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POWER ELECTRONIC
SYSTEM DESIGN
Linking Differential
Equations, Linear Algebra,
and Implicit Functions

KENG C. WU
Switching Power, Inc. Ronkonkoma, NY, United States
POWER ELECTRONIC
SYSTEM DESIGN
Linking Differential
Equations, Linear Algebra,
and Implicit Functions
Elsevier
Radarweg 29, PO Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, United Kingdom 50
Hampshire Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States

Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
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Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.

This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright
by the Publisher (other than as may be noted herein).

Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and
experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices,
or medical treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in
evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described
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and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or
editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter
of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods,
products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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ISBN: 978-0-323-88542-3

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Publisher: Graham Nisbet

Acquisition Editor: Graham Nisbet
Editorial Project Manager: Grace Lander
Production Project Manager: Prasanna Kalyanaraman
Cover Designer: Brian Salisbury

Typeset by Aptara, New Delhi, India

Dedicated to
Grandson
Mitchell Patrick Wu Cayanni
Contents

About the Author xi

Preface xiii

1. Capacitor and inductor 1

1.1 Capacitor equation in differential form 1
1.2 Capacitor equation in integral form 2
1.3 Inductor equation in differential form 3
1.4 Inductor equation in integral form 4
1.5 Definition of inductance and Faraday’s law 4
1.6 Magnetic coupling and mutual inductance 5
1.7 Transformer equation 7
1.8 Nonideal capacitor, nonideal inductor, and equivalent circuit 10
1.9 Transformer equivalent circuits 11
1.10 Physical size of capacitor and inductor 13
1.11 Specifications for capacitor and inductor 15

2 First-order circuits 19
2.1 RC network with periodic drive source 19
2.2 Sawtooth (triangle ramp) generator 30
2.3 Full-wave rectifier with RC load 33
2.4 A brushless DC Motor with permanent magnets rotor 38
2.5 A BLDC motor speed detector 45
References 47

3 Current source 49
3.1 Semiconductor diode equation 49
3.2 Simple current source 50
3.3 Bob Widlar current source 54
3.4 Improved current source 58
3.5 Source impedance 60
3.6 555 timer 64
3.7 Precision current loop 70
3.8 Current-mode laser driver 74
3.9 LED array driver 76
3.10 JFET current source 77
3.11 MOSFET current source 78

vii
viii Contents

4 Second order 81
4.1 Form 81
4.2 Root 83
4.3 Time domain 85
4.4 Frequency domain 89
4.5 Parallel and serial resonance 92
4.6 Eigen value approach 103
4.7 RC filters and Sallen–Key filters 104
4.8 Power filters 111
4.9 Oscillator 113
4.10 Implicit function 120

5 Gain blocks 123

5.1 Class-A direct-coupled bipolar transistor amplifiers 123
5.2 Class-AB, B, C bipolar transistor amplifiers 129
5.3 Transformer-coupled transistor amplifiers 133
5.4 Class-D switch-mode power amplifiers 135
5.5 Pulse width modulator 139
5.6 Digital (clocked) window comparator 140
5.7 Linear operational amplifiers 142
5.8 Tuned amplifiers and implicit function 147
5.9 Composite nonlinear operational amplifiers 150
5.10 Unity-gain bandwidth of op-amp 153
5.11 Large signal gain of op-amp 156

6 Feedback approaches 167

6.1 Voltage feedback 167
6.2 Current feedback 170
6.3 PID feedback 175
6.4 State feedback 178
6.5 Feedback isolation 180

7 Control practices 189

7.1 Level control 189
7.2 Mode control 190
7.3 Zone control 192
7.4 Variable structures 193
7.5 Sensor 196
7.6 Open loop 198
 Contents ix

7.7 Close loop 200

7.8 Loop contention 203
7.9 Time control 204
7.10 Sequential time control 206

8 Linear regulator 213

8.1 Bipolar series voltage regulator 213
8.2 MOSFET series voltage regulator 223
8.3 Multiple implicit function approach 227
8.4 Design procedure for loop stability 228
8.5 Design procedure for error amplifiers 230
8.6 Current-mode laser driver design procedure 236
8.7 Shunt regulators 238

9 Switch-mode DC/DC converters 241

9.1 Power filter, inductor, and capacitor 243
9.2 Fundamental topologies 249
9.3 Operational dynamics of basic buck topology 254
9.4 Operational dynamics of basic boost topology 257
9.5 Operational dynamics of basic flyback converter 259
9.6 Cascaded converter—nonisolated 261
9.7 Isolated converter—forward converter 264
9.8 Isolated converter—half-bridge converter 269
9.9 Isolated converter—push–pull converter 272
9.10 Isolated converter—full-bridge converter 272
9.11 Isolated converter—quasi-resonant converter 273
9.12 Analog feedback 275
9.13 Close loop—analog 288
9.14 Close loop—digital 296

10 AC drives, rectification, and inductive loads 299

10.1 Reexamine RC-loaded rectifier 299
10.2 AC drive with unidirectional RL load 301
10.3 Half-wave AC drive with nonpulsating current feeding RL load 304
10.4 Full-wave AC drive with nonpulsating current feeding RL load 305
10.5 Phase-controlled AC drive with RL load 307
10.6 Phase-controlled AC drive with free-wheel diode and RL load 309
10.7 Phase-controlled full-wave AC drive with RL load 311
10.8 Three-phase circuits 313
x Contents

11 Rotation, three-phase synthesis, and space vector concepts 319

11.1 Magnetic field (flux) 319
11.2 Synthesis of three-phase sources and inverters 323
11.3 Vector concept 331

Appendix A Accelerated steady-state analysis for a parallel resonant

network fed by nonsinusoidal, half-wave rectified current 347

Appendix B Matrix exponential 349

Appendix C Example 4.7 MATLAB m-file 351

Appendix D Example 8.1 353

Appendix E A general mass-spring-dashpot second-order system;

first alternative 359

Appendix F A general mass-spring- dashpot second-order system;

second alternative 363

Appendix G A general mass-spring- dashpot second-order system;

third alternative 365

Appendix H Matrix exponential—Jordan form 367

Appendix I A step-by-step primer on digital power-supply design 369

Digital tides 369
Tumble to digital 369
Roadmap to digital 370
Navigate to digital filter 371
Work out a forward converter example 373
Implementation 377
Conclusion 380
References 381

