initial commit of ebook 36080HEADmain

17 files changed, 25178 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/36080-8.txt b/36080-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7a6fd69
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36080-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8160 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Fortunate Term, by Angela Brazil,
+Illustrated by Treyer Evans
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: A Fortunate Term
+
+
+Author: Angela Brazil
+
+
+
+Release Date: May 10, 2011  [eBook #36080]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FORTUNATE TERM***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 36080-h.htm or 36080-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/36080/36080-h/36080-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/36080/36080-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+A FORTUNATE TERM
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+By ANGELA BRAZIL
+
+"Angela Brazil has proved her undoubted talent for writing a story of
+schoolgirls for other schoolgirls to read."--Bookman.
+
+    Loyal to the School.
+    A Fortunate Term.
+    A Popular Schoolgirl.
+    The Princess of the School.
+    A Harum-Scarum Schoolgirl.
+    The Head Girl at the Gables.
+    A Patriotic Schoolgirl.
+    For the School Colours.
+    The Madcap of the School.
+    The Luckiest Girl in the School.
+    The Jolliest Term on Record.
+    The Girls of St. Cyprian's.
+    The Youngest Girl in the Fifth.
+    The New Girl at St. Chad's.
+    For the Sake of the School.
+    The School by the Sea.
+    The Leader of the Lower School.
+    A Pair of Schoolgirls.
+    A Fourth Form Friendship.
+    The Manor House School.
+    The Nicest Girl in the School.
+    The Third Class at Miss Kaye's.
+    The Fortunes of Philippa.
+
+LONDON: BLACKIE & SON, LTD., 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+[Illustration: SHE FOUND TOM IN THE GREENHOUSE _Page 44_]
+
+
+A FORTUNATE TERM
+
+by
+
+ANGELA BRAZIL
+
+Illustrated by Treyer Evans
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Blackie and Son Limited
+London Glasgow And Bombay
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+     CHAP.                            Page
+
+        I. MAVIS AND MERLE               9
+
+       II. "THE MOORINGS"               22
+
+      III. THE SCHOOL FAVOURITE         34
+
+       IV. RED DEVON BY THE SEA         48
+
+        V. FAIR MAIDS OF FEBRUARY       61
+
+       VI. A CHILD OF MISFORTUNE        75
+
+      VII. THE INNOVATORS               86
+
+     VIII. THE WARREN                  103
+
+       IX. A QUESTION OF HONOUR        117
+
+        X. AMONG THE BOARDERS          127
+
+       XI. ROUND THE FIRE              141
+
+      XII. PIXIE-LED                   152
+
+     XIII. BLACKTHORN BOWER            167
+
+      XIV. NICKY NAN NIGHT             181
+
+       XV. THE SQUATTERS               193
+
+      XVI. TROTMAN'S CIRCUS            209
+
+     XVII. THE SICK CLOWN              223
+
+    XVIII. GREEK MEETS GREEK           240
+
+      XIX. AT HALF-MAST                255
+
+       XX. A CONFESSION                266
+
+      XXI. THE FLORAL FESTIVAL         278
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+
+                                                 Facing
+                                                   Page
+
+    SHE FOUND TOM IN THE GREENHOUSE _Frontispiece_
+
+    BOTH MAVIS AND MERLE LET THEMSELVES GO           88
+
+    IT CERTAINLY WAS A MOST ALARMING SPECTACLE      136
+
+    "HERE WE ARE AT CROSS NUMBER TWO"               160
+
+    "YOU KNOW CHAGMOUTH?" HE WHISPERED              232
+
+    SHE REACHED DOWN INTO SOME DARK RECEPTACLE
+    AND DREW UP A BROWN-PAPER PARCEL                272
+
+
+
+
+A FORTUNATE TERM
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Mavis and Merle
+
+
+There had never been a week of worse weather, even for Whinburn, and
+that was saying something! Mavis, sitting up in bed with a
+dressing-jacket and two shawls round her and three comfortable pillows
+tucked at her back, could just see out of the window if she craned her
+neck a little. The prospect which greeted her was anything but
+pleasing--a wilderness of roofs covered with dirty snow, and a row of
+factory chimneys belching forth grimy smoke against a leaden sky. From
+the street came the noise of tram-cars and tramping feet; a motor-lorry,
+thundering by, shook the house like an earthquake. Mavis, in the blessed
+lull between two storms of coughing, turned her eyes resolutely from the
+forlorn view of the outside world to the cheery interior of the bedroom,
+with its glowing fire, its bookcase full of attractive volumes, and its
+walls so covered with framed prints, photos, and picture postcards that
+there hardly seemed a vacant inch of space left. Directly facing her,
+and in the place of honour, was a water-colour representing a landscape
+with a peep of the sea beyond. The trees in the painting were bare, but
+the undergrowth was green, and a patch of gorse blazed in the
+foreground, a rift of light from the sky gleamed on the waters of a
+stream, and the figure of a little girl was stooping to gather ferns.
+Mavis gazed at the picture for some time in silent contemplation, then:
+
+"Muvvie, dear," she said suddenly, "I think you must have made a mistake
+when you told me you painted that in December."
+
+Mrs. Ramsay, sitting with the mending-basket near the fire, snicked a
+piece of wool and put down the scissors.
+
+"It's perfectly true, Madam Doubtful. Your mother doesn't tell fiblets.
+I sketched that in Devonshire the year before I was married. It was a
+milder winter even than usual, and I remember the gorse was in blossom
+at Christmas, and the laurustinus coming out in the gardens. I painted
+exactly what I saw, and no more. Can't you believe me?"
+
+"Ye-e-s! But it's wonderful all the same. We don't get winters like that
+here in the north. When I look at the snow and the chimneys, and then at
+the picture, it's like peeping through another window into a different
+world. I only wish----"
+
+But a severe gust of coughing interrupted Mavis's reflections, and when
+it was over she lay back, very quiet and white and exhausted, upon her
+three pillows.
+
+Mrs. Ramsay, mixing a poultice by the fire, sighed as she stirred
+linseed meal into boiling water.
+
+"It's most unlucky you've started with one of your bad attacks of
+bronchitis before Christmas. How am I going to get you through the
+winter, child, if you've begun to take cold already? I'd like to wrap
+you in cotton-wool and pack you away in a box to sleep like a dormouse
+till the warm weather woke you up! Whinburn certainly doesn't suit you.
+It may be bracing, but people with delicate chests can be too much
+'braced' sometimes. Is the poultice too hot? Be a brave girl! Remember,
+Father said 'the hotter the better!' Bear it as long as you can. Why,
+there's the bell! Is it Merle home already? Surely she's early to-day?"
+
+Mavis, protesting against the poultice, looked up eagerly as stamping
+feet resounded on the stairs, and her sister, with coat and hat lightly
+powdered with new-fallen snow, burst into the room.
+
+"Hello, Mavis! You've got the best place, in bed! It's detestable out
+to-day. The wind's like a knife, and it's beginning to snow again. Oh,
+it was cold at school! My fingers were simply frozen. The end of Miss
+Donald's nose was quite blue, and her temper was bluer. She snapped my
+head off when I asked her a question. We played tig in the gym at
+'break', though, and got warm, but Gertie upset the coal-box and made
+such a mess, and Miss Greene scolded ever so, and said we were trampling
+coal-dust into the floor, and it would have to be washed again before
+dancing lesson. It wasn't really Gertie's fault; Joan pushed her. I met
+the postman outside, Mumsie. He gave me this parcel. It's for you.
+You're always the lucker! I wish it was mine."
+
+"We'll all share it together," said Mrs. Ramsay, taking the package to
+Mavis's bed and snipping the string with her scissors. "It has the
+Durracombe postmark, and it's Aunt Nellie's writing, and I think I
+shan't be very far wrong if I guess flowers."
+
+The contents of the box were soon spread forth on the invalid's
+counterpane. They were an amazing display, for it seemed as if the
+seasons had overlapped, and late autumn had joined hands with early
+spring. There were yellow rosebuds, and passion flowers, and a few
+montbretias, and some Michaelmas daisies, a big bunch of purple violets,
+some primroses, polyanthuses, a pansy or two, blossoming ivy, little
+pink double daisies, and beautiful sprays of the yellow jessamine. Mavis
+fingered them delicately as if they were priceless treasures. The colour
+had flooded into her cheeks and her eyes shone like stars.
+
+"Muvvie! Surely they come from a greenhouse?" she asked. "They _can't_
+be growing out-of-doors _now_."
+
+"Indeed they can! You don't know Durracombe. The flowers go blooming
+along all the winter--if you can call it winter down there. I told you
+it was a different climate from Whinburn. Oh, how sweet they smell! I
+remember just the exact spot in the dear old garden where these violets
+grow."
+
+Mavis looked out of the window, where the now fast-whirling snow was
+hiding the smoke of the factory chimneys, then looked back to the pure,
+clean, delicate blossoms that lay on her lap.
+
+"It's like a fairy tale!" she murmured. "Think of picking them in
+December! Muvvie, if I could go and stay at the place where these
+flowers grow I should get well."
+
+"I verily believe you would," said Mrs. Ramsay thoughtfully, as she
+fetched vases and began to place the drooping violets in warm water.
+
+Mavis, at the time our story begins, was fifteen and a half, and exactly
+fourteen months older than Merle. It is necessary to state her age,
+because people always forgot it, and set her down as the younger of the
+two. Everybody, friends and strangers alike, gave precedence to Merle,
+the taller, stronger, more confident, and more dominating individuality.
+Mavis was an ethereal little person, who might be described as a spirit
+very lightly embodied in flesh. With Merle soul and body were balanced,
+with a bias towards the latter--on the whole she was of the earth,
+earthy. There was a sufficient likeness between the sisters to suggest
+that nature had reproduced an identical type in different mediums. She
+had painted the first delicately in water-colours, then had copied the
+same model more strongly in oils. Which picture you preferred was a
+matter of taste.
+
+Fortunately there was a complete understanding between the girls. Their
+particular faults and virtues seemed to dovetail into one another
+without friction, and they were excellent chums, a useful factor at
+school, where Mavis often needed a defender, and Merle was constantly
+requiring the services of someone to help to pull her out of her
+numerous scrapes.
+
+Dr. Ramsay lived at the north-country manufacturing town of Whinburn, a
+prosperous but bleak corner of the kingdom, where smoke had stunted the
+trees and soiled the herbage, where flowers were scarce and bloomed
+late, and winter stretched its icy fingers well into autumn and spring.
+The house, like most doctors' houses, was on the main high road, and
+part of the garden behind had been turned into a garage, so there was
+very little room for the bed of bulbs and the perennial border upon
+which Mavis concentrated most of her outdoor energies. She toiled hard
+to have a floral display in the summer months, but it was disheartening
+work, for the frost always killed her wallflowers, and only the hardiest
+of plants would consent to make a sulky struggle against the smoky
+atmosphere that seemed to blight the very heart of vegetation and turn
+the choicest bedding varieties into sickly specimens. Merle, less deeply
+wedded to nature, had long given up gardening as a bad job, and had
+handed over her patch of unkindly northern soil to her sister. She was
+more interested in the car: she liked to watch the chauffeur clean it,
+and the high-water mark of her bliss came on the days when, on a quiet
+road and with no policeman within sight, her father would allow her for
+a brief space to assume command of the driving-wheel.
+
+"I'll be your chauffeur, Dad, when I'm old enough to leave school," she
+would assure him airily. "I _do_ think you might get me a driving
+licence now! Too young? What nonsense! We've no need to tell the
+Government I'm only fourteen. I'd soon drive as well as Greenhalgh if
+you'd let me try. I'm not afraid of anything."
+
+"I dare say not, but think of _my_ feelings with a harum-scarum like you
+at the helm!" her father would reply. "You'd soon collide with a lorry,
+or land us in the ditch. I'll stick to Greenhalgh, thank you. He doesn't
+want to run at forty miles an hour."
+
+"I'll take proper motoring lessons when I've left school," Merle would
+declare, "then I'll be ready to drive any car in the United
+Kingdom--that's to say, if I haven't made up my mind to be a lady
+detective."
+
+Mavis, who was in bed when our story begins, weathered her December
+attack of bronchitis and came downstairs in time for Christmas Day, but
+with such white roses in her cheeks that her father looked at her
+anxiously, and called Mother into the consulting-room for a private
+confabulation, the result of which was a long private letter addressed
+Dr. Tremayne, Durracombe, Devonshire, which was posted without the
+girls' knowledge. Several other letters followed, and the brisk
+correspondence had just reached a satisfactory conclusion on a certain
+January day when Mavis, with a shawl round her shoulders, was peering
+out of the window at the flying snowflakes.
+
+"Watching the feathers from Mother Carey's chickens, bairns?" said Mrs.
+Ramsay. "I'm afraid it's going to be a wild night. The wind's rising. I
+like the snow when it's newly fallen, but it gets dirty directly in
+Whinburn."
+
+"And I don't like snow at all, Muvvie," replied Mavis. "We were building
+castles in the air just now, and mine was to live in a lovely wood where
+it was never really winter."
+
+"My castle was to be a chauffeur or a lady detective!" laughed Merle.
+"Perhaps both! It would be great sport to go dashing about the country
+in a car, unravelling mysteries and catching jewel thieves. Will you
+come with me, Mavis?"
+
+Mavis shook her head.
+
+"I've told you I'm going to live in a house with an enormous garden, and
+a wood where I can watch the birds. I'd rather track tomtits than jewel
+thieves. You shall come and stay with me when you're tired of chasing
+your burglars. It will be fine and warm in my wood, with no slushy snow
+_ever_, or yellow fog, only lovely flowers and ferns the whole year
+round, and I shall go out without being eternally wrapped up. That's my
+castle in the air!"
+
+"Don't you wish you may get it, that's all! It sounds like El Dorado.
+Oh, I'll come and stay with you right enough when you find such a
+fairyland. Woods like that don't grow near Whinburn. Look at the sky
+now! It's actually trying to snow again!"
+
+"It won't snow in my _wood_!"
+
+"And I say such woods don't exist except in your imagination," declared
+Merle emphatically.
+
+"Not quite the fairy land Mavis pictures, but there's a very good
+approach to them in Devonshire," said Mrs. Ramsay. "I've something I
+want to tell you chicks. How would you like to go to Durracombe and stay
+with Uncle David and Aunt Nellie? Don't look so incredulous! It's really
+true. We've arranged to send you for three months, and I'm to take you
+down there next week."
+
+This was news indeed, such news that at first the girls were hardly
+able to believe it. They had never been in Devonshire, and had not seen
+their mother's uncle, Dr. Tremayne. Their father, Dr. Ramsay, busy with
+his own professional work, had little time to spare for visiting, and
+when he snatched a holiday the family had generally gone to Scotland, or
+to some east-coast seaside resort. He was fond of the north, which has a
+charm all its own, but his wife was a Devon woman, who could not forget
+the county of her birth. She had told her children stories of its
+beauties, its mild air, its early flowers, its legends of pixies, its
+smugglers' coves and blue stretches of sea, its moors and dancing
+brooks, till they had come to look upon it as a sort of Elfland, a
+fairy-tale country that had no more real existence than the kingdom at
+the top of Jack's beanstalk. Uncle David and Aunt Nellie, too, though
+familiar household names, were entities as unsubstantial as characters
+in a book. To go and stay with them at Durracombe seemed as amazing as a
+visit to Robinson Crusoe's island or a sojourn with Robert Louis
+Stevenson in the South Seas. When their minds were adjusted to the new
+idea they demanded details.
+
+"Three months! We shall miss school for a whole term. Oh, Mummie, what
+fun! Shall we find cowslips in the fields? And can we go paddling in the
+brook? It sounds gorgeous!"
+
+"You certainly won't find cowslips in January. Don't expect
+impossibilities. And as for paddling, I forbid anything of the sort
+before Easter. Don't congratulate yourselves that you're going to have a
+term's holiday. There's a very nice little day school in Durracombe,
+kept by the late vicar's daughters, only ten minutes' walk from Uncle
+David's house. Don't pull faces! Of course you must go to school, and
+you'll probably like it. How long can I stay? About a week. I shall take
+you there and see you settled, then I must fly back to Father, for he's
+not accustomed to doing without the whole of his family. I wish he could
+have come with us, but it's quite impossible for him to leave his
+patients at present. If you catch another cold, Mavis, before we go
+away, I shall be really cross with you. We hope Devonshire air will work
+a cure and stop these perpetual bouts of bronchitis. As for you, Merle,
+there's really no reason for sending _you_, except----"
+
+"Except that my little sister couldn't and wouldn't and shouldn't go
+without me. We're practically twins, and we're no more use apart than
+the two blades of a pair of scissors. Oh yes, Mummie darling, we'll be
+patterns of virtue. Don't worry about us. We'll cheer up Aunt Nellie and
+amuse Uncle David, and wake the new school up too, I dare say. Don't
+look horrified, sweetest, I'm half joking. Mavis is such an angel-girl
+she needs me to drag her down a little or she'd just go floating off to
+heaven like a balloon, and never find her way back. I act earthly
+ballast for her, and keep her anchored to this world. She'd never
+remember her tonic if I didn't remind her. I'll keep an eye on her down
+in Devon, and see that she doesn't sit in draughts or get her feet damp.
+Trust her twin to look after her. Whenever she wants to do silly things
+I'll scold till I'm hoarse. You don't know how I can croak when I like!"
+
+"As if I were going to do silly things!" interrupted Mavis indignantly.
+"Really, to hear you talk, anybody'd think you were my grannie instead
+of fourteen months younger than I am! I hope this new school will be
+decent. We shall miss Janie and Edna."
+
+"But think of getting rid of Miss Donald for a whole term, and not
+having Miss Hanson to teach us algebra. Oh, what a jubilee! Our desks
+will be empty in IVA. Sounds quite pathetic, doesn't it? Sort of twin
+tombstone business."
+
+    "They grew in beauty side by side;
+     They filled one school with glee,"
+
+laughed Mavis.
+
+    "And now they're going to have some larks
+     In Devon by the sea!"
+
+finished Merle.
+
+"Durracombe--Durracombe--Durracombe," repeated Mavis. "Yes, I like the
+name. It grips me somehow. I feel I can be happy at Durracombe. I
+shouldn't want to go to a place called Porkville or Mudbury. There's a
+great deal in a name. Mumsie, dear, I wish we were starting to-morrow. I
+can't wait. I want to see Durracombe at once."
+
+"You silly child! And I, who have all your clothes to get ready, am
+thankful to have at least a week to turn round in. I don't say I'm not
+looking forward to seeing Devon again, though. We shall be ever such a
+jolly trio when we set off in the train, shan't we?"
+
+"And where do I come in?" asked a mock-lugubrious voice, as Dr. Ramsay
+joined the party. "My family appear very anxious to run away from me. It
+seems to me I'm to be left out in the cold. Poor Papa! Sitting alone by
+his desolate hearth with only the cat for company. My heart bleeds for
+him!"
+
+"Daddy! You naughty boy! You ought to come with us," cried the girls,
+forcing their father into an elbow chair and seating themselves on the
+two arms, so as to be in position to administer smacking kisses on both
+his cheeks. "You know very well Devon won't be _quite_ Devon without
+you. We hate to leave you behind. Now, promise us something! Oh, it's
+perfectly easy and possible, and we know you can do it. Say yes! You'll
+be kissed to death by wild daughters if you don't. It's your only chance
+of life! Now or never! There! You've promised to come down to Durracombe
+at Easter to fetch us home."
+
+"Have I indeed? Oh, I dare say!"
+
+"I'll keep him to his bargain," laughed Mother; "but I expect when the
+time comes he'll be fussing to start. We're not a family who can bear to
+be divided for long, are we?"
+
+"Rather not!" said Merle, slipping from the arm-chair to pull Mother
+into the charmed circle. "You shall come in the car, darlings, and motor
+us back, and I'll drive whenever there's a smooth bit of road ahead.
+It's a topping idea."
