A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

about in connection with the
establishment. Pupil bundled out penniless and without friends."
    He was a clever business man, and he knew what he was saying. He
also knew that Miss Minchin was a business woman, and would be
shrewd enough to see the truth. She could not afford to do a
thing which would make people speak of her as cruel and hard-
hearted.
    "Better keep her and make use of her," he added. "She's a
clever child, I believe. You can get a good deal out of her as
she grows older."
    "I will get a good deal out of her before she grows older!"
exclaimed Miss Minchin.
    "I am sure you will, ma'am," said Mr. Barrow, with a little
sinister smile. "I am sure you will. Good morning!"
    He bowed himself out and closed the door, and it must be
confessed that Miss Minchin stood for a few moments and glared at
it. What he had said was quite true. She knew it. She had
absolutely no redress. Her show pupil had melted into
nothingness, leaving only a friendless, beggared little girl.
Such money as she herself had advanced was lost and could not be
regained.
    And as she stood there breathless under her sense of injury,
there fell upon her ears a burst of gay voices from her own
sacred room, which had actually been given up to the feast. She
could at least stop this.
    But as she started toward the door it was opened by Miss Amelia,
who, when she caught sight of the changed, angry face, fell back
a step in alarm.
    "What IS the matter, sister?" she ejaculated.
    Miss Minchin's voice was almost fierce when she answered:
    "Where is Sara Crewe?"
    Miss Amelia was bewildered.
    "Sara!" she stammered. "Why, she's with the children in your
room, of course."
    "Has she a black frock in her sumptuous wardrobe?"—in bitter
irony.
    "A black frock?" Miss Amelia stammered again. "A BLACK one?"
    "She has frocks of every other color. Has she a black one?"
    Miss Amelia began to turn pale.
    "No—ye-es!" she said. "But it is too short for her. She has
only the old black velvet, and she has outgrown it."
    "Go and tell her to take off that preposterous pink silk gauze,
and put the black one on, whether it is too short or not. She
has done with finery!"
    Then Miss Amelia began to wring her fat hands and cry.
    "Oh, sister!" she sniffed. "Oh, sister! What CAN have
happened?"
    Miss Minchin wasted no words.
    "Captain Crewe is dead," she said. "He has died without a
penny. That spoiled, pampered, fanciful child is left a pauper
on my hands."
    Miss Amelia sat down quite heavily in the nearest chair.
    "Hundreds of pounds have I spent on nonsense for her. And I
shall never see a penny of it. Put a stop to this ridiculous
party of hers. Go and make her change her frock at once."
    "I?" panted Miss Amelia. "M-must I go and tell her now?"
    "This moment!" was the fierce answer. "Don't sit staring like a
goose. Go!"
    Poor Miss Amelia was accustomed to being called a goose. She
knew, in fact, that she was rather a goose, and that it was left
to geese to do a great many disagreeable things. It was a
somewhat embarrassing thing to go into the midst of a room full
of delighted children, and tell the giver of the feast that she
had suddenly been transformed into a little beggar, and must go
upstairs and put on an old black frock which was too small for
her. But the thing must be done. This was evidently not the
time when questions might be asked.
    She rubbed her eyes with her handkerchief until they looked
quite red. After which she got up and went out of the room,
without venturing to say another word. When her older sister
looked and spoke as she had done just now, the wisest course to
pursue was to obey orders without any comment. Miss Minchin
walked across the room. She spoke to herself aloud without
knowing that she was doing it. During the last year the story of
the diamond mines had suggested all sorts of possibilities to
her. Even proprietors of seminaries might make fortunes in
stocks, with the aid of owners of mines. And now, instead of
looking forward to gains, she