Appendix J Motor winding driven by SCR phase-controlled

sine source 383
Index 385
About the Author

Keng C. Wu, a native of Chiayi( ), Dalin( ), Taiwan, received the B.S.

degree from Chiaotung University, Taiwan, in 1969 and the M.S. degree
from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois in 1973.
He was a lead member, technical staff, of Lockheed Martin, Moorestown,
NJ. He has published five books: Pulse Width Modulated DC-DC Converters
Chapman & Hall, January 1997; Transistor Circuits for Spacecraft Power System
Kluwer Academic Publishers, November 2002; Switch-mode Power Converters:
Design and Analysis Academic Press, Elsevier, November 2005; Power Recti-
fiers, Inverters, and Converter Lulu.com November 2008.; Power Converters with
Digital Filter Feedback Control, Elsevier, Academic Press, 2016. He holds a
dozen US patents, was awarded Author of the Year twice (2003 and 2006
at Lockheed Martin), and presented a 3-hour educational seminar at IEEE
APEC-2007 S17.

xi
Preface

Years ago, Prof. Emeritus Chi-Tsong Chen, the author of Linear System
Theory and Design, a very successful textbook (Oxford University Press), met
the author at his Flushing, New York residence. In the meeting, and in the
preface of Signals and Systems – A Fresh Look his last publication (PDF form
free to all globally), Prof. Chen lamented that “Feedbacks from graduates
that what they learned in university is not used in industry prompted me to
ponder what to teach in signals and systems.”
Sadly,and based on long professional career serving RCA/GE/Lockheed
Martin space sector, the author can definitively confirm the fact Prof.
Chen was sad about. The less-than-desirable state had existed, and is still
present,in the form that many degree-holding engineers including electrical,
electronic, mechanical, and other specialties are falling short in applying
mathematical tools they were taught in college. Given electrical schematic
drawings, they were unable to formulate and express systems’ dynamics in
state variables and state transition using the first-order differential equations
and linear algebra technique. As a result, they were unable to boost their
productivity using software such as MATLAB.
This book intends to bridge the gap—what is taught in college and how
it is being applied in industry. In essence, this writing shall be considered
didactic.
It begins with Chapter one giving capacitors and inductors, two indis-
pensable energy storage components, an in-depth examination from the
view point of the first-order derivative, its corresponding integral form,
and its physical implications. Chapter two covers RC- and RL-type net-
works governed by a single differential equation. Key steps moving system
differential equations to Laplace transform in a frequency domain and to
a state-space transition form are introduced. Along the way, unconven-
tional approaches deriving Fourier series, explaining orthogonal property,
or treating boundary value problems are also explored. Chapter three covers
current sourcing circuits including current mirror, the workhorse of analog
integrated circuits, and precision current generator loops critical to instru-
mentation. Chapter four extends Chapter two to networks of second order
governed by two first-order differential equations. Procedures transforming
multiple differential equations to Laplace form, to state-transition form, and
to state-transition solution are shown. Chapter five examines circuit blocks

xiii
xiv Preface

and modules performing amplification, voltage-to-time window, duty cycle

modulation, etc. Chapter six covers feedback practices including voltage,
current, isolation, summative current, subtractive current, and state feedback.
Chapter seven discusses configurations of control loops including single loop,
multiple loop, open loop, closed loop, nested loop, loop contention, etc.
Chapter eight deals with linear regulators including series voltage regulator
and current shunt in parallel. Chapter nine explores switch-mode power
processing. Chapter ten presents complexities arising from inductive load fed
by rectified AC sources of single phase, multiple phases, and phase control.
Employing the concept of electromagnetic vectors in space, Chapter eleven
focuses on the formation of magnetic flux vector placed intentionally along
selected orientation, time-varying flux intensity, and rotational flux vector
that makes motor spin.
Considering the writer’s goal is to bridge materials taught in college and
applications of the material in actual industrial settings, the topics outlined
above and organized in that particular order are suitable for college seniors
and novice professionals in the industry. Following the material, and when
facing a real-world design schematic, readers will be able to (1) assign state
variables (circuit node voltage, inductor branch current), (2) write down
multiple differential equations, (3) place equation set in a state-transition
form, (4) select the approach one is more comfortable and confident, for the
time being, (5) obtain system response solutions corresponding to various
drives in different time frames, (6) stitch together a steady-state response
solution in closed-form analytical expressions.
Given time and practice, and when facing system order exceeding three,
most readers will quickly realize that state-transition equation and solution
invoking matrix operation delineated in linear algebra are more effective,
even elegant, in handling high-order systems.
This writer had definitely experienced that awareness, and expects all
reader to do the same.
As indicated in the subtitle of this writing, along the presentation,
mathematical notes are inserted where appropriateness is not violated. Quite
a few may be considered unconventional. This is done in the spirit of never
taking authority dogmatically—a true open mind respecting the unlimited
possibilities of viewing nature from multiple angles and a belief that what
 Preface xv

was said true in the past may not be true in the future when new discoveries
see the daylight.
On the backdrop of the above conviction, this author took additional
efforts to make this writing also available in Chinese language;thanks to pub-
lisher Elsevier for granting such translation right. Thanks are also extended
to Mr. , at ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu Taiwan),
who had performed the translation, a very demanding task considering the
limitations of Chinese language in handling technical subjects.
With the advance of miniaturized electronic hardware and supercom-
puter equipped with mathematical co-processors, engineering design tasks
are now mostly carried out by the simulation and computation. The
implementation of both always requires design formulation in the form
of analytical expressions based on, in most cases, systems of differential
equations with coefficients depending on components/parts values.
In the course of almost four decades‘Ł‘™professional career in aerospace
industries, the author had definitely derived significant benefits from follow-
ing the path outlined above.
You, readers, can certainly do the same.
Keng C. Wu
Princeton, NJ.
Dec. 2020
CHAPTER 1

Capacitor and inductor

Two components, capacitors and inductors, play irreplaceable roles in elec-
trical power processing for their energy-storage properties.By presenting the
analytical equations governing both in either differential or integral forms,
this chapter illuminates the electromagnetic behaviors of those devices and
elucidates its physical significance when working with driving sources.