+
+"Only your driving doesn't happen to be included in the bargain, you
+young puss! We've some respect for our limbs, and prefer to reach home
+with bones unbroken," declared Father, escaping from his tempestuous
+daughters to answer the insistent telephone-bell that was ringing loud
+peals of agitated warning in the hall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+"The Moorings"
+
+
+The tiny town of Durracombe consisted mainly of one very long and
+enormously wide street. Everything that was of any importance was
+situated in this High Street--the church, the bank, the public hall, the
+reading-room, the free library, the best shops, and the Swan Hotel. Each
+Friday it was turned into a species of market, with stalls, and barrows,
+and butter-baskets, and shouting men driving frightened cattle, but on
+great festivals, such as Empire Day, it became a gay café, for tables
+and forms were placed on the pavements and the school children were
+entertained to tea in the open air, while the town band played patriotic
+music. Being such a small and compact place, it had the advantage of
+beginning and ending quite suddenly. The river marked the boundary. On
+one side of it you were in civilization, with a mayor and police and a
+town crier, and the privileges of gas and the telephone, but directly
+you crossed the bridge you were in the happy fields that owned no
+sovereign but Dame Nature, and in quite a few minutes you seemed to have
+left the world behind you.
+
+Dr. Tremayne's house was the very first when you entered Durracombe by
+the road from the south. Its green front door with the brass plate stood
+in the High Street, but its garden wall overtopped the river, and its
+side windows looked out over the fields to the open country. People
+coming to fetch the doctor on a black night could see his red surgery
+lamp from the top of the hill a whole mile away. It seemed to hold out
+promise of help like a kind hand stretched across the darkness of the
+river. For the last forty years Durracombe and district had depended
+upon Dr. Tremayne. Time had, of course, brought changes, and the
+dark-haired man who drove a high gig in the 'eighties was now grey and
+elderly, and did his rounds in a two-seater car. Quite apart from
+medicines the mere sight of him seemed to do his patients good. His very
+atmosphere was electric, and he had that true gift of healing that helps
+people to get well of their own accord. Certainly no one within a radius
+of thirty miles was a greater favourite than "the dear old doctor", and
+his small biscuit-coloured motor was a familiar feature on the country
+roads. His three children were married and settled down in various parts
+of the globe. None had followed their father's profession; so, though he
+might be proud of a son who was a judge in India, a barrister in London,
+or a successful civil engineer in Canada, he could claim no help in his
+practice from his own family. His wife, grey-haired and elderly too, was
+somewhat of an invalid, and most of the housekeeping was done by Jessop,
+an invaluable old servant who attended to the surgery, took patients'
+messages, sterilized instruments, washed medicine bottles, could give
+first aid in an emergency, and was generally almost as great a feature
+of the practice as the doctor himself.
+
+It was to this rather old-fashioned household that Mavis and Merle,
+sworn to the most exemplary behaviour, were sent for three months in the
+hope that in the soft Devonshire air Mavis would catch no more bad
+bronchial colds, and would have a chance of setting up her health and
+growing the two extra inches which she still needed to set her head on
+the same level with Merle's.
+
+To the two girls everything in Durracombe seemed delightful. The
+mildness of the climate amazed them. After the nip of Whinburn's
+perpetual east wind, lifeless hedgerows, and desolate winter fields, it
+felt like a sudden jump into spring to find campion, herb robert, and
+dead-nettle blooming by the road-sides, catkins waving on the hazel
+bushes, clumps of snowdrops and Christmas roses under the apple trees,
+violets beneath the sheltered wall, primroses peeping through last
+year's dead leaves, and the missel thrush chanting a triumphant song in
+the yew tree that overhung the river.
+
+Mother, as happy as if she were a girl again, took them round to her
+favourite haunts: the beacon-top, where you could catch the first view
+of the sea, eight miles away; the moor with its rushes and soft, short
+green grass; the fields where cowslips would be found later on; the fir
+wood that seemed like a wilderness of Christmas trees; the marshy flats
+where you could see the wild ducks flying; the little quarry where the
+sand-martens had burrowed holes for their nests--all the dear delightful
+spots that she had known as a child, and had described to them so often
+that they recognized them the moment they saw them.
+
+"It's gorgeous! Muvvie, if only you weren't going away I'd think myself
+in Paradise," declared Mavis, with pink cheeks, and standing on tiptoe
+as if she were growing already. "Uncle David's a dear, and so's Aunt
+Nellie, and as for Jessop, she's just a sport--that's what I call her.
+Bridge House is simply A1, and if school anything like comes up to it,
+well--I shall say it's the time of my life. It's going to be the nicest
+term I've ever had."
+
+"Don't congratulate yourself too soon," croaked Merle. "School's school
+all the world over, and there's sure to be something to put up with.
+_I'm_ not looking forward to sums and exercises. When do we start?
+To-morrow! Ugh! Enter it as a black day in the calendar of Merle Ramsay,
+and probably of the school too, for they won't find me soft wax in their
+hands. I've got ideas of my own, and when people begin to try to mould
+me I'm apt to turn katawampus. Mumsie, darling, don't shoot up your
+eyebrows! There! I'll promise and vow to be a perfect seraph. They'll
+call me St. Merle before they've done with me. Honest, Mumsie, I will
+_really_ try! You know how I flare out, but I'll make a bouncing start
+at this new school and think of you every time I get into a pixie mood.
+If I don't, the Devonshire pixies had best steal me away and have done
+with it. I'd be a good riddance to everybody, I dare say."
+
+Merle spoke half in jest and half in earnest. There was laughter in her
+voice, but her eyelashes were suddenly wet. Mrs. Ramsay laid a tender
+hand on her younger daughter's shoulder. She was not laughing at all.
+
+"I hope both my girls are going to grow this term," she said quietly,
+"in character as well as in inches. There's room for improvement in both
+of you. Mavis must stir about instead of always dreaming and reading,
+and Merle must curb that little demon that sometimes gets possession of
+her. I expect to find two very sweet girls when I come to fetch them at
+Easter. We want this term to be in every sense a fortunate term."
+
+"We'll do our level best, Muvvie! Can't you trust us?" whispered Mavis,
+linking her arm in her mother's, as they turned from the wood and began
+to walk down the hill-side towards the little town where the next
+eventful months of their lives were to be spent.
+
+But Merle, who always hid her deepest feelings under a joke, chirruped
+out an impromptu ode to the future:
+
+    "School! School! School!
+     They'll probably call me a mule!
+     And stick me to stand,
+     With a book in my hand,
+     And a dunce's cap, on a stool!"
+
+So it ended in the three of them laughing after all.
+
+There was no large college or high school for girls in Durracombe, only
+a very small private establishment kept by Miss Mary Pollard and her
+sister Fanny, daughters of the late Rev. Horatio Pollard, formerly vicar
+of the parish. They educated about twenty-four children, half of them
+from the immediate neighbourhood: Opal Earnshaw, the bank-manager's
+daughter; Edith and Maude Carey, from the Vicarage; Christabel Oakley,
+who rode over on her bicycle from St. Gilda's Rectory; the three little
+Andrews, from Fir Tree House; Major Leach's small grand-children; Betty
+and Stella Marshall, who lived with their aunt, Miss Johnson, while
+their parents were in Buenos Ayres; and twelve resident boarders, most
+of whose parents were stationed in India, and who, born under burning
+skies, had been sent to Durracombe for the sake of its soft air and mild
+winter record, until they should be sufficiently acclimatized to stand
+their chance as hardy specimens in bigger schools.
+
+"The Moorings" was a large, pleasant, white house with green shutters
+and a veranda, and it stood at the bottom of a short road that led from
+the High Street. It was what is commonly known as "a dear little
+school", that is to say it was rather old-fashioned and out-of-date but
+very comfortable and "homey", and the classes were more like lessons
+with a private governess than working with a form. Miss Pollard, whose
+hair was as silver as spun moonlight, had dropped behind the more modern
+methods of education, and, feeling rather diffident in the schoolroom,
+concentrated her attention on the housekeeping, cossetted up the
+delicate children, aired the linen, superintended the dormitories, and
+acted nurse to anybody who was lucky enough to be kept in bed. The bulk
+of the teaching rested in the hands of Miss Fanny, who was thorough, if
+old-fashioned, and whose original methods, by a curious coincidence,
+actually anticipated those of some of our most advanced educationists,
+and so placed her ahead of as well as behind the times.
+
+It was into this small community, more like a big family than a school,
+that Mavis and Merle were introduced one January morning, causing
+visible thrills to the occupants of other desks as they took their
+seats. To plunge suddenly from the work of one school into that of
+another is a rather bewildering experience, and by the time the
+half-past twelve bell sounded, the Ramsay girls felt as if their
+standards had been turned upside down. Mavis, shaky in general over
+history, had reeled off the dates of the principal battles in the Civil
+War, the only period of which she happened to have any special
+knowledge, and Merle, by an equal fluke, worked correctly all her
+problems in mathematics, a lesson which she usually abhorred. They were
+so astonished at scoring on these subjects that they naturally hoped to
+do better still in the French class, for languages had been their one
+strong point at Whinburn High School. But alack for their self esteem!
+The girls at The Moorings had concentrated on French, and not only
+translated easily from a book which was much too stiff for the Ramsays,
+but chattered quite fluently with Mademoiselle Chavasse, whose
+encouraging remarks and questions were palpably not understood by her
+new pupils. It is humiliating not to be able to express yourself in a
+foreign tongue when others are talking it all round you. Merle, who
+never liked anybody to "go one better" than herself, was particularly
+aggravated by a fair-haired girl who sat near her, and who, as she
+conversed with the teacher, kept the corner of her eye on the new-comers
+as if judging the impression she was making on them.
+
+"I don't like her! I shan't _ever_ like her!" thought Merle irately.
+"She's conceited, and those eyes are sneaky. It's nothing so much to
+talk French. I suppose they're used to it. She needn't think I'm
+admiring her cleverness, for I'm not. I'll pluck up courage myself to
+say something next time Mademoiselle looks at me."
+
+But Merle's powers were not equal to her courage, and when Mademoiselle
+gave her another chance she turned scarlet and stuttered, and generally
+made rather a goose of herself, to her own infinite indignation and
+evidently to the amusement of the rest of the class, especially of the
+fair-haired girl, who tittered openly till she met the teacher's
+outraged gaze, when she suddenly straightened her face and tried to
+appear quite unconscious. Mavis, profiting by her sister's example, did
+not commit herself to speech. Mademoiselle Chavasse's accent was
+unfamiliar and difficult to understand, and most of her remarks might as
+easily have been in Greek as French, to judge by the standards of
+Whinburn High School. Both the Ramsays were particularly relieved when
+the lesson came to an end.
+
+At 12.30 Mavis, who had been sent to the school with a special
+recommendation that her health should be looked after, was carried off
+by Miss Pollard to be weighed and measured and otherwise inspected,
+while Merle, with boots and hat and coat on, and all impatience to be
+off, waited for her in the cloak-room. The other day-girls had scurried
+away with hardly more than a glance in her direction, and she sat alone,
+kicking her heels and not in the sweetest of tempers, till one of the
+boarders, passing the door, peeped in, saw her, and entered. The
+new-comer was a nice-looking girl, with grey eyes and a plait of very
+dark hair. She smiled in quite friendly fashion.
+
+"Hello!" she began. "Sitting here all by your lonesome? Why don't you go
+home?"
+
+"Can't. I'm waiting for Mavis."
+
+"Is Mavis the other? She's rather sweet! I like her fluffy hair and that
+blue velvet band. Somebody said she was older than you, but she doesn't
+look it."
+
+"People often take us for twins," conceded Merle.
+
+Iva Westwood shook her head.
+
+"No one with eyes, surely! You're alike in a way, but not very. Opal
+Earnshaw was fearfully angry that you beat her in maths. She's been cock
+of the walk till now."
+
+"Which is Opal Earnshaw?"
+
+"That fair girl who sat near you."
+
+Merle's face darkened.
+
+"That was why she tried to take it out of me in the French class, then?"
+
+"Oh, Opal tries to take it out of everybody. She won't be very pleased
+you two have come, I expect. You're too old to stand her bossing."
+
+"Why do other people stand it?"
+
+"Well, you see, she's head of the school, and Miss Pollard and Miss
+Fanny are her godmothers."
+
+"What difference does that make?"
+
+"A great deal of difference, as you'll soon find out. Everything their
+darling god-child does _must_ be right, that's the long and short of it.
+They favour her fearfully."
+
+"What a blazing shame."
+
+"Yes, some of us get rather fed up I can tell you. We mutiny every now
+and then."
+
+"Count on me, then, next time you have squalls."
+
+"Thanks!"
+
+"Tell me about some of the other girls. Who's that one in the green
+jersey who sat by the window and dropped her pencil-box? Is she nice?"
+
+"Edith Carey! Ye-e-s, she's nice enough in a way." (Iva's tone was
+unconvincing). "She's the kind of girl who drags on your arm when she's
+tired, and insists on kissing you when she's got a bad cold."
+
+"I understand--exactly. I suppose the other green jersey is her sister?"
+
+"Maude? Oh, she's not a bad sort either. Rather a slacker though,
+always late for everything. We say she'd be late for her own funeral.
+She made us miss the train once when we were going an excursion. What
+are the others like? Well, we call Aubrey Simpson the jackdaw, because
+she's always talking. Muriel Burnitt makes fun of everybody. You should
+hear her take off Mademoiselle! Nesta Pitman may be a little nasty to
+you at first, but don't mind her, because it's only her way with new
+people. She'll soon come round. She's rather off-hand, but a real
+sport!"
+
+"So are you, I should guess!"
+
+"Oh, I don't know. I'm Cornish, and Cornish people are supposed to be
+queer. At least Devon people say they are."
+
+"Mother is Devon."
+
+"Then I expect you'll think me queer. Are you living with your uncle,
+Dr. Tremayne? _He's_ a sport if you like! He used to come and see me
+when I had scarlet fever, and he brought me strawberries long before our
+own were ripe. I wish I weren't a boarder. We live fifteen miles away,
+at Langoran Rectory. It's too far to come every day, or I'd bike, like
+Christabel Oakley. We used to have a governess at home until my brother
+went to school and----"
+
+But Iva's reminiscences were broken by the appearance of Mavis, rather
+hot and injured after her health examination, and very anxious that they
+should not be late for one o'clock lunch. Iva, hearing a bell,
+disappeared without further remark, and the Ramsays hurried back through
+the town to Bridge House, where Aunt Nellie, who admired punctuality as
+a cardinal virtue, was looking out of the window for them. They compared
+notes while they washed their hands.
+
+"Are you going to like it?" asked Mavis eagerly.
+
+"Um--I don't know! I certainly shan't like Opal Earnshaw, and she
+needn't think because she's head girl and all the rest of it that _I'm_
+going to truckle to her. They must be a poor-spirited set to let her
+lord it over everybody. Who said she did? Why, Iva Westwood. She was
+talking to me in the cloakroom. I could be chums with that girl! There's
+something about her I rather take to. She's Cornish, and they say Devon
+and Cornish people never can agree, but perhaps we'll hit it in spite of
+that. She said you were rather sweet! Don't screw up your mouth! She
+meant it as a compliment really. Do you think teachers ought to have
+their own godchildren for pupils? No, I've not suddenly gone mad, but
+Iva told me Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny are Opal's godmothers, and think
+everything she does is absolutely perfect. 'The Queen can do no wrong'
+sort of idea! I think it's horrid to have favourites. There goes the
+gong. Help! Give me the towel, quick! We mustn't be late for lunch on
+our first day without Mother, or Aunt Nellie'll think us horrible
+slackers."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+The School Favourite
+
+
+Mavis and Merle walked into the dining-room just in the nick of time to
+satisfy Mrs. Tremayne's sense of propriety. She was a dear, nervous, old
+lady, who had never had any daughters of her own, and had rather a hazy
+notion of girls in general, and was indeed a little frightened of
+schoolgirls; but she tried to be very kind to her great-nieces, and had
+told Jessop to be sure and look after them. Jessop did not need any
+telling. It was she who had arranged their bedroom, and had put the
+little table in the window, and the two basket-chairs, and the bookcase
+full of tales of adventure and bound volumes of _The Boys' Own Paper_.
+The iced soda-cake was of her making, and so was the plateful of
+delicious treacle toffee.
+
+"It's twenty years since the boys used to come home from boarding-school
+for their holidays, but I haven't forgotten what young folks like," she
+explained to Mavis and Merle, as she helped them to unpack. "It's more
+like a boys' bedroom than a girls' perhaps, but I just collected
+anything of Master Richard's and Master Cyril's that I could find about
+the house. If you don't care about them we'll take them out."
+
+"But we _love_ boys' things," declared Merle, admiring the pictures of
+dogs and horses on the walls, opening the drawers of the cabinet of
+birds' eggs, and touching the whip and the cricket bat with friendly
+fingers. Mavis was already deep in _Coral Island_, and temporarily deaf
+to the outside world, but she had just sufficient sense of manners left
+to grunt "It's a gorgeous bookcase!" before she lost herself in the
+South Seas among the palm trees.
+
+"Two very nice young ladies, and to have them here is like old times,"
+Jessop had confided to Tom, the factotum. "The house has always seemed
+dull since Master Cyril went away. Miss Mavis reminds me of him, with
+her blue eyes and that gentle little voice of hers. Now, Miss Merle is
+like Master Percy. He'd a way with him! I never knew what was going to
+happen next when he was at home. 'Jessop' he'd say, 'you're a wonderful
+woman!' Then I knew he meant to coax me to let him keep his rabbits in
+his bedroom, or do something of that sort. Girls are quieter than boys,
+but these two will cheer us up a little, I dare say. We all seem to have
+grown old here lately."
+
+And Tom, the factotum, polishing boots by the back door, agreed with
+her. Twenty years ago he had been the coachman, and, immaculate in his
+grey livery and silver buttons and top hat with the cockade at the side,
+had driven the high gig about the country lanes. It had nearly broken
+his heart when his master decided to give up the horses and take to
+motoring instead. There were tears in his eyes when he groomed Czar and
+Ruby for the last time. But, though Dr. Tremayne might march with the
+century, and visit his patients more quickly in his new automobile, he
+had no intention of parting with his old coachman, and determined to
+turn him into a chauffeur instead. So Tom learnt to drive the car,
+learnt almost too well, indeed, for, determined not to show the white
+feather, he waxed foolhardy, and would career round corners with one
+wheel off the ground, or dash down hills at such breakneck speed that
+the doctor, not usually a nervous subject, would gasp with relief to
+find himself alive at the bottom. Something plainly had to be done, or
+Tom would soon have broken the family's bones, and the question was how
+to shelve him without giving him offence. The riddle, fortunately,
+solved itself by the retirement of Dalton, the factotum-gardener. Dr.
+Tremayne decided to retrench and to keep only one man-servant. In future
+he drove his own car, and Tom was installed in Dalton's place, to weed
+the walks, clip the grass, polish the knives, and carry the coals. He
+made friends at once with Mavis and Merle, or rather he merely
+transferred to them the friendship he had given to their mother
+twenty-five years ago, when she used to spend her holidays at Bridge
+House, and rode Cobs, the white pony, whose grave lay at the bottom of
+the paddock. To Tom, motoring was the sign of a degenerate age, and he
+would descant to the girls about the good old days, when people were not
+in such a frantic hurry and could wait for the doctor until he drove up
+behind a well-groomed horse, and made such a case for the past times
+that Merle, in spite of her ambition to drive a car, began to wish Czar
+and Ruby and Cobs were still in the stable, and she herself could be
+clad in Mother's old riding-habit and flourish Cousin Percy's discarded
+whip as she ambled along the lanes on pony-back.
+
+That, however, was before she had had a run in the little, yellow
+Deemster car. After the first trip to Chagmouth she completely changed
+her mind.
+
+For a week life went on with the greatest regularity at Durracombe.
