CHAPTER VI.

ALL SIX!

MOLLIE looked round on her governess's room with approving eyes.

"You have found out where to put your things," she remarked. "Do you like your room?"

"Very much indeed, thank you."

"We have only had one governess before," said Mollie, "but the boys go to school now, all but Randall, and he's spoilt." She laughed lightly as she led the way down-stairs once more.

"Will you make acquaintance with the schoolroom first, Miss Ashlyn?"

"Anywhere you like, dear."

"Then here it is," she said, pausing on the landing of the first floor. "That is mother's room, that is mine and Daisy's; there is the spare room, and this is our own special study, where we 'grind,' and play, and practise."

The view from the window looking towards the front, though different from her room up-stairs, Gertrude considered very good "for London," for it was over the well-kept grounds of a gentleman's house, which was nearly hidden in the autumn-tinted trees.

But only a glance did she give at that, for at the table sat her pupils, who would henceforth be everything to her.

Daisy was a plain little girl with a dark, sober face, who looked up quietly and even calmly into her face, murmuring, "Good afternoon, Miss Ashlyn."

So different was the child from bright, energetic Mollie, that Gertrude almost felt abashed by her reception. She shook her little hand, however, and looked round at the other occupants of the room.

Ned, whose acquaintance she had already made, sat perched on the end of the sofa, swinging his legs backwards and forwards.

"I'm not one of 'em," he announced with a wink at the others, at which Randall winked back and gave a giggle.

"I know that," answered Gertrude pleasantly, "so now I must put names to these two. This is Randall, I am sure, by what I have heard; and this must be Hugh."

She bent towards the boy—rather taller than Randall, but not so robust—and looked into his face.

Did something in him remind her for an instant of that little nephew who had gone out of their life so mysteriously? For a moment she felt as if she were speaking to him. Then her eyes nearly filled with tears, and very tenderly she said, "I hope Hugh and I shall be friends."

The child, for he was about nine years old, looked up with great astonishment. While Randall burst out—"He's a cry-baby; you won't care for him."

"Shall I not?" answered Gertrude. "We shall see."

"Oh, fie!" said Daisy, colouring. "You should not tell tales out of school."

"We haven't begun yet," said Randall, nodding.

"Why, there's mother; she's coming in."

He ran to the window to make sure, and then bounded down the stairs.

"What are you playing at?" asked Gertrude, turning to Daisy and Hugh.

"A word game," said Daisy, rather curtly.

"Would you care to join?" asked Mollie. "But I do not think it is worth while, for mother is come in, and she will want to see you, she said."

"I will look on then," answered Gertrude.

She stood by the table watching the game till Randall came tearing back to say that Mrs. Shaddock was in the drawing-room, and would Miss Ashlyn go there to her.

She found Mrs. Shaddock a woman evidently accustomed to society, apparently with but little in common with the life which Gertrude had left—a life full of Sunday-school work, Church interests, and desires after pleasing God above everything else.

"I am sure you will satisfy me," Mrs. Shaddock concluded, after they had talked for half an hour; "so do not be discouraged if you find things difficult at first."

She rose as she said these words, and Gertrude found herself dismissed, with all the load of her six charges on her hands.

"I am out a great deal," Mrs. Shaddock had said, "and I require a governess who will act in my absence as if she were an elder daughter."

She went up-stairs pondering deeply. So she was expected to "manage" the whole six! What if they should prove too much for her?

Then she remembered a promise which she had often "tried and proved."

"'As thy days so shall thy strength be.'"

So she entered the study with a peaceful face.

"Here is Conway," said Mollie, looking up. "Now you have seen all of us! And, Miss Ashlyn, Conway said he had something to tell us, when you came up. Do you know we have a Strange House next door?"

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