MATH. NOTE: In most calculus textbooks, derivatives and integrals are

introduced in the forms of f´(x) = dy/dx = df(x)/dx and ∫ydx = ∫f(x)dx,
given y = f(x) a two-dimensional plane curve and x is the independent vari-
able, with little physical meaning attached except the concept of “tangential
slope,” associated with the derivative, and “geometrical area,” associated with
the integral, employing the approach of limit. The independent variable x is
by no means restricted to signifying only space quantity.It certainly can stand
for time,and many other variables as well.The simple act of replacing dx with
dt, an infinitesimal time increment, introduces interesting, and important,
physical meaning to derivative f´(t) = dy/dt = df(t)/dt. As dt appears in the
numerator (inverse of time), derivative against time yields the dimension of
speed, velocity, and/or frequency; the temporal changes of a time-dependent
variable. ♣

1.1 Capacitor equation in differential form

Almost without exception, the action of capacitors is introduced in text-
books in a differential form; which links current through the device and
time rate of voltage change across it with a positive sign as shown.

MATH. NOTE: At a more fundamental level, the current is expressed as

the rate of charge carriers’ changes, i(t) = dQ(t)/dt, in which Q(t) = Cv(t) and
C, the capacitance and a constant within reason, is a function of geometry
and material property. ♣

i
dv(t ) +v
i(t ) C (1.1)
dt
Power electronic system design. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc.
DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-32-388542-3.00004-2 All rights reserved. 1
2 Power electronic system design

v
i
t

Fig. 1.1 Terminal current and voltage of a capacitor.

What does this form tell us about a capacitive element?

1. When dv/dt = 0, that is when the device voltage reaches an extreme,
a maximum or a minimum, the corresponding device current crosses zero
value. Stated differently, the device’s time-domain current waveform makes
a zero-crossing at the time its corresponding voltage waveform peaks, or
bottoms out. In other words, and in a graphical form, terminal voltage and
through current for a capacitor must hold a relation as shown in Fig. 1.1.
2. As the voltage variable in Eq. (1.1) appears as a derivative, the current
variable does not change its value if Eq. (1.1) is rewritten as
d[VDC + v(t )]
i(t ) = C (1.2)
dt
In this form, one important property of capacitor stands out. That is, the
device sustains a DC (direct current) voltage, VDC , which however does not
contribute to its current. The significance of this attribute is that a capacitor
blocks DC current. Or, DC current does not flow through a capacitor. Only
AC (alternating) current does.
3. Capacitor allows the application of a DC voltage within limit; the
breakdown voltage.

1.2 Capacitor equation in integral form

Eq. (1.1) can of course be rewritten as
 
1 1 t
v(t ) = i(t )dt = V0 (t0 ) + i(τ )dτ (1.3)
C C t0
MATH. NOTE: This is actually a rewording of the previous MATH
NOTE, that is, charge is equal to the time integral of current. ♣
In contrast to the derivative form, the integral form (Eq. 1.3), in particular
the right-hand side, conveys an extremely important effect of the capacitive
state variable: voltage.
4. In a very straightforward manner, it declares the continuous nature of
capacitor voltage.
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
“I don’t fancy somehow that Lady Mildred Osbert is one of
the best rich people. Is she, papa? You don’t speak as if you
liked her very much?”

“I don’t think one is justified in either liking or disliking

‘very much’ any person whom one scarcely knows,” Mr
Waldron replied. “I have told you that I believe she does
kind things. I believe she has done one lately. But if you ask
me if I think—she is an old woman now—she is the sort of
woman your mother would have been in the same
circumstances, well no—certainly I don’t.”

And Mr Waldron laughed, a happy genial little laugh this

time.

“That’s hardly fair upon Lady Mildred, papa,” said Jerry. “We
all know that there never could be any woman as good as
mamma.”

“My dear boy, what would mamma say if she heard you?”

“Oh, she’d quote some proverb about people thinking their

own geese swans, or something like that, of course,” said
Jerry unmoved. “That’s because she’s so truly modest. And
if she wasn’t truly modest she wouldn’t be so good, and
then—and then—she wouldn’t be herself. But I agree with
you, papa,” he went on in his funny, old-fashioned way, “it
is a good thing mamma isn’t rich. She’d worry—my
goodness, wouldn’t she just!—she’d worry herself and all of
us to death for fear she wasn’t doing enough for other
people.”

“That would certainly not be charity beginning at home, eh,

Jerry?” said his father, laughing outright this time.

“Papa,” said Charlotte, “what is the kind thing Lady Mildred

has done lately? Is it about—the girl?”
“What girl?—what do you know about it?” said Mr Waldron,
rather sharply.

But Charlotte was not easily disconcerted, especially when

very much in earnest.

“A girl she has adopted. They say she is going to leave this
girl all her money, so she—the girl—will be a great heiress.
And she is awfully pretty, and—and—just everything. I
heard all about it this morning at school,” and Charlotte
went on to give her father the details she had learnt
through the French governess’s gossip. “She is to drive
herself in every morning in her pony-carriage, except if it
rains, and then she is to be sent and fetched in the
brougham. Fancy her having a pony-carriage all of her
own!”

Mr Waldron listened without interrupting her. He understood

better than before his little daughter’s sudden curiosity
about Silverthorns and Lady Mildred, and her incipient
discontent. But all he said was:

“Ah, well, poor child! It is to be hoped she will be happy

there.”

“Papa, can you doubt it?” exclaimed Charlotte.

“Papa isn’t at all sure if Lady Mildred will be very good to

her, whether she makes her her heiress or not,” said Jerry
bluntly.

“I don’t say that, Jerry,” said his father. “I don’t know Lady
Mildred well enough to judge. I said, on the contrary, I had
known of her doing kind things, which is true.”

“Papa only said Lady Mildred wasn’t a woman like mamma,”

said Charlotte. “She might well not be that, and yet be very
good and kind. Of course we are more lucky than any
children in having mamma, but still if one has everything
else—”

“One could do without a good mother? Nay, my Gipsy, I

can’t—”

“Papa, papa, I don’t mean that—you know I don’t,”

exclaimed Charlotte, almost in tears.

“No, I know you don’t really. But even putting mamma out
of the question, I doubt if Lady Mildred—however, it is not
our place to pass judgment.”

Suddenly Charlotte gave a little scream.

“Jerry, don’t. How can you, Jerry?”

“What’s the matter?” asked Mr Waldron.

“He pinched me, papa, quite sharply, under my cloak,” said

Charlotte, a little ashamed of her excitement. “Jerry, how
can you be so babyish?”