+Every morning the girls were called by Jessop promptly at half-past
+seven. They started for school at twenty minutes to nine, returned home
+for lunch, rushed back to The Moorings by 2.30, did their preparation
+and practising in the evenings, and went to bed at nine o'clock. Uncle
+David was nearly always out, or busy in the surgery, and Aunt Nellie sat
+by the fire, knitting or taking little naps. She would ask very kindly
+about their lessons, then, hardly giving them time to answer, would
+plunge into reminiscences of her boys' schooldays. Life, for her, still
+centred round Percy, Richard, and Cyril. When the girls wanted to talk
+they went to Jessop. It was to her they poured out their experiences of
+their new school, and she listened with the flattering interest of one
+who really enjoys hearing. She never read any books, so perhaps the
+little adventures described humorously by Mavis or Merle took the place
+of chapters in a serial story. She was familiar directly with the names
+of all the girls and teachers at The Moorings, and most delightfully
+ready to "take sides", and like those whom they liked and agree about
+the iniquities of those who offended them.
+
+For this first week had not been all plain sailing. It is often really
+easier to get on in a big school than a little one. There is more
+elbow-room among two hundred girls than among two dozen. Nobody except
+Iva Westwood had seemed particularly pleased to welcome them. Opal
+Earnshaw palpably resented their presence.
+
+"Miss Pollard is only supposed to take twenty pupils," she remarked, on
+the day after their arrival. "I know she refused two other girls, so I
+can't think why she should have broken her rule."
+
+"But those girls would have been boarders," objected Iva.
+
+"Well, where's the difference?"
+
+"A great deal when it means two extra beds in a dormitory."
+
+"It means two extra seats in a room that's already overcrowded,"
+declared Opal loftily. "If the school is going to take any more new
+girls it had better build an annexe and let them have classes there."
+
+"Sorry to be on the earth!" said Merle sarcastically. "Perhaps you'd
+like us to sit inside the cupboard? We shouldn't crowd you out there."
+
+Opal looked her up and down, from her velvet hair-band to the tips of
+her shoes, then she gave a kind of snort.
+
+"I suppose you think yourself ever so clever," she retorted. "Girls from
+big schools generally give themselves airs."
+
+"Other people can give themselves airs," snapped Merle, warming to the
+battle. "Big schools teach manners at any rate!"
+
+"Oh, we don't mean anything against _this_ school," hurriedly put in
+Mavis, who generally tried to take the edge off her sister's cutting
+speeches. "We think it's going to be quite jolly. I'm sorry if we've
+taken the desks where you've had your museum, but where _are_ we to keep
+our books and things?"
+
+Opal, who was grudgingly removing the contents of two desks, which for a
+whole term had been devoted to a collection of natural history objects,
+had the grace to look rather ashamed of herself.
+
+"Oh, it's all right," she temporized, "but what I'm to do with all our
+birds' eggs and butterflies goodness only knows! I daren't keep them in
+any of the other classrooms or those juniors would be fingering them and
+they'd be smashed to bits. I suppose I must pack them in boxes and get
+Miss Fanny to stow them away somewhere."
+
+"Can't I help?" said Mavis, coming to the rescue.
+
+Iva had just arrived on the scene bearing some large cardboard boxes,
+into which the three girls transferred the little collection. It seemed
+quite a pity to have to move it, for it had been so carefully set out.
+There were certainly grounds for Opal's ill humour, though even the most
+unreasonable of head girls can hardly expect a mistress to reserve desks
+for a museum when she can give them to two extra pupils. The fact was
+that Opal had been "first favourite" at The Moorings for too long. It
+would have done her all the good in the world to be sent to a large
+boarding-school and find there were people more important than herself.
+Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny, devoted friends of her mother, undoubtedly
+spoilt her, lent a ready ear to her complaints, but listened coldly to
+anybody who made accusations against her. The knowledge that she will
+receive support at all costs from head-quarters is a dangerous weapon
+for a girl in a position of authority. During the whole of last term
+Opal had done pretty much what she liked, and when others grumbled would
+declare: "Well, go and tell Miss Pollard and see which she'll believe,
+you or me!" an argument which was so unfortunately well founded that the
+luckless objectors preferred to suffer in silence.
+
+It was not in the nature of things that a disposition such as Merle
+Ramsay's could be in the same school with Opal Earnshaw without a clash.
+Merle loved fair play, and was always ready and willing to stand up for
+anybody's rights, including Mavis's and her own. Her first instinct had
+been to clear their new desks by tipping the unfortunate museum on to
+the floor. That was Merle all over. She preferred forcible methods to
+diplomacy. It generally needed all Mavis's tact to smooth over the
+difficulties roused by Merle's ardent partisanship and freedom of
+speech. Many were the squalls from which she had rescued her sister at
+the Whinburn High School, and apparently she would be required to
+perform the same office for her at The Moorings.
+
+Opal calmed down and was fairly civil during the morning, but on that
+very afternoon arose another unfortunate occasion of dispute. The
+Ramsays had finished lunch early, and hurried back to school in order to
+have a little fun with the boarders before lessons began at 2.30. They
+liked Iva and Nesta, and also some of the younger ones, and meant to
+enjoy half an hour with them in the playroom. Merle was by nature a
+public entertainer. She could not spend ten minutes in the company of
+other girls without wanting to start games or organize a sing-song or in
+some way get up amusement. During the Christmas holidays she had been
+poring over an article on palmistry which she found in a magazine. As
+the result of her studies in that direction she offered to tell the
+fortune of anybody who liked to consult her. She was instantly besieged
+by an excited crowd, all thrusting forward their hands at once for
+inspection and trying to push one another aside.
+
+"Cheerio! This won't do!" decreed Merle. "One at a time, my hearties!
+Take your places in an orderly queue and come up in your turns to the
+witch, or she'll fly away on her broomstick and tell you nothing! Iva
+first, then Nesta, then you others, and no squabbling. Anybody who tries
+to push in front will be turned to the end of the queue. That's kismet!"
+
+Merle could always keep order among juniors. The small fry giggled, but
+formed into line and kept their places while Iva and Nesta consulted the
+oracle. The prophecies were rather startling but sufficiently exciting
+to make eight young heads bob up and down with eagerness to secure their
+turns before the bell rang for afternoon school. Iva had been sent away
+a little dubious between the attractions of "foreign travel" and a
+warning of "danger by sea", while Nesta was openly rejoicing over a
+prospect of "wealth and honours" in spite of the "accidents" scattered
+over her future path. It was now the turn of Mamie Drew, and that
+short-skirted damsel was just advancing with rather awed eyes and a
+nervous chuckle, when the door opened and Opal Earnshaw strolled into
+the room.
+
+"Hello! What are you all doing here?" she exclaimed. "Fortunes! Oh, I
+say! I _must_ have mine told. What can you make out of my hand?"
+
+And, thrusting Mamie aside, she spread out her palm for Merle's
+inspection.
+
+Now it was partly Merle's love of fair play and partly her antipathy to
+Opal, and partly a little bit of "katawampus", but the three feelings
+combined made her thrust away the hand in a very peremptory fashion, and
+brought an extremely tart note into her voice as she said:
+
+"No pushing in front! Go to the end of the queue and take your turn with
+the others. It's Mamie next."
+
+"I don't mind," volunteered Mamie, making way for Opal.
+
+"But _I_ mind!" snapped Merle. "It's I who's telling the fortunes and
+I'll do it as I like, and take you in order. If you don't want to come
+next, Mamie, get out of the way can't you, and let Joyce have her
+innings! Opal must wait like other people."
+
+Opal, however, as head girl, considered herself highly insulted.
+
+"You needn't think I'm going to wait at the end of a queue of kids," she
+retorted angrily. "I don't care about your old fortune-telling, thanks!"
+and she flounced out of the room.
+
+She was very glum indeed all afternoon, and would not look at either of
+the Ramsays, though Mavis, to make amends, offered the loan of a new
+penknife, and even tendered a surreptitious chocolate.
+
+"I took her down, didn't I?" smirked Merle, as the sisters walked home
+up the High Street, and watched the retreating figure of Opal, who had
+scuttled past them with averted eyes, hurrying towards her own front
+door.
+
+Mavis sighed. Her naturally kind and peaceful disposition and her
+loyalty to Merle were always pulling her in opposite directions.
+
+"I'm afraid Opal just detests us. Perhaps you might have let her take
+Mamie's turn as Mamie actually offered."
+
+"Certainly not." (Merle's voice was firm.) "If you begin to let a girl
+like that butt in whenever she wants, you never know where you are. I
+think she's the limit. She'd no need to look so annoyed when we arrived
+at school. What does it matter to her? The Moorings isn't run for her
+private convenience!"
+
+"She couldn't forgive us for taking those spare desks and turning out
+the museum."
+
+"Bother her museum!"
+
+"It's rather a nice one anyway. It seems a pity it has to be put by in
+cardboard boxes."
+
+Mavis was really concerned about the little collection of curiosities
+that had been so neatly spread forth in the unoccupied desks. She
+cogitated for a long time as to how the difficulty could possibly be
+overcome. Finally she sought Tom, with whom she was already on terms of
+great friendship. She found him in the greenhouse, repotting some ferns.
+
+"Oh, Tom!" she burst out eagerly. "Do you think there's anything about
+the place I might take to make a museum?"
+
+Tom stroked the grey stubble on his chin reflectively.
+
+"A museum?" he repeated. "That's a big order, Miss, isn't it? I went
+through the museum in the castle grounds at Taunton once. It must be ten
+years ago. Or will it be twelve now?"
+
+"Oh, of course, I don't mean a museum like that," explained Mavis, "only
+a kind of box arrangement with some glass over it, to put butterflies
+and birds' eggs in, very like--" (her eyes wandered round the
+greenhouse) "very like what you grow seeds in."
+
+The nice part about Tom was the alacrity with which he caught up
+suggestions. At his age it was really amazing.
+
+"A very good idee, Miss," he agreed. "I know what you want. Master
+Cyril used to keep his butterflies in boxes like that. I'll hunt about
+and see what I can find for you."
+
+"Smart-looking boxes and some pieces of glass to fit over them?" pleaded
+Mavis.
+
+"You leave it to me," was all Tom would promise, but there was a twinkle
+in his eye as he stooped over his ferns again.
+
+Every morning Mavis asked him for the boxes, and each time he either
+pretended to have forgotten or was ready with some excuse. At the end of
+four days, however, he took her into the old harness-room, where he had
+a joiner's bench and a variety of tools, for he acted handy man to the
+establishment.
+
+"How will these suit you, Miss?" he enquired, in a would-be nonchalant
+tone.
+
+Mavis gave an absolute bounce of surprise. There on the bench lay two
+most beautiful cases. Tom had planed the boxes and made lids for them,
+into which he had fitted the pieces of glass. They were stained brown
+and varnished, and were lined neatly with dark-blue cloth. The old man
+was evidently bursting with pride at his handiwork, though he affected
+an attitude of indifference.
+
+Mavis made haste to congratulate him.
+
+"It's the cleverest thing I've ever seen done in my life," she purred.
+"Oh, they're just too lovely for words--absolutely topping! Thanks, a
+thousand times over. You must have simply _slaved_ to finish them so
+quickly."
+
+"Oh, I just worked at them in odds and ends of my time," said Tom
+casually, looking very pleased all the same. "That varnish is a bit
+sticky yet, but I dare say it'll be dry by the morning. If you want the
+boxes at school I'll carry them round for you to-morrow some time."
+
+"Oh, thanks! Could you bring them at eleven o'clock 'break'? That would
+be scrumptious. I must fetch Merle to look at them at once, and Jessop
+too. You don't mind?"
+
+Tom delivered the cases next day with admirable punctuality; indeed he
+was standing on the school doorstep exactly as Miss Fanny rang the big
+bell for break. The girls, pouring into the hall, saw him deliver the
+treasures into the safe custody of Bella, the housemaid. Naturally they
+crowded round to look.
+
+"Hello! What are these for?" asked Opal. "What stunning cases!"
+
+"They're for Miss Ramsay," proclaimed Bella.
+
+Mavis, with rather a red face, stepped forward.
+
+"If you think they'll do to keep the birds' eggs and butterflies and
+things in will you please have them as a museum for the school," she
+said quickly. "Tom, my uncle's coachman, made them on purpose."
+
+"Jolly decent of him. They're A1," approved Opal. "Better than the
+desks really, because of the glass lids. I say, I'm going to bolt my
+lunch in two secs, and get down those boxes and spread out the
+collection again. The things will look no end on that dark cloth."
+
+"Spiffing," agreed Iva, who was also inspecting the new acquisitions.
+
+"Hurry up with your lunch then, and help me to arrange them. No, I
+can't have a dozen people's fingers interfering! I'm curator of the
+museum and I won't have it smashed. Three are quite enough. Iva and
+Mavis and I are going to do it, and we don't want anyone else, thank
+you! You can come and look at it when it's finished. I'll put the cases
+on the window-sill in the big schoolroom. Mavis Ramsay" (this last
+communication was whispered) "I don't mind telling you I didn't care for
+you before--it was mostly the fault of that sister of yours!--but I
+think now you're an absolute sport. You and Merle aren't a scrap alike.
+Nobody would ever take you for sisters."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Red Devon by the Sea
+
+
+Mavis now found herself placed in a somewhat embarrassing situation. The
+school favourite had taken rather a fancy to her and extended overtures
+of friendship. Had she been at The Moorings by herself she might have
+responded, but it was impossible to be chums with a girl who displayed
+such open hostility to Merle. The two were "diamond cut diamond". Each
+was a strong character, and neither would give way an inch. They
+squabbled and heckled one another continually. If Opal had had even a
+term's experience of a big school, and if Merle had possessed a little
+tact and forbearance, they might have rubbed along together. As it was
+they went about like two thunderclouds. Mavis found her best safety lay
+in neutrality. She was quite nice to Opal, but not expansive, and
+whenever opportunity offered she patched up a truce, though the task of
+peacemaker was often a thankless business, for Opal would say: "Oh, of
+course, you side with that sister of yours!" and Merle would indignantly
+accuse her of not taking her part with sufficient vehemence.
+
+Merle had found an ally in Iva Westwood. Iva was a rather
+out-of-the-way girl, proud and reserved. She did not often care to wage
+battle with Opal herself, but she keenly enjoyed hearing somebody else
+do it, and was ready to act "backer-up" within limits. She appreciated
+both the Ramsays, though her particular temperament was more attracted
+by Merle. In a certain off-hand, abrupt fashion she might be considered
+a chum.
+
+On the second Friday afternoon after their arrival at Durracombe, Mavis
+and Merle went to The Moorings as usual. To their immense surprise, when
+they arrived there, they found the whole school arrayed in light frocks,
+silk stockings, and sandalled slippers.
+
+"Hello! What's the meaning of this? Is there going to be a party?" they
+asked quickly.
+
+"Party? No! Don't you know it's dancing afternoon?" replied Nesta,
+re-tying her pale-blue hair-ribbon, which was coming off. "Surely Miss
+Pollard told you?"
+
+"She never said a word about it."
+
+"Well, she told Opal to tell you at any rate. Just when you'd gone home
+this morning I heard her say to Opal: 'Run after those two and remind
+them it's dancing afternoon.'"
+
+"Opal never came near us. What a shame!" blazed Merle.
+
+"We didn't have dancing last Friday," objected Mavis.
+
+"No, because Miss Crompton hadn't come back. We shall have it every
+Friday now."
+
+"Where? In the playroom?"
+
+Nesta laughed.
+
+"Oh no! We don't have it at school. There's no room big enough. We go to
+Miss Crompton's class in the public hall."
+
+"Well, look here! What are we to do?" asked Mavis. "We can't turn up as
+we are? Shall we run home and change into 'war paint'?"
+
+"I don't know. You'd better ask Miss Pollard. Oh, here she is! Miss
+Pollard, please! Mavis and Merle didn't know it was dancing afternoon."
+
+"How very annoying! I told Opal to remind you," said the mistress,
+turning to the aggrieved pair almost as if it were their own fault. "Go
+home to change? Oh no! There isn't time now. You must all come along at
+once or we shall be late. It's a tiresome mistake but it can't be helped
+and you mustn't miss the lesson. You'll know better next week."
+
+"Might we _tear_ home and change, and run on to the public hall?" begged
+Mavis desperately.
+
+"No, no! You must all come together. Never mind. I'll explain to Miss
+Crompton, and it will be quite all right."
+
+It was all very well for Miss Pollard to say "Never mind" in so easy a
+fashion. Mavis and Merle were furious. They possessed dainty dresses,
+thin stockings, and dancing slippers in their wardrobe at Bridge House,
+and when the whole school was arrayed _en fęte_ it was most humiliating
+to be marched off in their brown knitted jerseys, ribbed stockings, and
+ordinary serviceable shoes. They both looked daggers at Opal, who just
+then put in an appearance very prettily got up in a white _crępe de
+Chine_ dress and a big, pale-pink hair-ribbon. She started guiltily when
+she saw them.
+
+"Oh, I forgot to tell you two about the dancing. It simply went out of
+my head," she exclaimed.
+
+"Then your head's as empty as a brass nob," exploded Merle. "It was just
+_criminal_ of you to forget. I believe you did it on purpose."
+
+Even Mavis did not attempt to palliate Merle's home truths, for she was
+bubbling over with injury, and sharper words still might have followed
+had not Miss Fanny arrived and swept her whole flock from the house for
+a "crocodile" walk to the public hall. The big room here, engaged by
+Miss Crompton, was certainly a very good one for the purpose, with a
+polished floor and nice decorations, so that it looked quite festive and
+"Christmasy", as the girls, having left their coats and hats and
+over-shoes in the cloakroom, marched in and took their places. The class
+was not confined to the pupils at The Moorings; girls from various
+country houses in the neighbourhood, and a sprinkling of little boys
+were also there. The array of light dresses and thin shoes made the
+Ramsays more indignant than ever. And there would have been plenty of
+time to go home and change. Miss Crompton and her assistants were so
+long in getting the children arranged, that Mavis and Merle might easily
+have been back from Bridge House, robed in their best, before the first
+dance began.
+
+Miss Crompton ascertained that her two new pupils were no novices, then
+placed them in the senior class. In revolt against what some parents
+termed "stage posturing" she had revived some of the old Victorian
+square dances, and was teaching the first figures of the quadrille.
+Merle happened to be _vis-ŕ-vis_ with a girl of about her own age, a
+tall athletic girl with fair hair, who looked as if she would be more at
+home on horseback than in a ballroom, but who, nevertheless, gaped at
+the Ramsays' morning costumes with unconcealed scorn, and arranged the
+skirt of her own pretty dress rather ostentatiously, as if calling
+attention to the difference. When she met Merle in "the ladies' chain",
+instead of joining hands as the figure required, she deliberately
+refused the outstretched fingers and swept past without touching them.
+
+To Merle it was an open insult. She looked at Miss Crompton to see
+whether the teacher had noticed, but Miss Crompton's attention was
+concentrated on two special bunglers, and though the incident happened
+again as the girls crossed back to their own places, it drew down no
+reproof.
+
+"Slack teaching here," thought Merle, fuming with wrath. "Such a thing
+would never have been allowed in our class at Whinburn. I don't know who
+that girl is, but she's an out-and-out blighter. This is one of the most
+grizzly afternoons I've ever had in my life."
+
+The Ramsays were indeed glad when half-past four arrived, and they were
+able to go home and pour out their woes to Aunt Nellie and Jessop, both
+of whom were most sympathetic and indignant about the whole business.
+
+"I'd have brought your dresses to the town hall for you if I'd only
+known," declared Jessop.
+
+"It was a great mistake of Miss Pollard's; she ought to have sent you
+home to change, even if you missed part of the lesson." (Gentle Aunt
+Nellie sounded quite wrathful). "How could you dance properly without
+your thin shoes? Never mind, dears! You'll know better next week, and
+we'll take care you go really nice. I wouldn't worry any more about it
+if I were you. Do your preparation this evening, and if it's fine
+to-morrow perhaps Uncle David will take you with him to Chagmouth. That
+will give you something else to think about, won't it?"
