“Oh—oh!”
“Miss Salisbury, I just love you for that!” exclaimed the impulsive girl, and jumping out of her seat, she ran around the groups to the stone chair. “I do, Miss Salisbury, for I did so want to hear all about when you were a schoolgirl.”
“Well, go back to your place, Fanny, and you shall hear a little of my school life,” said Miss Salisbury gently.
“No—no; the whole of it,” begged Fanny earnestly, going slowly back.
“My dear child, I could not possibly tell you the whole,” said Miss Salisbury, smiling; “it must be one little picture of my school days.”
“Do sit down, Fanny,” cried one of the other girls impatiently; “you are hindering it all.”
So Fanny flew back to her place, and Miss Salisbury without any more interruptions, began:
“You see, girls, you must know to begin with, that our father—sister's and mine—was a clergyman in a small country parish; and as there were a great many mouths to feed, and young, growing minds to feed as well, besides ours, why there was a great deal of considering as to ways and means constantly going on at the parsonage. Well, as I was the eldest, of course the question came first, what to do with Amelia.”
“Were you Amelia?” asked Fanny.
“Yes. Well, after talking it over a great deal,—and I suspect many sleepless nights spent by my good father and mother,—it was at last decided that I should be sent to boarding school; for I forgot to tell you, I had finished at the academy.”