She doesn't write very well, does she ?" She held out the sheet.
The handwriting, indeed, was remarkably illiterate, and Mrs.Colwood could only say that probably a girl of Miss Merton's circumstances had had few advantages.
"But then, you see, we'll _give_ her advantages!" cried Diana, throwing herself down at Mrs.Colwood's feet, and beginning to plan aloud.--"You know if she will only stay with us, we can easily have people down from London for lessons.

And she can have the green bedroom--over the dining-room--can't she ?--and the library to practise in.

It would be absurd that she should stay in London, at a horrid boarding-house, when there's Beechcote, wouldn't it ?" Mrs.Colwood agreed that Beechcote would probably be quite convenient for Miss Merton's plans.

If she felt a little pang at the thought that her pleasant _tete-a-tete_ with her new charge was to be so soon interrupted, and for an indefinite period, by a young lady with the handwriting of a scullery-maid, she kept it entirely hidden.
Diana talked herself into the most rose-colored plans for Fanny Merton's benefit--so voluminous, indeed, that Mrs.Colwood had to leave her in the middle of them that she might go up-stairs and mend a rent in her walking-dress.

Diana was left alone in the drawing-room, still smiling and dreaming.