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” said Jerry penitently. “It was

only—when papa said that—I thought—there’s another
thing.”

“Has the moonlight affected your brain, Jerry?” asked his

father.

“No, papa; Charlotte understands. I thought perhaps she’d

rather I didn’t say it right out. It makes three things, you
see—being stupid—and perhaps the haunted room and Lady
Mildred being horrid to her. You see, Charlotte?”
But Mr Waldron’s face—what they could see of it, that is to
say, for the clouds seemed to be reassembling in obedience
to some invisible summons, and a thick dark one, just at
that moment, was beginning to veil the moon’s fair disc—
expressed unmitigated bewilderment.

“He means what we were talking about this afternoon,

papa. Jerry, you are too silly to tell it in that muddled way,”
said Charlotte, laughing in spite of her irritation. “I said it
seemed as if that girl had everything, and Jerry thinks
nobody has. He said perhaps she’s not very clever, and it’s
true one kind of pretty people are generally rather dull; and
perhaps there’s a haunted room at Silverthorns, and she
may be frightened at night; and now he means that
perhaps Lady Mildred isn’t really very kind. But they’re all
perhapses.”

“One isn’t,” said Mr Waldron. “There is a haunted room at

Silverthorns—that, I have always known. If the poor girl is
nervous, let us hope she doesn’t sleep near it! As to her
being ‘dull’—no, I doubt it. She hasn’t the kind of large,
heavy, striking beauty which goes with dullness.”

“Papa, you have seen her,” exclaimed Charlotte in great

excitement. “And you didn’t tell us.”

“You didn’t give me time, truly and really, Charlotte.”

“And what is she like? Oh, papa, do tell me.”

“I only saw her for an instant. Her aunt sent her out of the
room. She did seem to me very pretty, slight, and not very
tall, with a face whose actual beauty was thrown into the
shade by its extremely winning and bright and varying
expression. All that, I saw, but that was all.”
“Is she fair or dark?” asked Charlotte. “You must have seen
that.”

“Fair, of course. You know my beauties are always fair. That

is why I am so disappointed in you, poor Gipsy,” said Mr
Waldron teasingly.

But Charlotte did not laugh as she would usually have done.

“Charlotte,” said Jerry reprovingly, “of course papa’s in fun.

Mamma is darker than you.”

“I don’t need you to tell me that papa’s in fun,” said

Charlotte snappishly. “Besides, mamma isn’t dark, except
her hair and eyes—her skin is lovelily white. There’s nothing
fair about me, except my stupid light-blue eyes.”

“My blue-eyed gipsy,” said her father, using a pet name that
had been hers as a baby.

“Dear papa,” said Charlotte; and the sharpness had all gone
out of her voice.

They were almost at home by now. There had not been

much temptation to look about them in returning, for the
clouds were getting the best of it, and the moon had taken
offence and was hiding her face.

“My little girl,” whispered her father, as he lifted her down,

“beware of the first peep through the green-coloured
spectacles.”

“Papa!” said Charlotte, half reproachfully.

But I think she understood.

“Jerry,” she said, as her brother and she stood waiting at
the door, their father having driven round to the stables,
“just compare this door, this house, with Silverthorns.”

“What’s the good?” said Jerry.

 Chapter Three.
A Family Party.

A hearty but somewhat unnecessarily noisy welcome

awaited them. Arthur, Ted, and Noble were all in the
drawing-room with their mother. She had insisted on the
muddy boots being discarded, but beyond this, as the boys
were tired, and it was late when they came in, she had not
held out; and Charlotte glanced at the rough coats and
lounging-about attitudes with a feeling of annoyance, which
it was well “the boys” did not see. “Mamma” herself was
always a pleasant object to look upon, even in her old black
grenadine; she, thought Charlotte, with a throb of pride,
could not seem out of place in the most beautiful of the
Silverthorns’ drawing-rooms. But the boys—how can they
be so rough and messy? thought the fastidious little sister.

“It is all with being poor—all,” she said to herself.

But she felt ashamed when Arthur drew forward the most
comfortable chair for her to the fire, and Ted offered to
carry her hat and jacket up-stairs for her.

“No, thank you,” she said. “I’ll run up-stairs, and be down
again in a minute. It’s messy to take one’s things off in the
drawing-room,” and so saying, she jumped up and ran
away.

“What a fuss Charlotte always makes about being messy, as

she calls it,” said Ted. “She’s a regular old maid.”

“Come, Ted, that’s not fair. It’s not only for herself
Charlotte’s tidy!” Arthur exclaimed.
“No, indeed,” said Noble, chiming in.

“You needn’t all set upon me like that,” said Ted. “I’m sure I
always thank her when she tidies my things. I can’t be tidy,
and that’s just all about it. When a fellow’s grinding at
lessons from Monday morning till Saturday night.”

This piteous statement was received with a shout of

laughter, Ted’s “lessons” being a proverb in the house, as it
was well known that they received but the tag end of the
attention naturally required for football, and cricket, and
swimming, and stamp-collecting, and carpentering, and all
his other multifarious occupations.

Mrs Waldron, scenting squabbles ahead, came to the

rescue.

“Tell us your adventures, Jerry. Is it a fine evening? Where

is your father?”

“He’ll be in in a moment,” Jerry replied. “He went round to

the stables; I think he had something to say to Sam. Yes,
mamma, we had a very nice drive. It was beautiful
moonlight out at Silverthorns, but coming back it clouded
over.”

“Silverthorns!” Noble repeated. “Have you been out there

too? Why, we’ve all been there—how funny! I thought
mamma said you had gone to Gretham. I say, isn’t
Silverthorns awfully pretty?”

As he said the words the door opened, and Charlotte and

her father came in together. They had met in the hall. Mr
Waldron answered Noble’s question, which had indeed been
addressed to no one in particular.
“It is a beautiful old place,” he said. “But ‘east or west,
home is best.’ I like to come in and see you all together with
your mother, boys. And what a capital fire you’ve made up!”
He went towards it as he spoke, Charlotte half mechanically
following him. “It is chilly out of doors. Gipsy, your hands
are quite cold.” He drew her close to the fire and laid one
arm on her shoulder. She understood the little caress, but
some undefined feeling of contradiction prevented her
responding to it.

“I’m not particularly cold, papa, thank you,” she said drily.

