To my unnamed little collaborator...

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Proverbs 4:7...

The four children were lying on the grass. “… and the Prince went further and further into the forest,” said the elder girl, “till he came to a beautiful glade⁠—a glade, you know, is a place in the fo...

Laura, sleeping flat on her stomach, was roused next morning by Pin who said: “Wake up, Wondrous Fair, mother wants to speak to you. She says you can get into bed in my place, before you dress.” Pin s...

As long as the coach rolled down the main street Laura sat bolt upright at the window. In fancy she heard people telling one another that this was little Miss Rambotham going to school. She was partic...

The elderly lady was Laura’s godmother; she lived at Prahran, and it was at her house that Laura would sometimes spend a monthly holiday. Godmother was good to them all in a brusque, sharp-tongued fas...

Fifty-five heads turned as if by clockwork, and fifty-five pairs of eyes were levelled at the small girl in the white apron who meekly followed Mrs. Gurley down the length of the dining-room. Laura cr...

My dear mother I sent you a postcard did you get it. I told you I got here all right and liked it very much. I could not write a long letter before I had no time and we are only allowed to write lette...

The mornings were beginning to grow dark and chilly: fires were laid overnight in the outer classrooms⁠—and the junior governess who was on early duty, having pealed the six-o’clock bell, flitted like...

Laura had been, for some six weeks or more, a listless and unsuccessful pupil, when one morning she received an invitation from Godmother to spend the coming monthly holiday⁠—from Saturday till Monday...

From this moment on⁠—the moment when Mary the maid’s pleasant smile saluted her⁠—Laura’s opinion of life at school suffered a change. She was glad to be back⁠—that was the first point: just as an adve...

The lesson went home; Laura began to model herself more and more on those around her; to grasp that the unpardonable sin is to vary from the common mould. In August, after the midwinter holidays, she ...

It was an odd thing, all the same, how easy it was to be friends with Lilith Gordon: though she did not belong to Laura’s set, though Laura did not even like her, and though she had had ample proof th...

You might regulate your outward habit to the last button of what you were expected to wear; you might conceal the tiny flaws and shuffle over the big improprieties in your home life, which were likely...

On her honourable promotion the following Christmas⁠—she mounted two forms this time⁠—Laura was a thin, middle-sized girl of thirteen, who still did not look her age. The curls had vanished. In their ...

“My cousin Bob’s awfully gone on you.” Laura gaped at Tilly, in crimson disbelief. “But I’ve never spoken to him!” “Doesn’t count. He’s seen you in church.” “Go on!⁠—you’re stuffing.” “Word of honour!...

For days Laura avoided even thinking of this unlucky visit. Privately, she informed herself that Tilly’s wealthy relations were a “rude, stupid lot”; and, stuffing her fingers in her ears, memorised p...

Since, however, it seemed that someone had to be loved if you were to be able to hold up your head with the rest, then it was easier, infinitely easier, to love the curate. With the curate, no persona...

A pantomime of knowing smiles and interrogatory grimaces greeted her, when, having brushed the cake-crumbs from her mouth, she joined her class. For the twinkling of an eye Laura hesitated, being unpr...

For a month or more, Laura fed like a honeybee on the sweets of success. And throve⁠—even to the blindest eye. What had hitherto been lacking was now hers: the admiration and applause of her circle. A...

Thus Laura went to Coventry. Not that the social banishment she now suffered was known by that name. To the majority of the girls Coventry was just a word in the geography book, a place where ribbons ...

Sea, sun and air did their healing work, as did also the long, idle days in the home garden; and Laura drank in health and vigour with every breath. She had need of it all when, the golden holidays ov...

But the true seal was set on her regeneration when she was invited to join the boarders’ Literary Society; of which Cupid and Mary were the leading spirits. This carried her back, at one stroke, into ...

And then, alas! just as she rode high on this wave of approbation, Laura suffered another of those drops in the esteem of her fellows, another of those mental upsets, which from time to time had throw...

“Laura, you’re a cipher!” “I’m nothing of the sort!” threw back Laura indignantly. “You’re one yourself. What does she mean, Evvy?” she asked getting out of earshot of the speaker. “Goodness knows. Do...

Mother did not know or understand anything about “tests”; and Laura had no idea of enlightening her. She held her peace, and throughout the holidays hugged her disgraceful secret to her, untold. She h...

The school year had ebbed; the ceremonies that attended its conclusion were over. A few days beforehand, the fifth-form boarders, under the tutelage of a couple of governesses, drove off early in the ...