+
+The girls cheered up at this suggestion. They were very anxious indeed
+to go out with Dr. Tremayne in his little Deemster car. He had a branch
+surgery at Chagmouth, a village ten miles away, and every Saturday he
+spent most of the day there, seeing patients and visiting a sanatorium
+to which he was consulting medical officer. He would have taken the
+girls on the previous Saturday, but there had been a strong gale, and he
+was afraid of Mavis running any risks just at first.
+
+"When you're acclimatized we shan't fear a puff of wind or a few drops
+of rain," he said, "but we'll harden you gradually, like Tom does with
+his bedding-out geraniums."
+
+"Devon wind and rain are so soft they don't hurt me," urged Mavis. "The
+whole air has a different feel from the north. It's nearly as mild as
+our summer. Uncle David, I just want to forget I ever had a sore chest!"
+
+"That's the best way; still we must go slow and sure. I don't want to
+have to order you to bed with a bronchitis kettle."
+
+"I hope I've said good-bye to that wretched old kettle for evermore. I
+didn't want Mother to pack it, but she put it in. I'll give it away
+willingly to the first person who needs it."
+
+Saturday morning fortunately proved fine and mild enough to dispel all
+fears on Mavis's behalf, and the girls were ready and anxious to start
+long before Dr. Tremayne had finished his work in the surgery. They
+fumed round the waiting-room door, casting indignant glances at the
+patients seated within, and hoping their cases were not serious, and
+would not require much of the doctor's time and attention; then, finding
+such hanging about rather dispiriting, they went to the garage and
+helped Tom to polish the brasses of the car--a praiseworthy occupation
+that kept them busy until the last patient had been dismissed from the
+surgery.
+
+"Just a few bottles of medicine to make up, and then we're off," said
+Uncle David, giving some instruments to Jessop to sterilize. "Have you
+each got a warm scarf, girls? And where's the rug? Tell Tom to put my
+bag inside the dicky, there won't be room for it in front to-day. You
+two will have to sit close, but we'll squeeze in somehow."
+
+The little yellow car was only a two-seater, but it held three at a
+pinch. Mavis, in the middle, sat as far back as possible, so as not to
+incommode Uncle David's left arm as he drove, while Merle sat a little
+forward, to give extra room. Jessop tucked the rug over their knees, Tom
+started the engine, Aunt Nellie waved good-bye out of the open window,
+and at last they were off, over the bridge and along the road that led
+to the south. It was a lovely sunny morning, with great fleecy clouds on
+the horizon, and a blue sky overhead. Small birds were flitting about in
+the hedges, and large flocks of rooks and starlings were feeding in the
+ploughed fields. The banks were green with masses of beautiful
+hart's-tongue ferns, and all nature seemed alive and stirring and
+thinking of spring. The car whizzed along at a good pace, and they were
+soon scaling the hill and crossing the portion of the moor that lay
+between Durracombe and Chagmouth. The glistening drops from yesterday's
+showers still shone on the brown heather, sheep were feeding on the
+patches of fine grass, and wild little ponies stampeded away at the
+approach of the car, as if they were running a race with motor power.
+
+It was so beautiful on the uplands that the girls were quite sorry when
+the open, hedgeless road dipped between banks into a valley and turned
+into the orthodox deep Devonshire lane. Down and down they went, so
+steeply that Uncle David seemed to be hanging on to the brakes, and for
+at least two miles there was no occasion to use the engine, then quite
+suddenly they whisked round a bend of the road and caught a glimpse of
+the village lying below them. Chagmouth came afterwards to mean so much
+to Mavis and Merle that they never forgot their first sight of it. It
+burst upon them, a compact mass of picturesque houses lying huddled
+between two magnificent headlands crowned with gorse and brown bracken.
+
+A rushing stream ran through the valley, flowed under several bridges,
+and poured itself into the harbour, where gulls were flapping and
+screaming, and the rising tide was rocking the fishing-boats gently to
+and fro. Out beyond the jetty white sea-foam was flying round jagged
+rocks, and a motor-launch was making its way cautiously among chopping
+waves. Though it was only the first of February, the village, owing to
+the large number of its half-exotic shrubs, was framed in a setting of
+green, among which the little colour-washed houses shone like flowers.
+Seen as a bird's-eye view from the road above, Chagmouth indeed looked
+like a gigantic flower border with the emerald sea for a lawn. As they
+dipped downward into the ravine there rose up towards them certain
+scents and sounds intimately connected with the place, and afterwards
+indissolubly associated with it in the minds of the two girls--the
+murmur of running water, the cries of sea-gulls, the twitter of small
+birds, the salt smell of the sea, the pungent smoke of burning
+driftwood, and the faint, aromatic odour of moist evergreen shrubs
+steaming in the sunshine.
+
+Dr. Tremayne halted at a house at the top of the village, and took his
+car round into the stable-yard. The house was a farm, and he rented
+rooms there for the purpose of his profession. A brass plate upon the
+door set forth his surgery hours. People in Chagmouth, unless they were
+seriously ill, kept their aches and pains until Saturdays, for it was a
+long way to fetch the doctor from Durracombe to pay a special visit. The
+waiting-room at Grimbal's Farm was generally full when he arrived, and
+there were enough messages from patients requiring his attendance to
+keep him busy for the whole of the day.
+
+When the car had been put safely under cover, Uncle David took Mavis and
+Merle beneath the great arch of fuchsias that framed the doorway and
+into the wide, old-fashioned hall, where the farmer's wife, who had been
+watching for the car, was standing to greet them.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Penruddock, how are you? Anybody waiting for me this
+morning?" began Uncle David. "You see I've brought my nieces with me
+to-day. They'll take a look round the place while I'm busy. Can you
+manage to find any lunch for them, do you think?"
+
+"Of course I can, Doctor," smiled Mrs. Penruddock. "It's a nice day for
+them to see Chagmouth. It's really quite warm down by the harbour. There
+are ten people in the waiting-room, and I have the messages here. Mrs.
+Glyn Williams said there was no hurry, any time would suit her."
+
+"I'll go up in the afternoon then, when I take the Sanatorium. I'll see
+the people who are waiting now, and then have lunch, please, before I
+begin my round. Have you a watch, Mavis? That's right! Then run down and
+look at the sea, you two girls, and be back by one o'clock. Don't forget
+the time, because I shall have a long round to-day, and must make an
+early start."
+
+Dr. Tremayne disappeared into his surgery, and Mavis and Merle, after a
+few directions as to their route from Mrs. Penruddock, turned down the
+street that led towards the sea. Chagmouth was nothing more than a
+village, though its natives liked to call it a town. To enter it was
+like exploring a new world. The road to Chagmouth was happily too steep
+and narrow for charabancs, so that, even in summer, trippers, with their
+terrible train of sandwich-papers and cigarette-ends, had not yet
+discovered it and defiled its beauty. It was the most picturesque jumble
+of fishermen's cottages that could possibly be imagined; its narrow
+alleys, its archways, its flights of steps, its green half-doorways, its
+tiny windows and chimneys set at every quaint angle, its cobble stones
+and deep gutters, seemed a survival from old days of wrecking and
+smuggling, and transported one's charmed imagination back to the
+eighteenth century. Every corner was an artist's subject, the roofs were
+yellow with lichen, and many of them were covered with masses of ferns;
+fishing-nets hung out to dry over palings, and clumps of valerian and
+stocks and snapdragon grew in the crevices of the walls. Sea-gulls were
+everywhere, as tame as chickens. They sat in rows on the roof ridges,
+they perched on the chimneys, and flapped down into the streets to catch
+the bread the children threw for them, they swam with the ducks in the
+wide pool where the stream emptied itself into the harbour, and circled
+with loud cries round the jetty and the arcade where the fish was
+packed. Nobody in Chagmouth ever molested the gulls; they were the
+mascots of the village, and, according to all traditions handed down
+from time immemorial, to injure one of them would be to court instant
+bad luck and risk at sea. Even the naughtiest boys did not throw stones
+at them, and they were indeed considered almost as sacred as are the
+storks in some countries.
+
+Mavis and Merle, much thrilled with their surroundings, plunged down
+the narrow little street and along flights of steps and under a deep
+archway, till they found themselves by the harbour, where red-sailed
+fishing-boats were at anchor, and blue-jerseyed, bronze-faced men were
+sitting on casks or on coils of rope, smoking, and talking about
+prospects of future catches. It was such a picturesque sight that Mavis
+wanted to linger, but Merle, who could catch a glimpse of the spray
+beyond the breakwater, pulled her on towards the sea. So they climbed
+one flight of steps, and went down another on the far side of the jetty,
+finding themselves on a strip of sand and shingle with high rocks and a
+headland behind, and the stretch of green open channel in front.
+
+The midday February sunshine made gleaming, dancing lights on the
+water. Each wave as it rolled in showed a transparent window of amber,
+then fell in foaming white on the beach, carrying back with it a mass of
+grinding pebbles. The south wind was fresh, but not at all cold. Mavis
+drank in great gasping breaths of it, as if it were something for which
+she had craved and pined. A fortnight of Devon had already brought a
+pink tinge to her cheeks, and the sea air to-day was turning them rosy.
+The girls walked about on the shore, picking up shells, examining the
+great tangled pieces of seaweed, and peeping into the pools among the
+rocks. They would have liked to go round the point, but Mavis's
+wristwatch warned her that time was galloping, and that if they meant to
+climb back up the hill to Grimbal's Farm they must turn at once and
+hurry their steps; so, very reluctantly, they said a temporary good-bye
+to the beach, promising themselves many further visits there on future
+Saturdays, and each taking a cockleshell to carry in her pocket as a
+charm to lure her again to the domain of the sea-nymphs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+Fair Maids of February
+
+
+Mavis and Merle had lunch with Uncle David in the parlour at Grimbal's
+Farm. It was a quaint, old-fashioned house-place, with a horsehair sofa,
+a cabinet full of best china, some enlarged family photographs in gilt
+frames, a very ancient piano, and a round table. It had the faint,
+musty, shut-up scent that clings to a room which is used only once a
+week, but a blazing fire of logs, and a bunch of snowdrops on the table,
+helped to give it a more occupied air. To the girls it was all part of
+their delightful new experience at Chagmouth. Everything was different
+from home, and therefore interesting, and when Mrs. Penruddock brought
+in a bowl of Devonshire cream with the roasted apples they felt they
+were indeed in a land of plenty. When the meal was over, Dr. Tremayne
+retired into his dispensary to make up medicines, telling the girls to
+wait about for him and not go too far away, as he would soon be starting
+on his round, and would take them in the car.
+
+Of course they did not want to stay in the house, so, accepting Mrs.
+Penruddock's invitation "Go just wherever you like", they started to
+explore the farm premises. Clumps of snowdrops were growing among the
+grass in the orchard under old apple trees, some of whose branches held
+boughs of mistletoe. Bulbs were pushing up in the garden, and the daphne
+mezereon was out already in the warm corner near the bee-hives. Through
+the stackyard flowed the stream which was such a feature of Chagmouth,
+and here its glittering, tumbling waters had been harnessed to turn a
+waterwheel that worked a churn, a turnip-cutter, and other farm
+implements. The wheel at present was still, and the girls could go quite
+close and examine it. It was a picturesque affair, yellow with lichen
+and moss, and with green ferns growing on the wall against which the
+water dripped. It was so utterly different from the unlovely, whirling,
+modern machinery to which they were accustomed in Whinburn that they
+climbed down the steep, narrow steps to get a nearer view. Birds were
+flitting hither and thither like dainty water nixies, great sprays of
+periwinkle trailed down the banks, and the stream danced by with a
+gurgling murmur as if it were trying to put some story into words.
+Mavis, standing on the lowest of the steps, and leaning against a blade
+of the waterwheel, threw sticks on to its bosom and watched them as they
+bobbed along on their way towards the sea.
+
+"Hello!" called a voice from above. "If you don't want to get knocked
+into the water you'd better come up. The wheel will be turning in
+another moment. We didn't know you were down there."
+
+The girls made a hurried ascent of the steps, and came scrambling up
+into the stackyard. The stream might have its attractions, but they had
+no wish to try a February bath in it. At the top, by the door of the
+churning-shed, stood a boy of perhaps sixteen, a dark, good-looking boy,
+with clear brown eyes that sparkled and twinkled like the dancing water
+below. He held out a strong hand and helped them up the last of the
+awkward steps.
+
+"Dr. Tremayne sent me to look for you," he volunteered, "and a hunt I've
+had. I thought you must have gone down the town. I wouldn't have found
+you, only I heard your voices. He's ready to start, and in two minds
+whether to set off without you or not."
+
+"Is he waiting? Oh, I'm so sorry! Where's the car? On the road by the
+front door? Can we cut across the orchard here? Oh, thanks! We won't be
+two seconds," and Mavis, scrambling over a fence, made a bee-line for
+the house in hot haste.
+
+"We'd no idea it was so late," added Merle, scurrying after her with
+only half a glance at the knight who had come to their rescue.
+
+The boy stood watching their race across the orchard with an amused look
+in his dark eyes, then he picked up a piece of rope and went away down
+the stackyard to the stables, whistling softly to himself as he walked.
+
+The girls arrived at the front door of the farm at the very eleventh
+hour, for Dr. Tremayne had started the engine, and was on the point of
+setting forth for his visits. They scrambled into the car, pouring out
+breathless apologies.
+
+"You were nearly left behind," he commented. "I've a long round and
+couldn't wait, but I thought you'd like to come with me to the
+Sanatorium; there's such a glorious view up there. It would have been a
+pity to miss it. Yes, put that scarf round your neck, Mavis, certainly!"
+as a scrimmage went on between the two girls, Merle trying to force
+wraps upon her sister, which the latter fiercely resisted.
+
+"I hate to be eternally coddled," protested Mavis.
+
+"You know what Mother said. You must put on extra things in the car,
+especially when you're so hot with running. She told me to make you."
+
+"Right-o! only don't quite smother me, please," agreed Mavis, giving up
+the struggle and submitting to the warm scarf. "Anything for a quiet
+life. Do keep still, and sit more forward, can't you? Uncle David hasn't
+room to drive. Are you going straight to the Sanatorium now, Uncle?"
+
+"I must call at The Warren first to see Mrs. Glyn Williams. That's the
+house, the white one among the trees. They've a beautiful sheltered
+garden there. I wish I could grow early vegetables like they do. They
+seem to escape all the frosts. It's the most forward bit of land in the
+countryside."
+
+In another minute they had passed the great gates and were motoring up
+the laurel-bordered drive to the house. Dr. Tremayne stopped his car on
+the carriage sweep opposite the glass front door, drew off his thick
+gauntlet gloves, took his case of instruments, and rang the bell.
+
+"You'd rather stay with the car than come inside?" he asked the girls.
+"I shall probably be perhaps twenty minutes--not longer, I hope! Walk
+about, Mavis, if you feel chilly. I'm sure Mrs.----" but at that moment
+the butler opened the door, and the rest of the doctor's sentence went
+unspoken.
+
+For a space of five minutes the Ramsays stayed quietly in the car, then
+Merle began to grow restless. She amused herself by inspecting the
+various levers.
+
+"I could start as easily as anything," she announced airily.
+
+"Oh, Merle, _don't_! Uncle David will be so angry if you play any of
+your pranks with the car. Let us get out and walk about till he comes
+back. I'm tired of sitting still."
+
+Anxious to keep her sister away from temptation, Mavis hustled her out
+of the car on to the drive, and began to pace up and down the carriage
+sweep. But this did not content lively Merle. She wanted to sample the
+garden.
+
+"Uncle David was just going to tell us to go when he went indoors," she
+contended, and there seemed so much truth in her argument that Mavis
+yielded, though slightly against her better judgment.
+
+It was so warm that they took off their coats and left them inside the
+car, then they selected an interesting-looking path among the bushes,
+and started to explore. Certainly it was a delightful garden; it had
+lawns and shrubberies and flower-borders, and a brook with a rustic
+bridge over it, and a glade that looked a veritable fairies'
+dancing-place. Mavis and Merle were thoroughly enjoying themselves. They
+were in no particular hurry, because they thought when Uncle David came
+out of the house and missed them he would sound his motor-horn as a
+signal for them to return. They walked on, therefore, some considerable
+way along the course of the little brook. Quite suddenly they heard
+voices, and from a path slightly ahead two girls turned into the glade.
+The Ramsays remembered them instantly. They had been present at the
+dancing-class yesterday, and it was indeed the elder of them who had
+behaved with such extreme rudeness to Merle in the ladies' chain. The
+recognition seemed to be mutual. They came forward briskly towards Mavis
+and Merle, who stood still, feeling decidedly caught, but determined to
+hold their own.
+
+"Hello! What are you doing here in our garden?" began the elder girl
+inhospitably.
+
+"Looking at your flowers," answered Merle.
+
+"Well, I must say that's rather cool. Don't you know you're
+trespassing?"
+
+"No, I don't!"
+
+"Well, you are at any rate. These are private grounds."
+
+"So I suppose, but we're not doing them any harm by walking round them."
+
+"Oh, Merle, _do_ let us explain properly," put in Mavis, trying to stop
+this unseemly fencing. "We came with our uncle, Dr. Tremayne, and we got
+tired of sitting in the car waiting for him, so we took a walk. We
+didn't think anyone would mind."
+
+"Is Dr. Tremayne your uncle? Why didn't you say so before?"
+
+"You never gave us a chance!" snapped Merle. "Of course he's our uncle.
+There goes his hooter. We must scoot back, because he'll be in a hurry
+to start."
+
+"I can show you a short cut," volunteered the younger girl, speaking for
+the first time, and running in front she led the way, between bushes and
+through a vegetable garden, back to the carriage sweep opposite the
+front door.
+
+Here Dr. Tremayne was hooting loudly to recall his wandering nieces, and
+looked not a little relieved at their appearance.
+
+"I thought I'd lost you again," he said, as they came up. "So you've
+been making friends with Babbie? Where's Gwen? Is her wrist better? I
+wanted to look at it. Yes, fetch her, please, Babbie! I may as well see
+her while I'm here."
+
+Mavis and Merle, with eyes fixed on the distant landscape, sat in the
+car while Dr. Tremayne made a hurried examination of Gwen Williams's
+wrist. They did not look in her direction as they drove away, though
+they nodded a stately good-bye to Babbie.
+
+"Think of meeting _that_ girl here," whispered Merle to Mavis. "Isn't
+she odious?"
+
+"I wish we'd never gone into their garden," Mavis whispered back. "If
+there's anything in the world I hate it's being caught."
+
+The brief episode had upset them both. They did not care to explain it
+to Uncle David, and sat rather silent and glum as he drove up the road
+to the Sanatorium. It was not flattering to have been taken for
+trespassing trippers, which was evidently what Gwen had supposed them to
+be. Her reception had certainly been most impolite, and was calculated
+to hurt anybody's feelings. They cheered up a little when they reached
+the top of the hill, and began to forget about it, for in front lay such
+a view of cliff and sea and sky as to send all cobwebs flying away to
+the region where dismal things belong. The Sanatorium had been built in
+a glorious situation, and surely no place in Devon had a more beautiful
+prospect from its open windows. Dr. Tremayne halted outside the gate for
+a few moments, and pointed out to his nieces certain distant features of
+interest, such as the lighthouse, and Port Sennen harbour. He was
+expatiating upon the clearness of the afternoon, when a voice called him
+by name, and, turning round, the girls saw, hurrying along the road
+after them, the boy who had helped them up the steps from the waterwheel
+at Grimbal's Farm. His dark face looked hot. He had evidently been
+running fast.
+
+"I hoped I'd just catch you, Doctor," he exclaimed breathlessly. "You
+left this in the surgery, and I was sure you'd want it."
+
+"My stethoscope! Great Scott! I thought it was in my pocket. Thanks,
+Bevis! I should have had to go back for it. I suppose you came by the
+cliff path?"
+
+"Yes, it saves half a mile at least."