Mrs Waldron looked up quietly at the sound of Charlotte’s

voice. She knew instinctively that all was not in tune, but
she also knew it would not do to draw attention to this, and
she was on the point of hazarding some other remark when
Jerry broke in. Jerry somehow always seemed to know what
other people were feeling.

“Papa,” he said, “were you in earnest when you said there

was a haunted room at Silverthorns?”

Every one pricked up his or her ears at this question.

“I was in earnest so far that I know there is a room there

that is said to be haunted,” he replied.

“And how?” asked Charlotte. “If any one slept there would
they be found dead in the morning, or something dreadful
like that?”

“No, no, not so bad as that, though no one ever does sleep
there. It’s an old story in the family. I heard it when I was a
boy.”

“Don’t you think it’s very wrong to tell stories like that to
frighten children?” said Charlotte severely.
“And pray who’s begging for it at the present moment?”
said Mr Waldron, amused at her tone.

“Papa! we’re not children. It isn’t like as if it were Amy and

Marion,” she said, laughing a little. “Do tell us.”

“Really, my dear, there’s nothing to tell. It is believed that

some long ago Osbert, a selfish and cruel man by all
accounts, haunts the room in hopes of getting some one to
listen to his repentance, and to promise to make amends
for his ill-deeds. He treated the poor people about very
harshly; and not them only, he was very unkind to his
daughter, because he was angry with her for not being a
son, and left her absolutely penniless, so that the poor
thing, being delicate and no longer young, died in great
privation. And he left the property, which was not entailed,
to a very distant cousin, hardly to be counted as a cousin
except that he had the same name. The legend is that his
ghost will never be at peace till Silverthorns comes to be
the property of the descendant of some female Osbert.”

“Do you know I never heard that story before? It is

curious,” said Mrs Waldron thoughtfully.

“But it’s come all right now. Lady Mildred’s a woman,” said
Ted, in his usual hasty way.

“On the contrary, it’s very far wrong,” said his father. “Lady
Mildred is not an Osbert at all. Silverthorns was left her by
Mr Osbert to do what she likes with, some people say. If she
leaves it away, quite out of the Osbert line, it will be a hard
punishment for the poor ghost, supposing he knows
anything about it, as his regard for the family name went so
far as to make him treat his own child unjustly.”

“Is it certain that Lady Mildred has the power of doing what
she likes with it?” asked Mrs Waldron.
“I’m sure I can’t say. I suppose any one who cares to know
can see Mr Osbert’s will by paying a shilling,” said Mr
Waldron lightly. “Though, by the bye, I have a vague
remembrance of hearing that the will was worded rather
peculiarly, so that it did not tell as much as wills generally
do. It referred to some other directions, or something of
that kind. General Osbert and his family doubtless know all
they can. It is not an enormous fortune after all. Lady
Mildred has a small income of her own, and she spends a
great deal on the place. It will be much better worth having
after her reign than before it.”

“Any way she won’t leave it to me, so I don’t much care

what she does with it,” said Ted, rising from his seat, and
stretching his long lanky arms over his head.

“No, that she won’t,” said Mr Waldron, with rather

unnecessary emphasis.

“My dear Ted,” said his mother, “if you are so sleepy as all
that you had better go to bed. I’m not very rigorous, as you
know, but I don’t like people yawning and stretching
themselves in the drawing-room.”

“All right, mother. I will go to bed,” Ted replied. “Arthur and

Noble, you’d better come too.”

“Thank you for nothing,” said Noble, who as usual was

buried in a book. “I’m going to finish this chapter first. I’m
not like some people I know, who have candles and
matches at the side of their beds, in spite of all mother
says.”

Mrs Waldron turned to Ted uneasily.

“Is that true, Ted,” she said, “after all your promises?”
Ted looked rather foolish.

“Mother,” he said, “it’s only when I’m behind with my

lessons, and I think that I’ll wake early and give them a
look over in the morning. It isn’t like reading for my own
pleasure.”

Another laugh greeted this remark, Ted “reading for his own
pleasure” would have been something new.

“But indeed, mother, you needn’t worry about it,” said

Arthur consolingly. “I advise you to let Ted’s candle and
matches remain peaceably at the side of his bed if it pleases
him. There they will stay, none the worse, you may be sure.
It satisfies his conscience and does no harm, for there is not
the least fear of his ever waking early.”

Ted looked annoyed. It is not easy to take chaff pleasantly

in public, especially in the public of one’s own assembled
family.

“I don’t see why you need all set on me like that,” he

muttered. “I think Noble might have held his tongue.”

“So do I,” said Charlotte, half under her breath. Then she
too got up. “I’m going to bed. Good night, mamma,” and
she stooped to kiss her mother; and in a few minutes,
Noble having shut up his book resolutely at the end of the
chapter, all the brothers had left the room, and the husband
and wife were alone.

Mrs Waldron leant her pretty head on the arm of the sofa
for a minute or two without speaking. She was tired, as she
well might be, and somehow on Saturday night she felt as if
she might allow herself to own to it. Mr Waldron looked at
her with a rather melancholy expression on his own face.
“Yes,” he said aloud, though in reality speaking to himself,
“we pay pretty dear for our power of sympathising.”

“What did you say?” asked his wife, looking up.

“Nothing, dear. I was only thinking of some talk I had with

Charlotte—I was trying to show her the advantages of
poverty,” he said, smiling.

“Poverty!” repeated his wife; “but nothing like poverty

comes near her, or any of them,—at least it is not as bad as
that.”

“No, no. I should not have used the word. I should rather
have said, as I did to her, of not being rich.”

“Charlotte does not seem herself,” said Mrs Waldron. “I

wonder if anything is troubling her.”

“She is waking up, perhaps,” said the father, “and that is a

painful process sometimes. Though she is so clever, she is
wonderfully young for her age too. Life has been smooth for
her, even though we are so poor—not rich,” he corrected
with a smile.

“But is there anything special on her mind? What made you

talk in that way?”

“She will be telling you herself of some report—oh, I dare

say it is true enough—that Lady Mildred Osbert is arranging
to send this niece of hers, this girl whom, as I told you, she
is said to have adopted, to Miss Lloyd’s. And of course they
are all gossiping about it, chattering about the girl’s beauty
and magnificence, and all the rest of it. After all, Amy, I
sometimes wish we had not sent Charlotte to school at all;
there seems always to be silly chatter.”
“But what could we do? We could not possibly have afforded
a governess—for one girl alone; and I, even if I had the
time, I am not highly educated enough myself to carry on
so very clever a girl as Charlotte.”

