Tears rushed into her eyes, but she forced them back and pretended to be very busy with a book.

After the other girls had been gone some time Miss Davis said: "I am going to my own room for half an hour, Hetty, and I suppose you can amuse yourself with your book till I come back." When left alone Hetty flung away her book, went down on her face on the hearth-rug, and cried with all her might.

She thought of evenings when she had tripped about gaily in Mrs.Rushton's drawing-room and every one was glad to see her.

Now, it seemed, she must live all alone in a school-room.

She forgot that she had ever been unhappy with Mrs.
Rushton, ever been left alone, or snubbed or neglected in her house; for Hetty, like many other people, old and young, lost all her excellent power of reasoning when overmastered by passion.