+
+"You're going home that way? I wonder if my nieces would care to go with
+you for the sake of the walk. Girls, would you rather wait in the car
+outside the Sanatorium or try the path along the cliffs to Chagmouth?
+Bevis would act guide."
+
+After their previous experience of waiting for Uncle David, Mavis and
+Merle did not hesitate a moment, and accepted their escort with
+alacrity. A ramble would be far more fun than sitting still in the car,
+or wandering surreptitiously round a strange garden. Dr. Tremayne was in
+a hurry, so the moment they had scrambled out he pulled his
+starting-lever and set off again.
+
+"We'll meet at the farm. Mrs. Penruddock will give you some tea. I shall
+be back by five, so be ready for me then," he called, as he drove away
+along the road through the Sanatorium grounds.
+
+Left behind, Mavis and Merle felt their first and most obvious duty was
+to make friends with the boy who was to act as their guide back to
+Chagmouth. Beyond the fact that his name was Bevis they knew absolutely
+nothing about him. They wondered whether he belonged to Grimbal's Farm,
+or was merely a visitor there. His dark, alert face and his speech and
+general bearing marked him as utterly different from homely Mr. and Mrs.
+Penruddock. Merle, calling up a mental vision of the stout, ruddy-haired
+woman who had charge of the surgery, and the slow, heavy-featured farmer
+whom she had seen in the stackyard, decided hastily, "They can't be his
+father and mother!" Whoever he might be he was a handsome boy, with a
+look of natural distinction about him, that "stamp of the gods", which
+is the hall-mark of a noble mind, quite irrespective of the accident of
+birth. His dark hair had a crisp curl in it, and his mouth held
+beautiful curves when he smiled. Merle, who had lately taken several
+violent prejudices, in this instance decided hotly in his favour. Merle
+never liked people by halves. All her world consisted of foes or chums.
+
+Bevis, who had readily accepted the office of guide, seemed doing his
+best to make himself agreeable. He led the way along a path across some
+fields and on to the headland that skirted the sea. There was a track
+here among the gorse and dead bracken, so faint indeed that the girls
+would not have found it for themselves, though Bevis walked along
+confidently. Below them lay the sea, and great jagged rocks, round which
+crowds of gulls were whirling and calling, and here and there flew a
+cormorant, like a black sheep among the white flock, diving occasionally
+under the waves in quest of fish. There could hardly be a pleasanter
+companion than Bevis. He knew the names of all the birds, and could tell
+where he had found their nests. He pointed out two distant black specks,
+that to the girls might have been anything, but which he assured them
+represented a pair of choughs that built every year on the cliffs.
+
+"We tried to get some eggs," he explained, "but the nest was in such an
+awkward place, we couldn't reach it even with a rope."
+
+"Do you mean to tell me you'd let yourself dangle over the edge there to
+collect eggs?" asked Mavis. "Don't you turn dizzy?"
+
+"Not a bit. As long as I know the rope isn't frayed, I'm all right.
+There's something rather jolly about hanging in mid-air. I feel like a
+bird myself. I once got a hooded crow's egg from that cliff over there.
+I gave it to our school museum."
+
+"Do you go to school near here?" asked Merle, hoping to draw some
+information. But Bevis shook his head.
+
+"I've left now," he said briefly, and changed the subject.
+
+As they neared Chagmouth the track they had followed led them down the
+side of the cliff to where some allotment gardens lay under the shelter
+of the headland. Many of these were neglected and uncultivated, but a
+few showed signs of recent digging. Bevis, pausing by a small wooden
+gate, pointed downwards.
+
+"That's ours," he explained, "and if you don't mind I want to fetch my
+knife. I believe I left it there yesterday when I was working. I won't
+be a minute if you can wait."
+
+"Oh, do let us come too, please!" urged the girls.
+
+So they all went down, scrambling along a kind of sheep track till they
+reached the level patch of rich soil below. The little plot of land was
+mostly devoted to vegetables, but it also held a few fruit-trees and
+some flowers. There was a fallen stump in its midst, which made a
+capital seat, and here the girls settled themselves to rest while Bevis
+looked for his knife. Snowdrops grew in profusion around them, lifting
+tall stalks and pure white heads above the herbage through which they
+had pushed. The late afternoon sun just touched the roofs of the little
+fishing-town below, though the beach lay in shadow. Up among the woods
+some glass windows gleamed like gold.
+
+"Is that The Warren, where we went with Uncle David?" asked Merle, as
+Bevis came back, pocketing his knife. "Whose place is it? It has lovely
+grounds."
+
+"Yes, that's The Warren sure enough. Whose place is it? Why, it belongs
+to General Talland. He's the landlord of most of Chagmouth."
+
+"I thought some people named Williams lived there?"
+
+"So they do, but they don't own the village, however much they may think
+it. They only _rent_ the house--it's not theirs. We Chagmouth folks
+don't want one of your fine society squires thrust down our throats.
+We'll manage our own affairs."
+
+Bevis spoke bitterly, with a look towards the house on the wooded hill
+that sent no goodwill towards its occupants. Merle, burning to relate
+her experiences at The Warren, was about to ask more, but Bevis turned
+abruptly away. He was friendly, but so plainly reserved that nobody with
+an ounce of tact would have tried to force his confidence. Even Merle,
+not usually over-discreet, had the sense to keep back the dozen
+questions that rose to her lips. Their companion was bending among the
+grass and brambles picking snowdrops. He gathered the finest ones, with
+the longest stalks, arranged them into two exactly equal bunches, then
+offered them shyly to the girls.
+
+"We call them 'Fair Maids of February' about here," he said. "It's the
+first of February to-day, and you're the 'fair maids', so you ought to
+have some of your own flowers if you care to take them."
+
+"Oh, thanks!" (Mavis and Merle were flattered by the compliment). "We'll
+love to have them. We'll take them home in the car. What beauties they
+are! I never saw such big ones before. Did you plant them here?"
+
+"I put a few bulbs down years ago, and they've spread. They will if you
+never touch them. Shall we go on now? Mother'll have some tea ready for
+you, I expect. The Doctor generally gets his at the Sanatorium. I
+promised to make up some medicines for him, so I must hurry back."
+
+The girls followed, considerably mystified. Bevis's connection with
+Grimbal's Farm was a puzzle. He left them in the stackyard and plunged
+into one of the barns, and later on they caught a glimpse of his dark,
+curly head through the door of the dispensary. They did not see him
+again before they left. Mrs. Penruddock, kind but too busy for
+conversation, brought the tray into the parlour and left them to have
+their tea, and they had scarcely finished eating saffron-cake and
+hard-bake when Dr. Tremayne arrived, in a violent hurry to get back to
+Durracombe. So they scrambled into their coats and wraps, picked up
+their bunches of snowdrops, and took their seats in the car, and next
+moment they were off up the steep hill that led out of the ravine.
+Before they whirled round the corner they turned their heads for one
+last peep at Chagmouth. The little town lay huddled in twilight, and the
+sea behind was dim as the sky, but the brook purred joyously on its
+pebbly course among the gardens, and the faint scent of burning
+driftwood was wafted up from below.
+
+"This day's going to be specially marked in my diary," murmured Merle.
+"It's been a day of days."
+
+"I feel somehow as if it were the beginning of something else," answered
+Mavis. "Uncle David, you'll bring us here again, won't you?"
+
+"Any Saturday that's fine."
+
+"Then I shall simply live for fine Saturdays and Chagmouth. It's the
+loveliest place I've ever seen. I don't believe there's anything else
+like it in the whole of the wide world, or anywhere else out of
+Paradise. That's how I feel about it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A Child of Misfortune
+
+
+Mavis and Merle were brimming over with curiosity about Bevis and about
+several other affairs in Chagmouth, but they had to keep their questions
+to themselves, for Dr. Tremayne considered that narrow Devon roads in
+the gathering darkness required his whole attention, and that
+conversation might mean an accident.
+
+"You're requested not to speak to the man at the wheel," he replied, in
+answer to Merle's first eager inquiry; "it takes me all my time to
+drive."
+
+So the girls subsided into quiet, and did not even speak to one another,
+but sat watching the glare of the headlights on the road and the dark
+outlines of the high hedges and banks above. They made up for their
+silence, though, after supper, for they found Jessop in the pantry, and,
+offering to wipe the silver for her as an excuse for their presence,
+they began a brisk catechism.
+
+Jessop was a kindly old gossip, a native of Chagmouth, and had all the
+affairs of the little town at her fingers' ends. She was nothing loath
+to discuss its inhabitants while she washed up the supper things.
+
+"To begin with, who is Bevis?" asked Mavis eagerly. "We can't make him
+out at all. He speaks and looks like a gentleman, and yet he talked
+about working in the fields. Does he live at Grimbal's Farm? What
+relation is he to Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock?"
+
+"He called Mrs. Penruddock 'Mother'," added Merle, "but he doesn't look
+the least bit like her son. Is he or not?"
+
+"Yes and no," said Jessop, wielding her dish-cloth as she talked. "Mrs.
+Penruddock has been a good mother to him for a matter of over fourteen
+years now, but his own mother lies in Chagmouth churchyard. She must
+have been a handsome woman from all accounts, though I never saw her
+myself. It was my cousin, Mary, who was barmaid at the 'King's Arms' at
+the time, who told me. It's a long story. There are many in Chagmouth
+besides you who've asked themselves if Bevis isn't a gentleman born. But
+nobody has ever been able to answer the question."
+
+"Why? Oh, do tell us!"
+
+"We want so immensely to know."
+
+Jessop wrung out her dish-cloth with rather irritating slowness, then
+hung it to dry on a nail. She seemed turning matters over in her mind,
+and her mental processes were apparently no swifter than her actions.
+
+"I don't see why I shouldn't. There's nothing you oughtn't to hear,"
+she replied at last, as if coming to a conclusion. "Everybody in
+Chagmouth knows about Bevis, and if I don't tell you somebody else will.
+It's nothing to the lad's discredit, I'm sure. I always say I've a soft
+corner for Bevis. Such a fine boy he always was, and he'll make a fine
+man yet--he's worth two of young Williams at The Warren in my opinion.
+But some folks are born with silver spoons in their mouths and others
+aren't. Bevis isn't one of the lucky ones, poor lad! Providence always
+seems to be taking him up and throwing him down again. What'll be the
+end of him goodness only knows!"
+
+The story which Jessop told to the girls, while she polished the silver
+in the pantry, was lengthy and interspersed with many comments and
+reflections of her own, and many quotations from what other people had
+said, but the main facts of the case, as related to Mavis and Merle,
+were briefly as follows.
+
+Rather more than fourteen years ago, on a stormy afternoon in late
+autumn, such inhabitants of Chagmouth as happened to be standing on
+their doorsteps, or looking out of their windows, noticed a closed
+conveyance from Kilvan station drive along the main street. The
+occurrence was sufficiently unusual to arouse comment. Except in the
+summer season tourists rarely came to Chagmouth, and if any stranger
+made his appearance during the quiet months of the year the villagers
+were naturally inquisitive as to his errand. In a small place every item
+of news is of interest, and those who saw the conveyance pass at once
+began to speculate whether the Rector's sister had come to pay him a
+visit, or whether old Mrs. Greaves's sailor son had returned home on
+leave. The bystanders near the market square had the opportunity of
+satisfying their curiosity, for the carriage stopped at the King's Arms
+Hotel, and from it stepped a lady, young, handsome, and well-dressed,
+and carrying a little child in her arms. She interrogated the landlord,
+who had come to the door at the sound of wheels, paid and dismissed the
+driver, gave one hasty glance round the square, then entered the hotel.
+
+Those inhabitants of Chagmouth who witnessed her arrival agreed
+afterwards that she was "a dark-eyed, smart-looking sort of person, with
+an air of London fashions about her", but their glimpse was a brief one,
+for next moment she and her child and her travelling-bag had disappeared
+inside the doorway of the little hotel, and the conveyance was toiling
+up the hill on its way back to Kilvan station.
+
+Inside the "King's Arms" the lady gave her name as Mrs. Hunter, and
+engaged a private sitting-room and a bedroom, explaining that she had
+heard of the mild climate of Chagmouth and wished to try the benefit of
+its sea air. With the help of the chambermaid she bathed her little boy
+and put him to bed. Later she was served with dinner. At about nine
+o'clock she rang the bell violently, and the servant, who came in
+response to her summons, found her huddled in an armchair, half fainting
+and fighting for breath.
+
+"My heart," she panted. "It's one of my heart attacks. Can you fetch a
+doctor? Oh, I am dying!"
+
+The terrified girl ran for the landlord, who hurried in with brandy. In
+the midst of the general panic someone was dispatched for the village
+nurse, and the ostler mounted a bicycle and rode away to Durracombe to
+summon Dr. Tremayne. The people at the "King's Arms" did their ignorant
+best. They laid the patient on the sofa, rubbed her hands, bathed her
+head, and tried to force brandy between her blue lips; but long before
+any medical aid could reach her, she gave one last shuddering gasp, and
+passed away beyond reach of human help. Dr. Tremayne had been paying a
+night visit to a farm on the moors. It was not possible for him to
+arrive at Chagmouth until the following morning. He found the place all
+agog about the tragic event that had happened. Mrs. Jarvis, the village
+nurse, had performed the last offices. Mr. Tingcomb, the landlord, had
+solemnly collected the poor lady's possessions and had locked them up in
+his safe, and his wife and the barmaid between them were trying to still
+the wails of the little, dark-eyed boy, who did not take readily to
+strangers and refused all their well-meant offers of comfort.
+
+Such a case had never been known in the neighbourhood, for not only had
+the stranger succumbed within a few hours of her arrival at Chagmouth,
+but the news soon leaked out that it was impossible to identify her.
+There were no papers of any kind either in her pockets or in her
+travelling-bag. Her purse contained six pounds in gold and a little
+silver, but no card or address to mark its owner. The police, called in
+to investigate matters, could obtain no clue. On hearing all the
+evidence they ventured the opinion that the lady had probably given a
+false name. London newspapers published an account of the romantic
+happening, and for perhaps a week the public wondered over it, then
+other and more important matters cropped up and it was forgotten.
+
+Meanwhile, in the absence of any information as to who she was or whence
+she had come, the stranger had been laid to rest in the little
+churchyard on the hill, and the rector, in charity, presuming her to be
+one of his flock, read Christian burial-service over her. Whatever her
+errand in Chagmouth her earthly body found its last home there, and most
+of the villagers, some in kindly sympathy and some in mere curiosity,
+attended the funeral and left flowers upon her grave.
+
+Naturally, amid the whole of the sad and perplexing business, the great
+centre of interest was the dark-eyed baby who was toddling about the
+passages of the "King's Arms". He had made friends with Mrs. Tingcomb
+and the barmaid, but resented being kissed by the dozens of women who
+came to see him and gossip over him. He was a bonny, sturdy, little
+fellow, possibly about two years old, who could walk, but beyond a few
+words had not mastered even the elements of speech. The chambermaid, who
+helped at his first bath, remembered that his mother had called him
+Bevis. The possession of his Christian name was felt to be something,
+though all other information about him was painfully lacking. For
+several weeks the police did their best to trace his relations, and Mr.
+Tingcomb lived in hourly expectation that somebody would arrive suddenly
+in a station conveyance to claim him and take him away. But nobody came.
+The excitement died down, and presently even the local newspapers ceased
+to refer to the case. People began to shake their heads and say it was
+plain the poor lamb wasn't wanted, or his friends would have turned up
+from somewhere to find him. Mrs. Tingcomb, very much occupied with her
+house and the bar, began to complain to her neighbours of the burden of
+her charge. It was nobody's business at the "King's Arms" to look after
+a lively boy whose toddling feet led him into every mischief. She even
+hinted that she considered the time had arrived when she could
+conscientiously hand him over to the Poor Law Guardians at the "Union",
+whose obvious duty it was to provide for him.
+
+At this point of the proceedings Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock had stepped
+into the breach. Eight years before they had lost their only child, a
+boy of three, and they now proposed to adopt little Bevis to fill up the
+empty gap in their household. They were kind, homely people, without
+much education, but thoroughly respected in the village, and everybody
+at once agreed that their offer solved the difficult problem. To save
+the child from the stigma of being brought up at the Union was
+everything. Even the poorest fisherman's home would have been preferable
+to that. So little Bevis, with the approval of the whole of Chagmouth,
+was formally adopted and transferred to Grimbal's Farm, where he grew
+apace and learnt to call Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock Father and Mother. If
+gossiping tongues could only have kept silent he might have continued to
+believe they were his parents, but one day, when he was about seven
+years old, he came back from school crying as if his heart was broken.
+Some of the boys had teased him and told him the story, with several
+exaggerations, of how he had been left at the "King's Arms" and never
+claimed. Mrs. Penruddock comforted him as best she could, but she
+acknowledged to her neighbours that he was never the same child
+afterwards. The knowledge had shattered his Paradise. He was a very
+proud, sensitive boy, and the taunts of his schoolfellows rankled.
+Henceforward he felt a sense of difference between himself and other
+children. He was quick to catch any allusions to his position, and a
+word or a glance was enough to bring the colour flooding into his
+cheeks. He fought many battles at school on this score, for he was hot
+tempered as well as proud, and for a year or two he was somewhat of an
+Ishmael, shunning his companions and hurrying home to the haven of
+Grimbal's Farm directly lessons were over.
+
+Then the fates, who seemed to use the boy as a shuttlecock, brought him
+an unexpected turn of good fortune. A lady, who was a summer visitor at
+the farm, took an interest in him, and was much touched by the romance
+of his story. She was well off, and she offered to pay for his education
+at a high-class school. So Bevis went as a boarder to Shelton College,
+where nobody knew anything about his antecedents, and he held his own
+among other boys, and only came back to Grimbal's Farm for holidays, and
+grew up so different from the fisher children of Chagmouth that he was
+less inclined than ever to make friends with them, and was a source of
+much gratification to Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock, who marvelled at his
+learning and his manners, and were as proud of him as a pair of robins
+who have hatched a young cuckoo.
+
+Mrs. Martin, the lady who had provided for Bevis's education, threw out
+hints of Cambridge, and of training him for one of the professions, a
+goal which had spurred his ambition and caused him to work his hardest.
+He was making most satisfactory progress at Shelton College, and was
+already beginning to look forward to choosing a career, when fickle fate
+again interfered, and toppled over all his castles in the air. Mrs.
+Martin died suddenly and left no will. Her heirs-at-law took over her
+estate, and paid any outstanding debts, but they saw no necessity for
+continuing her charities. Bevis's schooldays, therefore, came to a brief
+end, and he returned to Grimbal's Farm with no prospect of ever
+realizing the hopes that tantalizing Fortune had dangled before his
+longing eyes.
+
+"I do say it's hard on him," finished Jessop, as she told the tale to
+Mavis and Merle in the pantry. "He's been educated a gentleman as much
+as young Williams at The Warren--and my cousin, Mary, who saw her,
+sticks to it his mother was a lady born!--yet there he is, working on
+the farm like any labourer, and it's not his job. A head-piece like his
+was meant for book learning and college."
+
+"Can't Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock send him back to school?" asked Mavis.
+
+"No; the farm's not been doing over well lately. They want his help on
+the land, too, and, fair play to the lad, he's giving them of his best.
+It's a poor look-out for him, though, just to carry on at the farm. The
+doctor has been teaching him to dispense, but that's only a step towards
+medicine, and won't do much for him in the long run, I'm afraid. Some
+say it was foolish kindness of Mrs. Martin, and his schooling will have
+done him more harm than good, but you know how folks talk. They're all a
+bit jealous of him really, down Chagmouth way, if the truth be told.
+He's a fine lad, and he sticks to his foster-parents right loyally, but
+you've only to look at him to see he was made for something different
+from farm life, and if ever he gets the chance he'll be off and away, or
+I'm greatly mistaken. There, I've told you all about Bevis, and a little
+too much perhaps, though there's no harm in your knowing, that I can
+see."
+
+"Thank you!" said Mavis. "We're so glad to know. It explains so very
+much that we thought queer about him. I understand it all now. Poor
+Bevis!"