“No; I sometimes wish she were less clever. She might have
been more easily satisfied.”

“But she is not dissatisfied,” said Mrs Waldron. “On the

contrary, she has seemed more than content, she is full of
interest and energy. I have been so glad she was clever; it
is so much easier for a girl with decidedly intellectual tastes
to be happy in a circumscribed life like ours.”

“Yes, in one sense. But Charlotte has other tastes too. She
would enjoy the beauty, the completeness of life possible
when people are richer, intensely. And at school she has
been made a sort of pet and show pupil of. It will be trying
to a girl of fifteen to see a new queen in her little world.”

“But—she need not interfere with Charlotte. It is not

probable that she will be as talented.”

“That was one of Jerry’s consolations,” said Mr Waldron with

a smile. “It was rather a pity I happened to take Charlotte
to Silverthorns to-night. It seems to have deepened the
impression.”

“She only waited outside. My dear, we cannot keep the

children in cotton-wool.”

“No, of course not. It is perhaps because going to

Silverthorns always irritates me myself, though I am
ashamed to own it, even to you. But to remember my
happy boyhood there—when I was treated like a child of the
house. It was false kindness of my grandmother and my
grand-uncle. But they meant it well, and I never let her
know I felt it to have been so.”

“Of course your uncle would have done something more

securely for you had he foreseen all your grandmother’s
losses. One must remember that.”

“Yes; but it isn’t only the money, Amy. It is Lady Mildred’s

determined avoidance of acknowledging us in any way. The
cool way she treats me entirely as the local lawyer. She has
no idea I feel it. I take good care of that. And then, to be
sure, she never saw me there long ago! Grandmother never
entered the doors after her brother’s death.”

“No, so you have told me. I suppose Lady Mildred, if she

ever gives a thought to us at all, just thinks we are some
distant poor relations of a bygone generation of Osberts,”
said Mrs Waldron. “And after all it is pretty much the state
of the case, except for your having been so associated with
the place as a child. I am always glad that the children have
never heard of the connection. It would only have been a
source of mortification to them.”

“Yes; and my long absence from the neighbourhood made it

easy to say nothing about it. You will know how to speak to
Charlotte when she tells you, as no doubt she will, about
this new class-fellow. I wish it had not happened, for even if
the girl is a very nice girl, I should not wish them to make
friends,” said Mr Waldron. “It would probably only lead to
complications more or less disagreeable. As Lady Mildred
has chosen absolutely to ignore us as relations, I would not
allow the children to receive anything at all, even the
commonest hospitality, from her.”

“I wonder if the girl is nice,” said Mrs Waldron. “She must

be spoilt. I should be afraid, if Lady Mildred makes such a
pet of her. Do you know her name?” Mr Waldron shook his
head.

“She is a niece of Lady Mildred’s, I believe—perhaps a

grand-niece. She may be a Miss Meredon—that was Lady
Mildred’s maiden name, but I really don’t know. I did not
catch her name when her aunt spoke to her.”

“Oh, you saw her then?” exclaimed Mrs Waldron with some
surprise. “What is she like?”

Mr Waldron smiled.

“Amy, you’re nearly as great a baby as Charlotte,” he said.

“She was quite excited when I said I had seen this
wonderful young person. What is she like? Well, I must own
that for once gossip has spoken the truth in saying that she
is very pretty. I only saw her for half a second, but she
struck me as both very pretty and very sweet-looking.”

“Not prettier than Charlotte?” asked Charlotte’s mother, half

laughing at herself as she put the question.

“Well, yes, I’m afraid poor Gipsy wouldn’t stand comparison

with this child. She is really remarkably lovely.”

“Ah, well,” said Mrs Waldron, “Charlotte is above being

jealous, or even envious of mere beauty. Still—altogether—
yes, I think I agree with you that I am sorry Lady Mildred is
going to send the girl to Miss Lloyd’s; for we cannot wish
that Charlotte and she should make friends under the
circumstances. It would only be putting our child in the way
of annoyances, and possibly mortification. And I should be
sorry to have to explain things to her or to the boys. I do so
long to keep them unworldly and—unsuspicious, unsoured—
poor though they may have to be,” and the mother sighed a
little.
“Yes,” agreed Mr Waldron earnestly. “I am afraid the worldly
spirit is just as insidious when one is poor as when one is
rich. And do what we will, Amy, we cannot shelter them
from all evil and trouble.”

“I shall be glad if this Miss Meredon, if that is her name, is

not in Charlotte’s class,” said Mrs Waldron after a little
pause. “I should think it unlikely that she is as far on as
Charlotte. Miss Lloyd was telling me the other day how
really delighted she and all the teachers are with her.”

“I hope they have not spoilt her,” said Mr Waldron. “She is

not the sort of girl to be easily spoilt in that way,” said
Charlotte’s mother. “She is too much in earnest—too
anxious to learn.”

“I wish Ted had some of her energy,” said the father. “He is
really such a dunce—and yet he is practical enough in some
ways. We’ll have to ship two or three of those lads off to the
backwoods I expect, Amy.”

“I sometimes wish we could all go together,” said Mrs

Waldron. “Life is so difficult now and then.”

“You are tired, dear. Things look so differently at different

times. For after all, what would not Lady Mildred, poor
woman, give for one of our boys—even poor Jerry!”

“Even Jerry!” said Mrs Waldron. “I don’t know one of them I

could less afford to part with than him. Arthur is a good
boy, a very good boy as an eldest; but Jerry has a sort of
instinctive understandingness about him that makes him
the greatest possible comfort. Yes, cold and selfish though
she may be, I can pity Lady Mildred when I think of her
loneliness.”
“And I don’t know that she is cold and selfish,” said Mr
Waldrop. “It is more that she has lived in a very narrow
world, and it has never occurred to her to look out beyond
it. Self-absorption is, after all, not exactly selfishness. But it
is getting late, Amy, and Sunday is not much of a day of
rest for you, I am sorry to say.”

“I don’t know about that,” she replied, smiling brightly

again. “Now that the boys are old enough not to require
looking after, and Charlotte is very good with the little ones
—no, I don’t think I have any reason to grumble. My hard-
working Sundays are becoming things of the past.
Sometimes I could almost find it in my heart to regret
them! It was very sweet, after all, when they were all tiny
mites, with no world outside our own little home, and
perfect faith in it and in us—and indeed in everything. I do
love very little children.”

