastily entering her cousin's room at the large boarding-school of Madame -- --.
"Yes; I rose earlier than usual this morning, have solved two problems, and translated nearly half a page of Telemaque." "I congratulate you on your increased industry and application, though you were always more studious than myself.

I wish, dear Florry, you could imbue me with some of your fondness for metaphysics and mathematics," Mary replied, with a low sigh.
A momentary flush passed over the face of her companion, and they descended the stairs in silence.

The room in which the pupils were accustomed to assemble for devotion was not so spacious as the class-room, yet sufficiently so to look gloomy enough in the gray light of a drizzling morn.

The floor was covered with a faded carpet, in which the indistinct vine seemed struggling to reach the wall, but failed by several feet on either side.

As if to conceal this deficiency, a wide seat was affixed the entire length of the room, so high "That the feet hung dangling down, Anxious in vain to find the distant floor." There were no curtains to the windows, and the rain pattered drearily down the panes.
The teacher who officiated as chaplain was seated before a large desk, on which lay an open Bible.