+
+"Yes, poor Bevis, indeed!" echoed Merle. "We'd no idea he had all that
+romantic story behind him when we walked down the cliffs with him this
+afternoon. What you say is just right--he's different altogether from
+other people, and you wonder how it is until you really know the reason
+why."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+The Innovators
+
+
+Mavis and Merle had been so tremendously interested in the romantic
+story of Bevis, as related by Jessop, that it had almost wiped from
+their minds the meeting with Gwen Williams and the rather unpleasant
+episode in the garden at The Warren. On the two occasions that they had
+encountered her she had made a very unfavourable impression upon them,
+so they were more surprised than pleased when on Tuesday morning she
+turned up at the French class. She walked into the room as if her
+presence were a favour, nodded to Opal Earnshaw, gave a half recognition
+to Edith and Maude Carey, but took no notice of anybody else, indeed she
+conspicuously turned her back on Aubrey Simpson and Muriel Burnitt.
+
+"What's Miss Conceit doing here?" Merle whispered to Iva. "I hope she's
+not going to come every day."
+
+"Gwen? Oh no! She and Babbie only come for French twice a week, and on
+dancing afternoons. They have a governess at home, and motor over here
+for special lessons. You don't like her? I don't think any of us do
+much, except Opal, who toadies to her most fearfully. She's always
+fishing for invitations to The Warren."
+
+"It's a matter of taste," replied Merle. "I'm sure I wouldn't want to go
+to The Warren if I was asked."
+
+But at that moment Mademoiselle, who had entered the room and taken her
+seat, glared at Iva and Merle for silence, and the lesson commenced. The
+class lasted from 2.30 to 3.30, after which the Williams's car was
+supposed to be in waiting to bear them back to Chagmouth, and the girls
+at The Moorings were due at a hockey practice. To-day, however, fate
+interfered with both of these events. The chauffeur sent a message to
+Gwen and Babbie that the car was undergoing some necessary repairs at
+the garage in Durracombe and would not be ready for at least an hour,
+and pouring rain put a stop to all plans of hockey.
+
+Boarders and day-girls alike collected disconsolately in the playroom.
+Miss Pollard had given orders that nobody was to go home until the heavy
+shower was over, so the whole school were temporary prisoners.
+
+Mavis, sitting on one of the lockers, and listening to the general
+grousing going on around her, shook herself impatiently.
+
+"What a set of stupids they are," she whispered to Merle. "Always down
+in the dumps about everything. Can't we wake them up somehow? I vote we
+get up an impromptu stunt. It would be more fun than sitting grumbling.
+Why shouldn't we do that scene we had at the Whinburn High last term?
+You remember? _Aunt Laetitia_, I mean. You take the aunt, and I'll take
+Adelaide, and Iva and Nesta could be Dora and Marjorie. We'd explain
+their parts to them directly, there isn't much for them to do except
+back up Adelaide."
+
+"Topping!" agreed Merle. "There'll be heaps of time. Here come Iva and
+Nesta. I'll take them into the cloakroom and coach them while you
+suggest the idea. It ought to catch on surely. I'll leave you to
+explain."
+
+Merle secured Iva and Nesta and bore them off to give them a hasty
+outline of the sketch which they were to produce. Mavis meantime mounted
+a chair, and, clapping her hands to secure attention, made her proposal.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," she started humorously. "I always begin 'Ladies
+and Gentlemen', even if there aren't any gentlemen present, because it's
+the proper thing to say and sounds nice. If you don't mind listening to
+me for a moment there's something I want to suggest to you. This rain is
+the absolute limit, and it's rather grizzly we can't go out to hockey.
+As we're all boxed up here, how would you like a ten minutes' stunt?
+Merle and I and two others can give you a short sketch if you care to
+listen. Anybody who wants to act audience, please squat on the floor."
+
+[Illustration: BOTH MAVIS AND MERLE LET THEMSELVES GO _Page 89_]
+
+The girls looked considerably astonished, but nevertheless seemed to
+welcome Mavis's proposal. They sat down as requested, most of them on
+the floor, but a few on chairs or lockers, seemingly prepared to listen
+to anything that was provided for them. They had not to wait long.
+Mavis and Merle were adepts in arranging lightning changes of costume,
+and could assume a character in a moment by the addition of a hat,
+a coat, or a handkerchief. Acting came naturally to them, and they
+loved nothing better than impromptu performances. They walked in now,
+attired, the one as a straight-laced, elderly lady, and the other as her
+ultra-fashionable niece, and supported by Iva and Nesta, whose speeches
+consisted mostly of "Yes" and "No", commenced a brisk and most amusing
+dialogue, in which the aunt deplored the attitude of the modern girl,
+and contrasted her with the maiden of mid-Victorian days, while the
+niece held a brief for present-day damsels, and gave a lively defence of
+their doings.
+
+Both Mavis and Merle thoroughly let themselves go. They threw themselves
+entirely into their parts, and by speech, manner, and action reproduced
+the characters they represented, quite carrying the audience with them.
+When they stopped at the end of their little sketch they were greeted by
+a storm of clapping. The girls at The Moorings had never seen acting
+like that before and were most enthusiastic over it.
+
+"It was ripping!" approved Opal. "I say, we must have some more of this
+sort of thing. I call it A1."
+
+"I don't know however you did it!" exclaimed Babbie Williams. (She had
+been standing open-eyed during the performance and was now gazing at
+Mavis and Merle as if she considered them geniuses in disguise.) "I'm so
+glad our car wasn't ready. I wouldn't have missed this for anything,
+would you, Gwen?" (turning impulsively to her sister).
+
+Gwen, who had clapped with the rest, did not answer. She too was staring
+at Mavis and Merle, looking at them as if they were some strange new
+creatures whom she could not yet comprehend. Apparently they did not fit
+in with any of her preconceived standards. Meeting Merle's eyes, she
+turned hastily away. A boarder brought a message that their car was at
+the door, so, summoning Babbie, she made a hasty exit without bidding
+good-bye to anybody, even to Opal.
+
+On the strength of the very favourable reception accorded to their first
+venture in the line of drama, Mavis and Merle held a long private
+confabulation, and decided to try and start a society to stir up the
+school.
+
+"They've nothing," said Mavis, "absolutely nothing! And I see
+possibilities of _such_ fun! We ought to get up sing-songs and plays,
+and ten dozen other things. I call it an opportunity."
+
+"Yes, if Opal doesn't butt in and turn everything upside down. We shall
+have her to reckon with I expect."
+
+"Oh, bother Opal! She's not the only girl in the school."
+
+"No, but she thinks she is."
+
+"Give her a decent part and she'll like it as much as anybody."
+
+"She's not going to be top-dog all along the line, though."
+
+"Well, we can't leave her out of it. I suppose she'll have her turn just
+the same as other people, and we'll leave it at that."
+
+Next day, therefore, the Ramsays went to school bristling with ideas,
+and, calling a mass meeting in the playroom, made their proposals. The
+girls, who were ready for anything in the way of variety, accepted the
+innovations with alacrity, and in the course of the quarter of an hour
+allotted to lunch they formed a society, the object of which was, as
+Mavis expressed it, "to stir things up a little and have acting and
+sing-songs and any other fun that comes along". They fixed Wednesday
+afternoon from 4 o'clock to 4.30 for their first meeting.
+
+"Miss Pollard won't mind our staying half an hour after school when she
+knows what it's for," declared Opal. "We'll have our--what did you call
+it?--symposium, then, and I dare say she'll give us other times too if
+we want to rehearse for a play. It would be prime to get up something
+big for the end of the term, wouldn't it? Who's going to read papers on
+Wednesday? Hands up those who'll volunteer?"
+
+"Not much time to write anything before then," grumbled Nesta.
+
+"It needn't be original unless you like," put in Mavis. "For this first
+time you may recite some poetry if you want. It's just to get us all
+together and make a start."
+
+"Are those kids going to be in it?" objected Muriel, with a baneful eye
+on the juniors.
+
+"There's no harm in their coming to listen. It's really more fun if
+there's an audience. In a thing like this it's a case of 'the more the
+merrier'. I vote the whole school turns up on Wednesday at four."
+
+"Yes, yes! Don't leave us out of it!" squeaked the small fry, in much
+terror lest they should be excluded from the delightful ceremony.
+
+"Will you promise to sit as mum as mice and not interrupt?"
+
+"We'll be absolute mascots!"
+
+Mavis and Merle, as originators of the innovations, felt a little
+anxious when Wednesday afternoon arrived. It is one thing to carry on
+old-established societies, where you can quote the traditions of years
+and the opinions of many past head-girls, and quite another to float
+them in a school where nothing of the sort has ever been formulated
+before. Opal's high-handed ways would probably be the main obstacle, but
+Mavis thought that with tact even Opal might be managed. As soon as ever
+afternoon classes were over every girl at The Moorings crowded into the
+playroom. There was a considerable amount of giggling and chattering,
+especially among the younger ones, but Merle, who was accustomed to
+public meetings, called out "Sh-sh!" in loud tones, and, mounting a
+locker, took advantage of the gap of silence to make an announcement.
+
+"The first business of the meeting is to elect a chairwoman. Will one
+of you please nominate somebody and we'll put it to the vote?"
+
+The girls looked at one another, and out of sheer force of habit began
+to murmur "Opal", but Iva Westwood stood up, and, turning rather pink,
+proclaimed:
+
+"I should like to nominate Mavis for the chair. She knows more about it
+than any of the rest of us; and she'll show us what we ought to do, and
+put us in the way of running the society properly."
+
+"And I've much pleasure in seconding her," said Nesta eagerly. "Hands up
+all in favour of Mavis!"
+
+The vote was unanimous. Even Opal held up her hand quite readily. She
+would yield place to Mavis, though she would not have transferred an
+ounce of authority to Merle. Mavis was hustled forward into the seat of
+honour and took her place amid applause.
+
+She made a winsome little president, with her blue eyes and her
+dull-gold hair, and everybody looked at her in expectation.
+
+"As this is our first symposium," she began, "I want to explain that
+it's a meeting partly to have fun and enjoy ourselves and partly to give
+all members an opportunity of showing what they can do. Did I hear
+somebody say 'showing-off?' That's a nasty way of putting it! We want
+everybody to do something to entertain the meeting. Of course there
+isn't time in one afternoon for you all to have turns, so I shall only
+call upon a few, and the rest must wait for another time. I'll now ask
+Opal Earnshaw to read us her contribution."
+
+It was tactful of Mavis to give Opal the first innings. She stood up at
+once, looking quite pleased. She had spent more than an hour the evening
+before writing a story, and was rather proud of her first-born literary
+bantling. Her tastes inclined towards melodrama, so she had chosen a
+scene allowing full scope for romance. She unrolled her manuscript,
+cleared her throat a trifle nervously, and began:
+
+    COUNT BERTINO'S BRIDE
+
+    It was a glorious moonlight night in the fair Island of Corsica.
+    Outside in the garden the air was heavy with the scent of
+    southern flowers, and nightingales warbled in a concert of joy.
+    The lovely Lady Elvira, only daughter and heiress of the Duke of
+    Alezzo, leaned over the marble balustrade of the piazza,
+    pensively gazing at the beauty of the scene before her. A
+    scarlet camellia adorned her dark tresses, and round her
+    swan-like neck was wreathed a rope of priceless pearls. She
+    sighed as she gazed at the calm and peaceful landscape, for red
+    riot raged within her heart.
+
+    "Francesca!" she called to one of her maidens, "has Bernardo not
+    yet returned? I pray you send a page in search of news. 'Tis
+    seldom he tarries so late."
+
+    "I go, my lady!" and Francesca sped on her errand.
+
+    Left alone, Elvira paced the piazza with impatient footsteps. A
+    dark figure moving among the flowers below was suddenly seen in
+    the pale moonlight. The lady sprang to the balustrade.
+
+    "Bernardo! Bernardo! Is it thou?" she whispered in tones
+    tremulous with agitation. But her cheeks blanched, as instead of
+    the longed-for features of her lover appeared the hated visage
+    of her arch enemy Count Bertino.
+
+    "Ha, ha, lovely lady, at last I have found thee alone! Time
+    allows me not to beat about the bush, and, rough warrior as I
+    am, my suit must be brief. Too long hast thou trifled with me.
+    Redeem thy promise and wed me!"
+
+    "Never!" moaned Elvira. "My heart is given to another!"
+
+    "And that other," triumphed the Count, "is now in my power. He
+    lies in my darkest dungeon loaded with chains. Wed me, and he
+    will be restored to liberty. Refuse, and by the tombs of my
+    ancestors he dies the death!"
+
+    "Wretch!" panted Elvira, "you have trapped me! But have a care!
+    I may yet escape from your toils. Swear, by all you hold sacred,
+    that at the hour of our nuptials Bernardo will be released and
+    sent with a safe convoy to Rome."
+
+    "I swear! Yet thou shalt not escape!"
+
+    Great were the preparations for the wedding of the powerful
+    Count Bertino and the heiress Elvira, yet of all the gifts
+    showered upon her the one treasured most by the bride was an
+    emerald ring sent by Albaro, the Moorish alchemist. As she
+    turned it upon her finger she murmured, "'Tis my gate to
+    freedom".
+
+    Beautiful in her bridal jewels, but pale as a lily, she
+    approached the altar, and uttered the fateful words which bound
+    her to the Count, but as he turned to lift her veil and claim
+    her as his wife--
+
+    "It is enough!" she cried, "I have freed him and I pass onward
+    to my rest," and, falling backward to the ground, she expired.
+    Her emerald ring was a poisoned one, and by pressing its points
+    into her fair white hand she had placed herself for ever beyond
+    the power of the cruel and revengeful Count Bertino.
+
+Opal sat down, out of breath but covered with glory. Quite a thrill
+passed round the room at so romantic a story.
+
+"O-o-h! It ought to be put on the cinema," suggested Maude Carey. "I can
+see it all--the balustrade and the moonlight and the count coming, and
+then the wedding scene. How _did_ you think of it?"
+
+"Oh, it just came somehow," admitted Opal modestly.
+
+"Well, it's ripping anyway."
+
+"Only very sad," objected Muriel.
+
+"Tales like that nearly always are sad," put in Mavis; "it wouldn't be
+so romantic somehow if it turned out happily."
+
+"Couldn't the lovers have run away?"
+
+"Of course not," said Opal sharply. "Bernardo wasn't to be released
+until the wedding was over."
+
+"Did he get off after all, or did Bertino break his word?"
+
+"Look here! you mustn't ask so many questions," interrupted Mavis. "If
+we don't hurry on we shall never finish our programme. Perhaps we'd
+better take a comic turn next. Merle, will you give us 'The Dandy
+Musician'?"
+
+There was a piano in the playroom, and Merle moved forwards towards it.
+Her contribution was in the nature of a humorous entertainment.
+
+"I'm going to show you," she explained, "how Professor Vladimir
+Limpidimpidumpski gave a recital in the Town Hall of Gapeford before an
+audience of the most distinguished people in the neighbourhood."
+
+Merle was a capital little actress, and she took off the ways of a
+conceited pianist in a most amusing fashion. She twirled the music-stool
+energetically, sat down with great pomp, threw back her hair, flung her
+hands in the air, touched the keys with much affectation, thumped a
+growling bass, and ran a finger up and down the treble, gazing meanwhile
+at the ceiling with an air of intense sentiment. Then she hunched up her
+shoulders and made a violent and wild onslaught on the instrument,
+banging chords furiously with the weight of her whole arms, and rolling
+her head as if in frenzy; a sudden pause was followed by a faint tinkle
+in the treble, then up went the arms again, her head went down in the
+middle, and she finished by a tremendous thump at either end of the
+piano, while her nose played the central C.
+
+The tremendous bows which she returned in answer to the applause were
+part of the performance, and provoked more clapping. The girls clamoured
+for an encore, but at that she shook her head.
+
+"Professor Vladimir Limpidimpidumpski never gives encores," she
+declared. "He says it takes it out of him, and he can only do it once."
+
+"Poor, frail flower," laughed Nesta. "Send him to a nursing-home for a
+rest cure."
+
+"Right-o! And we'll have your contribution while he goes."
+
+"Oh no!"
+
+"Yes, yes! Don't be bashful! Come along!"
+
+"It's your turn, Nesta, really," urged Mavis, as chairwoman of the
+proceedings.
+
+So Nesta, protesting but rather pleased all the same, was pushed forward
+and volunteered to give a recitation. It was quite a good one too,
+spirited and amusing, and fortunately not too long to hold the engrossed
+attention of the listeners. They clapped it warmly, and Nesta bowed,
+but, following Merle's example, declined to give an encore.
+
+"We'd better scoot on with the programme or we'll never get through till
+next week," she declared.
+
+Maude had brought a piano solo, which the girls received politely but
+coldly, evidently considering it was not the sort of contribution they
+wanted. Muriel warbled a song in a rather weak, thin voice. Edith was
+known to have a manuscript in her pocket, but blushed scarlet and
+utterly refused to produce it, giving up her turn to Iva, who tried a
+recitation but broke down in the middle. Things were getting a little
+slack, and time was running on very fast, so Merle, who knew Mavis had
+prepared a literary contribution, called for an item from "The Chair".
+
+"Yes, yes!" squealed everybody. "Go on, Mrs. Chairwoman. It's your turn
+now. We're not going home without your piece. Hurry up before Miss Fanny
+comes worrying in. She said we might have half an hour, but she should
+break up the meeting if we went on any longer than that. Chair, please!"
+
+So Mavis, who had produced a manuscript the evening before, considerably
+at the cost of her preparation, and was secretly dying to read it,
+though she did not wish to push herself unduly, gave a hasty glance at
+her watch, reduced some giggling youngsters to silence, and commenced to
+read.
+
+    THE SPOOK HUNTERS
+
+    A TALE OF YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
+
+    It had always been the ambition of Tom and Morris to see a good
+    old-fashioned genuine specimen of a ghost or spectre; but though
+    they had visited houses bearing a reputation of being haunted,
+    and had hung about churchyards at midnight, and had even
+    attended séances, their innocent and perfectly natural wish had
+    never been gratified. They were beginning to come to the
+    regretful conclusion that they were not psychic subjects, and
+    therefore incapable of seeing spirits, when once more their
+    hopes rose with a bound. They received an invitation to stay at
+    Cawdor Castle, an ancient building which on really reliable
+    evidence possessed no less than six resident family ghosts, and
+    a few extra visiting spectres as well.
+
+    After begging for the most haunted of all the haunted rooms,
+    Tom and Morris retired to bed with very reasonable expectations
+    of at last obtaining a peep of a real old-world spook. For some
+    time they tried to keep awake and on the look-out, but in spite
+    of their efforts their eyes closed, and they slept and snored.
+    The clock was striking the hour of midnight when Tom suddenly
+    awoke. The moonlight, in orthodox fashion, was streaming into
+    the room, and by his bedside stood a queer, half-transparent old
+    gentleman in a court costume.
+
+    "Hello! Who the dickens are you?" exclaimed Tom. "You don't mean
+    to tell me you're actually one of the family ghosts?"
+
+    "The same--at your service!" replied the old gentleman with a
+    stately bow. "I am Sir Rupert, the second of that name, who
+    lived in the reign of Queen Anne, of blessed memory!"
+
+    "Pleased to meet you, I'm sure!" replied Tom heartily. "Can you
+    introduce me to any more of the family?"
+
+    "With pleasure, if you don't object to accompany me into the
+    picture gallery. We are celebrating an anniversary to-night, and
+    you would find us all at home."
+
+    "Right-o!" agreed Tom, jumping out of bed and following the
+    ghost.
+
+    His spectre friend led him upstairs and into the big gallery of
+    the castle, where quite an assemblage of spirits of various
+    periods was collected, some in armour, some in silks and satins,
+    and some in shrouds. On a dais sat a magnificent individual in a
+    coat of mail, holding a shield emblazoned with the royal arms.