“You will be more than half a child yourself, even when you
have grey hair and are a grandmother perhaps,” said her
husband, laughing.
 Chapter Four.
The New Pupil.

“Mamma,” said Charlotte to her mother one day towards the

end of the following week, “do you think—I mean would you
mind?” She hesitated and grew rather red, and looked down
at her dress.

“Would I mind what, dear? Don’t be afraid to say what it is,”

said her mother, smiling. Her eyes half unconsciously
followed Charlotte’s and rested on her frock. It was one
which had undoubtedly “seen better days,” and careful
though Charlotte was, nothing could hide the marks of
wear.

“Is it about your dress?” Mrs Waldron exclaimed suddenly.

“I was going to speak about it. I don’t think you can go on
wearing that old cashmere at school any more. You must
keep it for home—for the afternoons when you are working
in the school-room, and the mornings you don’t go to Miss
Lloyd’s; and you must begin your navy-blue serge for
regular wear.”

Charlotte’s face cleared.

“Oh, thank you, mamma,” she said. “I am so glad. But—

what about a best frock? You know, however careful one is,
one can’t look really neat with only one regular dress,” and
Charlotte’s face fell again.

“Of course not. Have I ever expected you to manage with

only one, so to say? I have sent for patterns already, and
Miss Burt is coming about making you a new one. And your
velveteen must be refreshed a little for the evenings. By
Christmas, if I can possibly afford it, I should like to get you
something new for the evenings. There may be concerts, or
possibly one or two children’s parties.”

“I don’t care to go if there are,” said Charlotte, “I’m getting

too old for them. In proper, regular society, mamma—not a
common little town like Wortherham—girls don’t go out
when they’re my age, between the two, as it were, do
they?”

Mrs Waldron smiled a very little. Charlotte was changing

certainly.

“We cannot make hard and fast rules, placed as we are,”

she said. “If you don’t care to go to any more children’s
parties you need not. But of course Wortherham is your—
our—home. I might wish it were in a different place for
many reasons, but wishing in such cases is no use, and
indeed often does harm. And on the whole it is better to
have some friendly intercourse with the people one lives
among, even though they may not be very congenial, than
to shut oneself out from all sympathies and interests except
home ones.” Charlotte did not at once answer, and indeed
when she did speak again it was scarcely in reply to her
mother.

“I like some of the girls very well. I don’t much care to be

intimate with any of them, except perhaps Gueda Knox, and
she scarcely counts, she’s so little here now; but they’re
nice enough mostly. Only they do gossip a good deal, and
make remarks about things that don’t concern them.
Mamma,” she went on abruptly, “might I begin wearing my
navy-blue to-morrow? I will take great care of it, so that it
shall look quite nice on Sundays till I get my new one.”
“To-morrow?” repeated Mrs Waldron, a little surprised. “To-
morrow is Friday. Isn’t Monday a better day to begin it?”

Again Charlotte reddened a little.

“Mamma,” she said, “it’s just that I don’t want to begin it on

Monday. That girl is coming on Monday for the first time—
Lady Mildred’s niece, you know. And you don’t know how I
should hate them saying I had got a new dress because of
her coming.”

“Would they really be so ill-bred?” exclaimed Mrs Waldron,

almost startled.

“Oh, yes. They don’t mean it, they don’t know better.
Mamma, I don’t think you can know quite as well as I do
how common some of the people here are,” and Charlotte’s
face took an expression almost of disgust. “When you see
the ladies you call on, they are on their good behaviour, I
suppose, and if they did begin to gossip you would
somehow manage to discourage it. Oh, mamma, you should
be glad you weren’t brought up here.”

Mrs Waldron was half distressed and half amused.

“But we must make the best of it,” she said. “We can’t leave
Wortherham, Charlotte.”

“Couldn’t we go and live quite in the country, however quiet

and dull it was? I wouldn’t mind.”

“No; for several years at least it would be impossible. There

may be opportunities for starting the boys in life here that
we must not neglect. And living quite in the country would
entail more fatigue for your father.” Charlotte sighed.
“My dear child,” said her mother, “I don’t quite understand
you. You have never seemed discontented with your home
before. You must not get to take such a gloomy view of
things.”

“I don’t mean to be discontented, mamma,” said Charlotte.

“Well, dear, try and get over it. You will have to meet many
people in life apparently more favoured and fortunate than
you. Perhaps things have in some ways been too smooth for
you, Charlotte.”

“Mamma, I am not so selfish as you think. It is not only for

myself I’d like some things to be different. Besides, I am old
enough now to know that you and papa have a great deal of
anxiety. Do you think I only care for myself, mamma?”

“No, dear, I don’t. But don’t you think the best way to help
us would be by letting us see that you are happy, and
appreciating the advantages we can give you?”

“Yes, mamma,” said Charlotte, submissively enough. But

her mother’s eyes followed her somewhat anxiously as she
left the room.

The amount of gossip at Miss Lloyd’s school about the

expected new pupil was certainly absurd. The young lady’s
riches and beauty and connections were discussed and
exaggerated as only school-girls can discuss and exaggerate
such matters, and the one girl who said nothing, and
scarcely seemed to listen to all the chatter, was yet perhaps
the most impressed by it.

Charlotte took care to be early in her place that Monday

morning. There was half-an-hour’s “preparation”—spent by
the conscientious pupils in refreshing their memories by
running over the lessons already thoroughly learnt, by the
lazy ones in endeavouring to compress into the short space
of time the work which should have taken several hours,
and by the incorrigibly careless and indifferent in whispered
banter or gossip—before the regular work of the day began.
And Charlotte, who it need hardly be said belonged to the
first category, was looking over a German translation in
which she was soon so interested as really to have
forgotten the impending arrival, when the class-room door
opened, and Miss Lloyd appeared, conducting the new pupil.

“Good morning, young ladies,” she said quietly as usual,

glancing round at the two rows of girls who stood up as she
came in.

“I wish to introduce you all and Miss Meredon to each other.

Miss Meredon is to be a fellow-worker with you for some
time.”

