"Oh, Celia!" Joy cried, reproachfully, "I thought she seemed so very nice, and I didn't think her ugly at all."
"Well, all I can say is that if Miss Mary was like her aunt in appearance, I should be sorry she was going to be our governess," Celia remarked, meditatively. "I do like people to be pretty and well-dressed," she admitted; adding, "I don't call Miss Mary pretty exactly, but she's nice-looking, and as mother says, anyone can see she's a lady."
"I heard Uncle Jasper tell mother he has a very high opinion of Miss Pring," Joy said, eagerly; "he said she was a good woman, as straight as a line, and as true as steel."
"I daresay," Celia replied, carelessly, "but she isn't any the better looking on that account."
"Perhaps she is rather plain," Joy admitted truthfully; "but," she summed up with some warmth, "I'd rather be good than pretty any day." To which sentiment Celia vouchsafed no answer, and when she spoke again, changed the conversation into an entirely different channel.
[CHAPTER V.]
TRYING TO PLEASE SIR JASPER.
"WELL, children, and how do you get on with your governess?"
The speaker was Sir Jasper Amery, who encountered Celia and Joy in the garden a few evenings after Miss Pring had commenced her duties at the Moat House. He leaned heavily upon his stick, and surveyed the countenances of his little great-nieces with his usual keen, though not unkindly glance.
"We like her so much, Uncle Jasper," Celia answered, promptly; "she's very strict in lesson hours, and makes us work hard; but she's always ready to help us, and explain everything we don't understand."