+
+    "King Edward I, the founder of the family!" explained Sir
+    Rupert, taking Tom to be introduced. "Don't be frightened at his
+    Plantagenet manners! He means no harm!"
+
+    "Thanks for the hint!" returned Tom, bowing politely towards the
+    dais as he approached.
+
+    "What, Sirrah! Hast thou no knee for thy Prince?" exclaimed the
+    King angrily. "Make thy obeisance instantly, or by the sprig of
+    broom in my helmet I'll clap thee in prison and torture thee!"
+
+    "Come, come, Edward my boy," murmured a fatherly-looking ghost
+    at his elbow. "How often have I to tell you that these things
+    really aren't done nowadays! You must adapt yourself and learn
+    to march with the times. A court bow is really all that can be
+    required from him, and if you----"
+
+    "Oh, please don't worry," interrupted Tom. "I'll adapt my
+    manners to any period that pleases him if you'll kindly coach me
+    as to exactly what he wants me to do. I take it he wishes me to
+    kneel."
+
+    And down went Tom on his knees, anxious to oblige, but, to his
+    great surprise, as he touched the floor he fell completely
+    through, and found himself back in bed with the sun streaming
+    through the window, and Morris, whom he had quite forgotten to
+    introduce to the ghosts, snoring comfortably by his side.
+
+Some of the girls sniggered at Mavis's story, a few timorous ones
+shuddered at the bare idea of ghosts, and some of the small fry asked if
+it were true; but just as Mavis was comforting them with the assurance
+that it was absolute fiction, Miss Fanny opened the door of the playroom
+and brought the symposium to an end.
+
+"You day girls must go home at once," she decreed. "I gave you half an
+hour, but I can't have you lingering here any longer. Iva, you ought to
+be practising. You little ones must go and wash your hands!" and,
+separating her flock like sheep and goats, she swept the boarders away
+to their various duties or occupations, and sent the rest to their
+several homes.
+
+"I don't think Miss Fanny altogether likes our society," ventured Merle,
+as the Ramsays walked down the High Street.
+
+"She's afraid of anything new, that's evident," said Mavis. "She's lived
+in an out-of-the-way corner of the world and doesn't know what goes on
+in other schools. Well, we've made a beginning and had our symposium!"
+
+"And a jolly good one too! The girls said it was topping, and they're
+just clamouring to have another."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+The Warren
+
+
+Mavis and Merle went to Miss Crompton's class on Friday afternoon in
+their dainty best dresses, silk stockings, and dancing sandals. Their
+appearance was certainly very different from what it had been last week
+in their brown jerseys and school shoes. They noticed Gwen Williams look
+them up and down, but she did not speak to them or give them any sign of
+recognition. Beyond an occasional word with Opal, Iva, or the Careys,
+she would not be expansive with any of the girls at The Moorings,
+holding aloof in a rather obtrusive fashion, and giving them to
+understand that though she might attend their French and dancing classes
+she must not be regarded as a member of the school. Babbie, who was of a
+much more sociable disposition, would often try to linger to talk with
+companions of her own age, but Gwen invariably interfered, and would put
+a stop to the incipient friendships, giving her younger sister glances
+of very plain reproof.
+
+"Why are those Williams girls so dreadfully conceited?" Merle asked her
+partner, as they practised a two-step. "I can't see that they're
+different from other people, but Gwen behaves as if she were a princess,
+and it was hardly etiquette for the rest of us to speak to her. It's
+perfectly absurd!"
+
+"Well, you see, the Glyn Williamses think themselves 'county' and won't
+visit with anybody else. They've a beautiful place at Chagmouth, The
+Warren."
+
+"I know. I've seen it. But does it really belong to them? I somehow
+thought it didn't."
+
+"Well, you're right, and I believe it's rather a sore point. The Glyn
+Williams only rent The Warren. They've plenty of money and they'd like
+to buy it, but General Talland, to whom it belongs, won't sell it at any
+price. It has been in his family for hundreds of years."
+
+"Why doesn't he live at it himself, then?"
+
+"He hasn't been home for years and years. He's governor of a place
+called San Benito in the West Indies. He left England after his only son
+died, and he has never been back since. I should think Chagmouth people
+have almost forgotten him. The Glyn Williams are everything there now,
+or think they are at any rate."
+
+"That I can very easily believe," said Merle, with a glance at Gwen,
+who, apportioned by Miss Crompton to dance with Aubrey, was circling
+round without deigning to bestow a single word upon her unwelcome
+partner.
+
+To Mavis and Merle, Chagmouth, where so far they had only spent a
+single day, had become the very hub of the universe. They wanted to see
+its quaint streets again, and to revisit the beach and to explore the
+woods. More than anything they wished to renew their brief acquaintance
+with Bevis. His personality had attracted them, and his romantic story
+appealed to their imaginations. They ventured to say something about him
+to Uncle David.
+
+"Bevis? Oh, he's a fine lad!" replied Dr. Tremayne. "He's rather out of
+his element on the farm, but there seems nothing else open to him at
+present. I wish I could see him doing something better. He'd make a
+splendid doctor. The way he has picked up dispensing is simply
+wonderful. I can trust him to make up prescriptions now, and it's the
+greatest help. He loves pottering about the surgery. It's far more in
+his line than hedging or ploughing. But he doesn't spare himself on the
+land; I'll say that for the lad. By the by, are you two coming with me
+to Chagmouth to-morrow? I believe the sea air did Mavis good. She's
+losing that transparent look, and getting a tinge of colour in her
+cheeks."
+
+"I haven't had a cold since I came to Durracombe," boasted Mavis.
+
+"Touch wood or you'll be catching one to-morrow," put in Merle hastily.
+"Uncle David, we'd go to Chagmouth every day if you'd take us."
+
+"Oh, I dare say! And what would happen to your lessons, Miss Lazybones?"
+twinkled the doctor. "One holiday a week is quite enough for you."
+
+The girls were growing to love Uncle David. He was so kind, and genial,
+and pleasant, and had always some little joke or funny story for them.
+Half of the pleasure of the day at Chagmouth would be the drive there
+and back in his company. There was a broad restfulness about him that
+was like a mental tonic. It was as if he had learnt the secret of
+outliving all unnecessary cares and worries, and could radiate his
+peaceful atmosphere into the auras of others. Perhaps it was this
+quality of unconscious healing that gave him such skill and favour as a
+physician. Certainly patients would begin to brighten up when he merely
+stepped into the sickroom. "The dear old doctor", as he was generally
+called, was a figure in the country-side, and a source of moral as well
+as physical good in his practice.
+
+It was with absolutely beaming faces that the girls set out with him in
+the little yellow Deemster car the following Saturday morning. They
+started earlier than the week before, for there were several visits to
+be paid at farms or cottages on the way, all of which took considerable
+time, but by exceeding the speed limit on level stretches of road the
+doctor reached Chagmouth at noon, to find the usual crowd of patients
+waiting at his rooms. Judging that he would be boxed up in the surgery
+for more than an hour, and that they would therefore have ample leisure
+for a stroll before lunch, the Ramsays decided to explore some of the
+fields that lay round Grimbal's Farm, and selected a path that seemed to
+lead in the direction of the cliffs and the sea. They looked about for
+Bevis in the stackyard, but he was nowhere to be seen. Probably he was
+working on the land, or possibly he might even be at sea, for Mr.
+Penruddock was part owner of a trawler, and as much fisherman as farmer.
+
+They walked across two meadows, went through a little spinney where
+hazel catkins were opening fast, and actually a few primroses were
+peeping through the carpet of dead leaves; then came to a stile which
+led down into a deep lane. Mavis went first, and was in the very act of
+stepping cautiously over, when suddenly through a hole in the opposite
+hedge dashed a fox terrier and seized her by the skirt. It was just
+enough to destroy her balance, and she fell forward on to her hands and
+knees. Merle, hurrying after her, attacked the dog with a stick she was
+carrying, and for about three moments there was a wild scrimmage, Mavis
+shrieking with fright, the fox terrier yapping and yelping, and Merle
+laying on blows. They had imagined themselves alone, but the
+country-side is more full of ears than we generally know, and at the
+same instant two people came running from opposite directions, one from
+the lane and the other from the fields. The first, a tall boy carrying a
+gun, was evidently the owner of the dog, for he called it angrily away,
+and after a final snarl it ran towards him, helped in its progress by a
+hearty kick from Bevis, who had jumped over the opposite hedge. Mavis
+picked herself up, and the four young people stood together in the deep
+lane. It was Merle, of course, who spoke first.
+
+"Look what your brute's done!" she said indignantly, turning to the
+dog's owner, and pointing to a rent in Mavis's skirt. "You ought to be
+ashamed of yourself to let him attack people like this. Why don't you
+muzzle him?"
+
+The boy regarded Mavis and the damage to her apparel rather coolly.
+
+"You must have done something to make him fly at you," he replied. "Of
+course he'll go for people if they throw stones at him."
+
+"I didn't throw stones." Mavis's voice quivered with injured annoyance.
+
+"Well, you're not much hurt anyway! If you'd keep to the roads instead
+of wandering about people's fields you wouldn't get into trouble."
+
+"She's a perfect right in our fields," broke in Bevis hotly. "If she
+wants to go there why shouldn't she? It's no business of yours."
+
+The boy lifted his eyebrows as if amazed at the outburst.
+
+"Oh, certainly not! None at all!" he replied in supercilious tones.
+"Have anybody you like in your own fields. It doesn't concern me. What a
+fuss about nothing."
+
+And, shouldering his gun, he turned back up the lane with the fox
+terrier at his heels.
+
+"You might at least apologize," Merle shouted after him, but he took not
+the slightest notice and did not look behind. In another moment the
+hedge had hidden him from their view.
+
+"What an absolute bounder!" fumed Merle. "He ought to have said he was
+sorry instead of walking off like that. Who is he?"
+
+Bevis was standing staring up the lane with a frown on his dark face.
+
+"It's young Williams from The Warren," he replied. "He thinks himself
+cock-of-the-walk in Chagmouth, but he'd better not try on any of his
+airs with me. He might own the place by the way he behaves. If I catch
+him with that gun rabbitting in any of our fields I'll let him know."
+
+"Does he go into your fields?"
+
+"He goes anywhere he likes about Chagmouth, and I've heard many people
+grumble. He may take his own advice and keep to his own property.
+They've all the shooting on the moors above, and that ought to be enough
+for him! I've no patience with young sparks like he is."
+
+Mavis was not really hurt by her adventure, but she had been frightened,
+and was still feeling upset and disinclined to continue their walk. With
+Bevis for protection the girls turned back towards the farm, where Mrs.
+Penruddock, who was loud in her indignation and sympathy, took out her
+thread-basket and hastily caught together the rent in Mavis's skirt.
+
+"That'll keep for this afternoon, and Jessop can darn it properly when
+you get home," she declared. "Folks ought to pay for the damage their
+dogs do. And clothes at such a price now! It was a mercy you weren't
+bitten I'm sure. I'd have had something to say to young Williams if I'd
+been there. I wouldn't have let him walk away as if it was nothing!
+He'll have to be taught a lesson some day, if I'm not mistaken. And
+serve him right too, with all his airs and his impudence."
+
+In the short interval that remained before lunch the girls made a tour
+of the stackyard and farm buildings. They wanted to see the waterwheel
+again, and it was fun to climb up ladders and peep into lofts, to
+explore the dim recesses of barns, or inspect the poultry runs, where
+fussy hens, shut up inside coops, were clucking to adventurous little
+families of downy chicks or ducklings. But the crowning place of all was
+the shed where Bevis kept his carpenter's bench. The boy was very natty
+and clever at joinering, wood-carving, and mechanics. He had several
+model boats and a toy engine, which he had constructed himself, to show
+them, and he volunteered to make them a little grindstone upon which
+they could sharpen their penknives.
+
+"How topping! We'll come and watch you while you do it," declared Merle.
+
+"If you don't mind our looking on," added Mavis.
+
+But alack! shortly after lunch a most untoward thing happened. Dr.
+Tremayne had brought the car round from the yard into the road opposite
+the front door of the farm, preparatory to paying his usual weekly visit
+to the Sanatorium. He was pottering about inspecting various valves and
+nuts, in the manner of motorists, and Mavis and Merle, who had
+constituted themselves assistant chauffeurs, were armed with dusters and
+were trying to clean the splashboards, which had been much spattered
+with mud on the journey from Durracombe that morning. Uncle David prided
+himself upon a spick-and-span car, and liked to turn up at the
+Sanatorium with the little Deemster looking its best. Both girls were
+working away energetically, when round the corner from the village there
+suddenly appeared the whole of the Glyn Williams family, heading
+straight up the road towards Grimbal's Farm. Merle spied them first. She
+was on the side of the car nearest the house, and, with a presence of
+mind that amounted almost to instinct, she bolted inside the door like a
+rabbit into its burrow. Mavis, whose back was towards the village, was
+quite unaware that anyone was near till she heard Dr. Tremayne's
+greeting, and, turning round, found herself face to face with Gwen,
+Babbie, their mother, their brother, and the fox terrier. If she could,
+with any decency, have fled after Merle she would have done so, but
+there was no possibility of escape. She was already in their midst, and
+Uncle David--dear, tiresome man--was saying: "You know my niece?"
+
+Mrs. Glyn Williams, a portly, rosy-faced lady, with a kind but rather
+patronizing manner, held out a white-gloved hand.
+
+"Of course! You go to school at The Moorings, don't you? How nice for
+you to motor over to Chagmouth with your uncle on Saturdays. Are you
+going with him to the Sanatorium? What is it, Babbie, dear?" (for her
+younger daughter was whispering eagerly in her ear) "Oh yes, my
+precious! Doctor, won't you leave your niece on your way, and we'll show
+her round The Warren and keep her for tea? You can pick her up as you
+drive back."
+
+There are some invitations which it is utterly impossible to refuse.
+Mrs. Glyn Williams had, to use a sporting term, "caught her bird
+sitting". Mavis glanced at Uncle David with mute appeal in her blue
+eyes, but he quite mistook her dismay, and instantly accepted on her
+behalf.
+
+"We're going straight home now, through the woods, so come as soon as
+you can," urged Babbie, following the family as they turned up the road.
+
+Could anything have been more utterly and entirely aggravating?
+
+"Oh, Uncle David! How _could_ you?" exclaimed Mavis reproachfully. "I'm
+not dressed to go to tea at The Warren. I only came in my school skirt
+and jersey. We meant to scramble about the farm this afternoon."
+
+Dr. Tremayne focused his eyeglasses on his niece's attire. Such an
+aspect of the visit had never occurred to his innocent masculine mind.
+
+"Bless my life! You look very nice, both of you," he decided.
+
+"Both of us? _I'm_ not asked, thank goodness," declared Merle, who had
+overheard the interview and emerged from the sanctuary of the doorway
+now the coast was clear.
+
+"It wouldn't matter, child. I'm sure Mrs. Glyn Williams would be
+pleased to see you. It was stupid of me not to mention you were here
+too."
+
+"I'm so _thankful_ you didn't."
+
+"Am _I_ to be the solitary victim?" asked Mavis's plaintive voice in its
+most injured tone.
+
+"Go with your sister, Merle," urged Dr. Tremayne, who felt rather in a
+quandary.
+
+"No, Uncle David, dear," replied Merle firmly. "If I wasn't invited I
+wasn't, and it wouldn't be manners to turn up. I'll go with you to the
+Sanatorium if you'll take me," and she added privately to Mavis:
+
+"If one of us had to be asked to tea at The Warren I'm glad it's you.
+Gwen can't bear me, and it was I who said the nasty things to that boy
+in the lane. What's his name? Tudor! He deserved them, of course, but it
+would make me shy to meet him again. You always get on much more
+pleasantly with people than I do."
+
+"We shall have to tell Bevis we're off in the car," said Mavis
+disconsolately.
+
+They found Bevis already at his bench in the tool-shed and evidently
+expecting them. His face fell at their news, and, though they both did
+their very best to explain the situation, he remained glum, and seemed
+to think they wished to avoid his company.
+
+"Oh, it's quite all right!" he remarked, and that was all they could
+get out of him. He took up his mallet, and commenced to hammer so
+vigorously that they fled from the noise.
+
+"He says it doesn't matter, but he's fearfully huffy and offended,"
+whispered Merle.
+
+"Well, we can't help it. Everything has gone wrong to-day," sighed
+Mavis.
+
+There was no time to put things right with Bevis, for Dr. Tremayne was
+hooting for them to start at once. He set Mavis down at the great gate
+of The Warren, and took Merle on with him to the Sanatorium. Mavis
+walked very solemnly up the laurel-bordered drive. She seldom went
+anywhere without her sister, and hated paying this stately visit alone.
+She rang the bell, feeling shy and frightened, and painfully conscious
+of the conspicuously darned rent in her skirt. She wondered if Tudor
+would have explained its origin.
+
+The butler admitted her into a lovely conservatory, then through a large
+hall into the drawing-room. Certainly it was a beautiful house, and
+Mavis might have enjoyed herself if only Merle had been with her. Her
+greeting by the young people was far pleasanter than she had
+anticipated. Babbie was frankly cordial, Gwen unwontedly courteous, and
+Tudor went so far as to accompany his sisters when they took their guest
+for a stroll round the grounds. He walked a little behind, and made no
+attempt at conversation, but she could see him eyeing the darn in her
+skirt. Later on, while Gwen and Babbie were speaking to a gardener, and
+for the moment he was alone with Mavis, he mentioned their meeting in
+the lane.
+
+"I say, you know," he began, "I'd no idea you were Dr. Tremayne's niece
+when I saw you this morning. Did Jim scare you? He's rather a young
+dog!"
+
+It was exactly the same excuse that Gwen had urged in defence of the
+rude reception she had given them in the garden. Mavis wondered
+privately whether the Williamses only kept their good manners for their
+friends, and meted out less civil treatment to strangers. But aloud she
+answered:
+
+"He did rather frighten me, but I wasn't hurt."
+
+"He bolted out of the hedge before I'd time to stop him. I say, you
+know, I'm sorry if he scared you. He's only a young dog and means no
+harm."
+
+His tardy apology was evidently mainly due to the fact that she was Dr.
+Tremayne's niece, but Mavis had the grace to accept it politely, after
+which the atmosphere seemed to thaw, and Tudor exerted himself to
+entertain the visitor, offering to take her to the stables and show her
+the horses. Gwen expanded at this, being very proud of her own little
+cob, Taffy, and delighted to exhibit him to anybody who would appreciate
+him.
+
+"Do you hunt?" she asked airily. "I'd live on horseback if I could. Cars
+are all very well in their way, and get you over the ground, but
+motoring's nothing to riding. Taffy nips over fences like a bird. I'd
+ride him to Durracombe when I come for the French class if it weren't
+for Babbie. It's too far for her pony, so we have to go in the car."
+
+Gentle Mavis invariably made friends, and before her visit at The
+Warren was over she was on quite pleasant terms with Tudor, Gwen, and
+Babbie.
+
+"You must come again sometime," said Gwen graciously, accompanying her
+to the door, when Dr Tremayne called for her with the car.
+
+Merle, who had been temporarily left at the bottom of the drive, was
+waiting for them, and took her place for the homeward journey.
+
+"Well?" she asked eloquently.
+
+"Better than I expected. Babbie's really rather sweet. Gwen showed me
+her horse, and Tudor actually apologized. I don't dislike him _quite_ as
+much as I did this morning. He goes to Eton, but he's at home this term
+because he has been ill. He taught me to play bagatelle after tea, and
+was wonderfully decent--but, oh no! of course not _nearly_ so nice as
+Bevis."
+
+"And Bevis, to judge from the way he banged with that mallet, is in a
+thoroughly bad temper."
+
+"Oh, surely he's got over it by this time?"
+
+"I don't know. I'm afraid he thought us a couple of utter sneaks,"
+grunted Merle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A Question of Honour
+
+
+For the last five years Mr. Glyn Williams, a prominent London financier,
+had rented The Warren from General Talland. He liked the place, and
+would gladly have bought the whole property had it not been entailed. He
+still lived in hopes that it might ultimately become his own, and
+periodically made offers to the owner and heir to effect a settlement.
