THE GIRL’S OWNPAPER

A POINT OF CONSCIENCE.

“THE DAINTY PORTFOLIO.”

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Miss Colbourne was expecting a visitor totea. Not to the ordinary lodging-house mealwhich was prepared for herself every evening,but to a special four o’clock tea, every detailof which was arranged by her own hands.The little copper kettle was purring on theold-fashioned hob, the unsteady round tablewas covered with a dainty white cloth, andweighted with the silver salver and porcelaincups without handles that had belonged toher grandmother. Hot cakes were keepingwarm in front of the fire, and there was aspecial little jug of cream.

The room itself was of a very common type.Carpets and curtains were in clashing shadesof crimson, while a green table-cloth disagreedwith both. There was the usual profusion ofchina ornaments with various photographs ofthe landlady’s friends. Miss Colbourne hadinhabited the room for years past. Sheobjected to the ornaments, but respect for{402}her landlady’s feelings enabled her to keepsilence and to endure them. Nothing elsetroubled her. Her own possessions weredisposed inartistically enough; books encumberedthe sideboard, more lay in piles on thefloor. She had few pretty things, and hadnot the knack of so arranging her surroundingsas to make a nest for herself. Her roomreminded the onlooker of a temporary haltingplace—never of a home.

She had only just finished her preparations,and was in the act of rolling up an easy-chairclose to the fire, when a slight tap at the doorwas followed by the entrance of the expectedvisitor.

Jessie Blaher was a slim rosy-cheeked girlof sixteen, who had been one of MissColbourne’s favourite pupils from the timeshe was a

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