This was Miss Lloyd’s customary formula of presentation,

and she made it with simplicity and dignity, in no way
departing from her usual words or manner. Some of the
girls raised their eyebrows with surprise that the advent of
this much-talked-of young lady should have called forth no
greater demonstration; some, and Mr Waldron’s daughter
among them, felt their respect for the quiet, somewhat prim
little lady sensibly rise as they listened to her.
“She’s not a snob, any way,” thought Charlotte, and then
she half reluctantly allowed her eyes to turn to the girl
standing beside the lady-principal. “Papa” had said she was
lovely, so had Dr Lewis, but papa’s opinion carried of course
far more weight. But, even without it, even without any
prepossession or expectation on the subject, Charlotte felt
that her very first glance decided it. The girl was lovely—far,
far more than “pretty,” like little Isabel Lewis, with her
merry eyes and turned-up nose, or “interesting,” like pale-
faced Gueda Knox. She was really lovely. Not very fair, but
with a brightness rather than brilliance about her which
came from one scarcely knew where—it seemed a part of
herself, of her sunny hair, of her slightly flushed cheeks, of
her smiling and yet appealing eyes, of her whole self. Her
very attitude suggested full, springing, and yet gentle,
youthful life as she stood there, one foot slightly advanced,
her hand half upraised, as if ready and desirous to be
friends and friendly with every one; and a slight, very slight
shade of disappointment seemed to pass over her face
when she saw that nothing followed the little formal speech,
that no one among the several girls came forward to greet
or welcome her. And as Miss Lloyd turned towards her the
hand dropped quietly, and the speaking eyes looked gravely
and inquiringly at her conductress.

“What am I to do now?” they seemed to say. “I was ready

to shake hands with them all; I do hope I shall understand
what to do.”

Miss Lloyd spoke as if in reply to her unexpressed question.

“You can sit here in the mean time, Miss Meredon,” she
said, pointing to a side-table. “I shall give you a regular
place when it is decided what classes you shall join. In a
few minutes the first—that means the head German class—
will begin. You can take part in it, so that Herr Märklestatter
can judge if you are sufficiently advanced to join in it.”

Then Miss Lloyd’s keen eyes ran along the rows of girls still
standing; as they rested for a moment on Charlotte
Waldron’s grave, almost solemn face she hesitated, but only
for that moment, and then looked past her again.

“Sit down, young ladies,” she said. “But you, Miss Lathom,”
she went on, addressing a thin, delicate-looking girl with a
gentle expression—poor thing, she was training for a
governess, for which, alas! her fragile health ill-suited her,
—“bring your German books here, and give Miss Meredon
some little idea of what you are doing.”

“Thank you, that will be very kind,” said the new pupil
brightly, as if delighted to have an opportunity of expressing
some part of her eager good-will; and as Miss Lathom,
blushing with the distinction, came shyly from her place,
Miss Meredon hastened forward a step or two to meet her,
and took some of the pile of books out of her hands. Then
the two sat down at the side-table, and the other girls
having resumed their places, the class-room subsided into
its usual quiet.

Charlotte’s mind was in a curious state of confusion. She

was in a sense disappointed, yet at the same time relieved
that she had not been picked out to act mentor to the new
pupil. She knew that Miss Lloyd’s not having chosen her in
no way reflected upon her position in the German class,
where she had long ago distanced her companions.

“If it had been French,” she thought to herself, “I might

have been a little vexed, for Miss Lathom does speak French
better than I do, with having been so much in France; but
in German—she is further back than Gueda even. I suppose
Miss Lloyd chose Fanny Lathom because she knows she is
going to be a governess.”

She was about right; but had she overheard a conversation

the day before between Lady Mildred and the lady-principal,
she would have felt less philosophical as to the choice not
having fallen on herself.

“I have a very nice set of pupils,” Miss Lloyd had said, “none
whom Miss Meredon can in the least dislike associating
with. Indeed, two or three of them belong to some of our
leading families—Miss Knox, the vicar’s daughter, and the
two little Fades, whose father is Colonel of the regiment
stationed here, and Miss Waldron—she is a most charming
girl, and, I may say, my most promising pupil, and nearly of
Miss Meredon’s age.”

“Waldron,” Lady Mildred had repeated. “Oh, yes, to be sure,

the lawyer’s daughter; I remember the name. Oh, indeed,
very respectable families no doubt. But I wish you to
understand, Miss Lloyd, that it is not for companionship but
for lessons that I send you my niece. I wish her to make no
intimacies. She knows my wishes and she will adhere to
them, but it is as well you should understand them too.”

“So far as it is in my power, I shall of course be guided by

them,” Miss Lloyd had replied somewhat stiffly. “All my
pupils come here to learn, not to amuse themselves. But I
can only act by Miss Meredon precisely as I do by the
others. It would be completely contrary to the spirit of the—
the establishment,”—Miss Lloyd’s one weakness was that
she could not bring herself to speak of her “school,”—“of my
classes, were I to keep any one girl apart from the others,
‘hedging her round’ with some impalpable dignities, as it
were,” she went on with a little smile, intended to smooth
down her protest.

Lady Mildred was not foolish enough to resent it, but she
kept her ground.
“Ah, well,” she said, “I must leave it to my niece’s own
sense. She is not deficient in it.”

Still the warning had not been without its effect. Miss Lloyd
had no wish to offend the lady of Silverthorns. And a kindly
idea of being of possible use to Fanny Lathom had also
influenced her.

“If this girl is backward, as she probably is,” she thought,

“Fanny may have a chance of giving her private lessons in
the holidays, or some arrangement of that kind.”

But Charlotte was in happy ignorance of Lady Mildred’s

depreciating remarks, as she sat, to all outward
appearance, buried in her German translation, in reality
peeping from time to time at the bright head in the corner
of the room, round which all the sunshine seemed to linger,
listening eagerly for the faintest sound of the pretty voice,
or wishing that Miss Meredon would look up for a moment
that she might catch the beautiful outlines of her profile.

“She is lovely,” thought Charlotte, “and she is most perfectly

dressed, though it looks simple. And—it is true she seems
sweet. But very likely that look is all put on, though even if
it isn’t what credit is it to her? Who wouldn’t look and feel
sweet if they had everything in the world they could wish
for? I dare say I could look sweet too in that case. There’s
only one comfort, I’m not likely to have much to do with
her. If Fanny Lathom’s German is good enough for her I
may be pretty sure she won’t be in the top classes. And any
one so pretty as she is—she must give a great deal of time
to her dress too—is sure not to be very clever or to care
much for clever things.”

Ten minutes passed—then a bell rang, and Mademoiselle

Bavarde, the French governess, who had been engaged with
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