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152 wiser, and to a certain extent I'm glad to use whatever advantages I have in my power, if they can be honestly got."

"Why didn't you let us help you in the beginning? We should have been very glad to, I'm sure," put in Mrs. Shaw, who quite burned to be known as a joint patroness with Mrs. Davenport.

"I know you would, but you have all been so kind to me I didn't want to trouble you with my little plans till the first steps were taken. Besides, I didn't know as you would like to recommend me as a teacher, though you like me well enough as plain Polly."

"My dear, of course I would, and we want you to take Maud at once, and teach her your sweet songs. She has a fine voice, and is really suffering for a teacher."

A slight smile passed over Polly's face as she returned her thanks for the new pupil, for she remembered a time when Mrs. Shaw considered her "sweet songs" quite unfit for a fashionable young lady's repertoire.

"Where is your room?" asked Maud.

"My old friend Miss Mills has taken me in, and I am nicely settled. Mother didn't like the idea of my going to a strange boarding-house, so Miss Mills kindly made a place for me. You know she lets her rooms without board, but she is going to give me my dinners, and I'm to get my own breakfast and tea, quite independently. I like that way, and it's very little trouble, my habits are so simple; a bowl of bread and milk night and morning, with baked apples or