+Meantime, failing absolute possession, he posed to his city friends and
+to his neighbours in the county as the squire of Chagmouth. He was a
+well-disposed man, according to his lights, and in his own way he had
+done a good deal for the place. He had built a reading room and
+institute, had helped to renovate the church, had contributed largely to
+the war memorial, and headed the list of all local subscriptions. His
+wife was on numerous committees, had organized many charities,
+entertained the Sunday School children in her garden, got up concerts or
+tea-parties, attended mothers' meetings, opened bazaars, and distributed
+prizes.
+
+Yet all the same Chagmouth was not as grateful as perhaps it ought to
+have been, and the family at The Warren were by no means favourites in
+the little town. The root of the trouble was that Mr. and Mrs. Glyn
+Williams made the common mistake of thinking that because they rented
+the Hall, and dispensed large sums in subscriptions, they had the right
+to order the affairs of their less wealthy neighbours, and to have the
+first say in everything that was to be done in connection with the
+place. Chagmouth people greatly resented being patronized. They were
+born of the good old sturdy, self-reliant stock that furnished Drake and
+Raleigh and other half-forgotten heroes, and they had been accustomed in
+their slow independent fashion to manage their own business to their own
+satisfaction. For General Talland, whose family link with the parish
+dated from the time of the Armada, they had held a respect based partly
+on his birth and partly on personal appreciation, but they saw no reason
+to offer any undue deference to his tenant at The Warren. Money alone
+cannot purchase favour, and the unfortunate attitude of superiority and
+fashionable aloofness adopted by the whole of the Williams family had
+created a considerable atmosphere of prejudice against them. To many of
+the Chagmouth people they were a sore trial, and the haughty manners of
+the young people were voted insufferable in the village.
+
+Dr. Tremayne, however, who had been medical adviser at The Warren for
+several years, always met with a happy reception. He was a favourite
+with rich and poor alike, for he gave equal attention to all his
+patients, whether their incomes were small or great. He held those wide
+views of life which estimate people at what they are and not at what
+they possess, and he always seemed to have the happy knack of bringing
+out the best in those whom he met. Mrs. Glyn Williams had perhaps taught
+her daughters many foolish and unworthy lessons, but in the presence of
+the unworldly old doctor the little snobberies melted away and the
+higher standards prevailed.
+
+It was for the sake of Dr. Tremayne that Gwen, when she next appeared
+at The Moorings, bestowed a grudging recognition on Merle and extended a
+rather patronizing friendship to Mavis. The latter was not specially
+attracted, though she received the advances politely. Most of the girls,
+however, seemed to think her only too lucky to be thus noticed. Opal
+worshipped openly at Gwen's shrine. She copied her frocks, her manners,
+and her style of hairdressing, and offered up much incense before the
+altar of fashion. The Ramsays, who were accustomed to the democratic
+atmosphere of a big high school, fretted at the narrowness of the
+outlook. They disliked the days when the Williamses attended the French
+class, for Opal always put on absurd airs and was particularly "high and
+mighty" and aggravating. She had not improved as the term went on.
+Indeed, a new and most unpleasant aspect of her had lately revealed
+itself. She was not altogether fair over her work. On several occasions
+Mavis and Merle suspected her of cheating. They could not absolutely
+convict her of it, but the circumstances seemed very incriminating. They
+mentioned the matter to Iva, who shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Of course Opal cheats when she gets a chance. We all know that. But how
+are you going to stop it? If you told Miss Fanny she wouldn't believe
+you."
+
+"I hate sneaking," said Mavis. "But couldn't we do something with Opal
+herself?"
+
+"You'd have to catch her first."
+
+"Yes, that's the difficulty."
+
+It is not at all an easy matter to convict a girl who cheats on the sly.
+Several times Merle, who sat just behind, thought she saw Opal make
+hasty corrections as Mademoiselle revised the French dictation, but when
+she taxed her with it afterwards Opal denied flatly, and with huge
+indignation.
+
+"As if I should," she fumed.
+
+"Seeing is believing," maintained Merle.
+
+"Do you mean to accuse _me_--the head girl--of cheating! I wish you'd go
+and tell Miss Pollard or Miss Fanny. They know me too well to listen to
+a word you'd say. Why, I'm their own god-daughter!"
+
+"Unfortunately that doesn't make you immaculate."
+
+"Though it ought to, when they trust you so," added Mavis.
+
+Discussing the matter between themselves, the Ramsays decided that in
+this very point lay all the trouble. The Misses Pollard, in their
+foolish fondness for Opal, were making a grave mistake. They
+deliberately shut their eyes where she was concerned, and were always
+biased in her favour.
+
+"It's such an amateur little school," sighed Merle. "I don't mean the
+lessons, because those are really rather good, but the discipline is
+horribly slack."
+
+"Hardly exists," agreed Mavis. "Miss Fanny says easily, 'Now, get along,
+girls!', and a few try to work and the rest don't, and she never _makes_
+them. I hate a slack teacher, however clever she is."
+
+"Everything is so casual," groused Merle. "There's no proper order even
+in answering questions. Opal raps out the answers if she knows them, and
+gets all the credit. It's most unfair. I should like to send Miss Fanny
+for a term to Whinburn High, and let her see how things are managed at
+other schools. It would be an eye-opener for her."
+
+"And for Opal too, if she could go as well. It would just do her all the
+good in the world."
+
+Evidently the only thing to be done was to keep a careful eye upon the
+delinquent, and bring her to book at the first opportunity that offered
+sufficient private evidence without taking the affair to the teacher's
+notice.
+
+Now it happened that one afternoon Gwen Williams left her French
+dictionary behind her in the classroom and went home without it. It was
+found in due course by Muriel Burnitt, who flung it into the school
+"pound", a lost-property basket from which objects could be redeemed by
+the payment of a penny into the missionary box. Both Mavis and Merle
+witnessed the placing of the book in this receptacle, though they gave
+no particular thought to the matter at the time. On the next French day
+Gwen came fussing into the classroom asking for her missing dictionary,
+and was much put out to find it was not forthcoming.
+
+"I _know_ I left it on the desk," she maintained.
+
+"So you did, and I popped it into the pound," said Muriel. "Pay your
+penny and you'll get it out. It's perfectly simple."
+
+But when Gwen walked over to the lost-property basket, and inspected its
+contents, she found an assortment of pencils, india-rubbers, and
+pen-holders, but certainly no dictionary. She was loud in her wrath, and
+the girls immediately round her began to offer comments and advice.
+
+"It was there yesterday."
+
+"I saw it myself."
+
+"Opal redeemed a penknife this morning."
+
+"You'd better ask her if she knows where it has gone."
+
+"Here she comes!"
+
+Yet at that exact moment Mademoiselle entered also, and the girls took
+their places. In the course of the lesson she gave her pupils a piece of
+unseen translation. It was a difficult passage, and to many of them an
+almost impossible one to render into English. Each had her closed
+dictionary placed on the desk in front of her, and cast longing looks at
+its covers, but to open it was, of course, not permitted. Now Merle was
+sitting just behind Opal, and she noticed the latter glancing constantly
+down on to her knee. Merle could not see the object of this close
+attention, but her suspicions were aroused. She dared not speak, but she
+scribbled a little note on a piece of waste paper:
+
+"Keep an eye on Opal's knee, and see if she hasn't got your dictionary."
+
+This she addressed to Gwen and handed it surreptitiously along by Nesta
+and Iva.
+
+Gwen read it, and gave a nod of comprehension while Mademoiselle was
+looking the other way. The moment the lesson was finished she stood up,
+moved along the desks, and made a sudden grab on to Opal's lap.
+
+"Hello! What are you doing with my dictionary?" she asked.
+
+Opal turned white and then scarlet, but she was ready with a plausible
+excuse.
+
+"I--I found it," she stuttered. "I was going to give it back to you."
+
+"Indeed!" Gwen's tone was scathing. "I happen to know it was put inside
+the pound. Why did you take it out? It's extremely kind of you to have
+put a brown paper cover on it. If you intended to give it back to me why
+didn't you hand it over before the class began?"
+
+"There--there wasn't time!"
+
+"Oh, good gracious, don't tell me any more fiblets! You meant to stick
+to it, and you were cribbing from it on your knee. Nice thing for a head
+girl to do, I must say. I've not much opinion of you here at The
+Moorings."
+
+Opal protested, but Gwen would not listen to a word she had to say,
+and, pulling the paper cover off the dictionary, stalked out of the room
+with the air of an offended queen. The girls sniggered openly.
+
+It was so seldom Opal met her match. To have drawn down the wrath and
+displeasure of Gwen was a particular humiliation to her.
+
+"Rather priceless, wasn't it?" chuckled Merle to Iva. "Hope it will
+teach her not to cheat in future."
+
+"Don't flatter yourself. She will directly she gets the chance. She's
+done for herself with Gwen though for the present."
+
+Iva's opinion of Opal was founded on experience. There was an
+unfortunate moral kink about the head girl that often involved her in
+very shady transactions. It was a deplorable thing for the school, as
+instead of upholding the tone she lowered it. Mavis often wondered how
+Miss Fanny could be so foolish and weak as not to see for herself that
+her favourite evaded rules. Out of sheer bravado Opal would often do
+forbidden things, and would boast that she could venture on them with
+impunity where others would surely get into trouble. One mean dishonesty
+above all others aroused the Ramsays' indignation.
+
+The top form took arithmetic with Miss Fanny. It was a subject which
+Opal disliked, but for the last two or three lessons she had worked all
+her problems correctly. Miss Fanny, who ought to have known better, left
+her Key to the arithmetic on the mantelpiece of the classroom, and one
+morning Mavis, coming in early, caught Opal in the very act of copying
+the answers to the next set of questions.
+
+"Well!" she exploded. "Of all mean sneaks you're the biggest I've ever
+met. No wonder you get all your sums right if you write down the answers
+beforehand. How _can_ you?"
+
+Opal tried to laugh the matter off.
+
+"Why don't you do it yourself, my dear?" she answered. "If Miss Fanny
+_will_ leave her book about, of course we look at it. That's human
+nature!"
+
+"It's not my way," said Mavis gravely. "And if Miss Fanny trusts us so
+much that she leaves her Key here, we ought to be worthy of her trust.
+It's shameful to deceive her."
+
+"Oh, Jonathan! Go and tell her, then."
+
+"You know I never tell tales."
+
+That day, however, Opal was unexpectedly overtaken by Nemesis. Miss
+Fanny was suffering from a severe headache, and Miss Pollard came to
+take the arithmetic class in her stead. The girls told her the number of
+the exercise they had reached, and she wrote the questions upon the
+blackboard. For some reason of her own she reversed their order. When
+she called for the answers, Opal, with great assurance, read hers out,
+and, of course, as she had copied from the book, No. 6 came instead of
+No. 1, and vice versa. Miss Pollard stared at her in much amazement, and
+told her to come and work them upon the blackboard, a process of which
+she made a conspicuous bungle. Miss Pollard made no special remark, but
+possibly her suspicions may have been aroused, for she carried away the
+Key, and it was never again left in the classroom. Whether her affection
+for Opal prevented her from making a closer inquiry, or whether the
+affair was merely a coincidence, and she still preserved her faith in
+the integrity of her pet pupil, it was impossible to tell.
+
+"All the same I call it the limit for her to shut her eyes to things in
+the way she does," commented Mavis to Merle. "Both Miss Pollard and Miss
+Fanny are dears, but a teacher ought to know something of what goes on
+in a school, and not leave it just to luck. What are we to do? We can't
+go sneaking and telling, and yet I feel we ought to make a stand. It
+doesn't seem right to let Opal behave like this and do nothing. She
+hasn't the slightest idea of honour."
+
+"That's what most of them need here," snorted straightforward Merle.
+
+"I know. But what can you expect with such a slacker as head girl? If
+only Mother were here I'd ask her, but I'm so stupid at explaining
+properly in a letter it's no use to write."
+
+"Not a bit. She wouldn't really understand. Seems to me there's nothing
+for it but just to worry on as best we can. They're a queer set, but we
+can't help it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Among the Boarders
+
+
+Mavis and Merle, being day girls at The Moorings, have occupied so much
+of our attention that we have somewhat neglected the boarders. In their
+own estimation, however, they were a very important part of the
+community. There were twelve of them altogether, and though, during
+classes, they mixed with the rest of the school, they were rather proud
+of the fact that, as far as possible, they "kept themselves to
+themselves". They had all sorts of little secrets that day girls might
+not share, signs and passwords and mysterious references, which gave
+them great satisfaction, and were calculated to provoke envy, hatred,
+malice, and all uncharitableness in the breasts of those who did not
+understand the allusions, and whom they sternly refused to initiate.
+
+Many of the boarders were the children of parents who were out in
+India. Some of them had been born there, and could remember burning
+skies and temples and native bazaars and elephants, and many other
+un-English things. Mamie and Jessie Drew could even speak Hindustani, a
+language which all the Indian-born children had talked in their infancy,
+though most of them had forgotten it in a very short time after landing
+in Britain. With the exception of Iva Westwood, Nesta Pitman, and Aubrey
+Simpson, the boarders were all juniors, and an uncommonly lively little
+crew, who sometimes led their seniors a dance, and were capable of a
+considerable amount of ragging among themselves.
+
+The two who were generally at the bottom of most of the mischief were
+Winnie Osborne and Joyce Coleman, nicknamed by Iva "the firebrands".
+Under Miss Pollard's gentle rule their escapades sometimes got rather
+out of bounds, but they had a wholesome respect for Miss Fanny, who did
+not often interfere with the management of the boarders out of school
+hours, but who dealt out discipline if she happened to catch anybody
+tripping.
+
+Among the silliest of the boarders was Nita Howard, a child who was a
+born gossip, and who sometimes made trouble by repeating conversations
+or remarks which she had overheard, and which she had very much better
+have kept to herself. Nita had no discretion. Miss Pollard often told
+her her tongue was too long, and certainly on many occasions it got
+herself and her chums into scrapes. One evening, just after it grew
+dark, she came running into the recreation-room in a state of much
+excitement.
+
+"I've got news for you, girls?" she chirped.
+
+"No! What?" exclaimed Mamie and Alison, her particular friends, looking
+up with interest from the scrap-books that they were engaged in making.
+
+"Well, I'll tell you then," said Nita, sitting down by the table and
+lowering her voice. "The ghost has been seen again in Poplar Lane!"
+
+"I say, shut up there, Nita," murmured Nesta, who was painting at the
+same table. "Do you want those kids in umpteen fits?"
+
+Nita beckoned her chums away from the vicinity of the smaller children
+in question, so that she might continue her thrilling story in private.
+
+"It has really!" she assured them in a whisper.
+
+"O-o-h!" came in a horror-stricken chorus. "How do you know?"
+
+"I've just heard Bella telling Cook. It's Bella's evening out, and she
+went down the back carriage drive into Poplar Lane to take a short cut
+to meet a friend, and just when she got under the shade of the trees she
+saw something all in white coming towards her. She shrieked and ran
+straight back to the house, and she says she daren't go out again, even
+though her own cousin is waiting for her at the other end of the lane."
+
+"Bella's rather a goose," put in Nesta, who had moved to the end of the
+table so as to overhear. "I shouldn't believe a word she says."
+
+"It's quite true though. She saw it with her own eyes."
+
+"She certainly couldn't see it with anybody else's," retorted Nesta
+scornfully. "It was probably a white cow coming down the lane."
+
+"No, it wasn't. It was really the ghost. Bella felt a most extraordinary
+feeling as if the blood was freezing in her veins. She says she never
+remembers anything like it since the night a dog howled under her window
+and her grandmother died. Her heart stood absolutely still for two whole
+minutes."
+
+"Bunkum! Bella hasn't had physiology lessons or she'd know that's
+impossible. Why she wouldn't be alive to tell the tale!" snorted Nesta.
+"How can you swallow such precious stuff, you little silly?"
+
+"It's not stuff."
+
+"Indeed it is."
+
+"Then don't listen."
+
+"I certainly shan't," and Nesta, moving her painting things along the
+table, went back to her original place.
+
+Her curiosity, however, got the better of her. She had sharp ears and
+she caught most of what followed, losing a few details, for Nita was
+whispering and Nesta was too proud to move nearer. The other two put
+their heads very close to Nita's in order to hear the interesting
+particulars.
+
+"I didn't know Poplar Lane was haunted," said Mamie.
+
+"Yes, it is, by a woman in white. She appears quite suddenly standing
+near our gate. But she hasn't been seen for a long time."
+
+"I thought only old houses had ghosts," ventured Alison. "The Moorings
+isn't so very old, is it?"
+
+"It's quite old enough to have a ghost. There's a story about it--an
+_awful_ story! Bella told it to me."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I don't know whether I ought to tell it to you."
+
+"Oh, go on!"
+
+"Well, a gentleman used to live here once," began Nita, in tones of
+delighted importance. "His name was Mr. Morrison. Late one night--it was
+exactly at midnight--he happened to look out of the window, and he saw a
+white carriage with a pair of white horses drive up to the door, but it
+didn't make the least sound of wheels or hoofs. And, do you know, he
+died afterwards."
+
+"Of course he died afterwards," was heard from Nesta's end of the table.
+"He couldn't very well die before, could he? Perhaps it was twenty years
+afterwards."
+
+"I thought you weren't listening. No, it was quite soon afterwards.
+Wasn't it horrible?"
+
+"What's the white lady got to do with the carriage?" asked Alison. "Was
+she sitting inside?"
+
+"I'm coming to that presently. Mr. Morrison had a son called Meredith,
+who did all kinds of wicked things. When his father died this son was
+worse than ever, and spent both his mother's money and his own on
+gambling. He used to ride away on his horse at night and not come back
+till very, very late, and his mother used to go and stand in Poplar Lane
+to watch for him. She told him that when she died her spirit would stand
+there still. But he didn't care in the least what she said. On the night
+after her funeral he rode off on his horse just as usual, and when he
+came back, there was her ghost all in white, waiting by the gate for
+him. He gave a fearful cry, and fell from his horse--dead!"
+
+"O-o-o-h!" came from Mamie and Alison.
+
+"Rubbish!" grunted Nesta from the other end of the table.
+
+Nita felt she had scored a success. She could seldom get the girls to
+pay any attention to her, but they were certainly listening now. The
+four smaller ones, who were supposed not to overhear, had, of course,
+had their ears wide open as little pitchers always will. Doreen had
+turned quite white, Prue was clutching Elsbeth's hand, and Jessie, after
+a surreptitious glance at Nesta, had crept nearer and asked under her
+breath who had told Bella.
+
+"I don't know," answered Nita, "but somebody who knew all about it. The
+house was to let for a long time before Miss Pollard took it. Bella says
+she'd never have come here if she'd known there was a ghost. She means
+to give notice and get another place as soon as she can."
+
+"Does it ever come indoors?" gasped Elsbeth.
+
+"I don't think so," replied Nita, keenly enjoying herself, "but, of
+course, you never can tell. When a place is haunted it's haunted, and
+you must be ready for anything."
+
+"I shan't dare to go to bed," wailed Elsbeth.
+
+"No more shall I," moaned Jessie. "I don't believe I shall even dare to
+practise in a room by myself. Suppose I saw it standing by the piano?
+What _should_ I do?"
+
+"Ask it to sit down and play you a tune," said Nesta, shutting her
+paint-box. "Nita, how can you frighten them in this silly way with your
+precious ghost tales? You oughtn't to talk to the servants if Bella only
+tells you such whoppers. Doreen's eyes are nearly dropping out of her
+head. By the by, what's become of Winnie and Joyce?"
+
+"I haven't seen them. I thought they were practising. Do they know?"
+asked Mamie.
+
+"Not yet," replied Nita mysteriously, "but, of course, we shall have to
+tell them. Oh, here they are now!"
+
+"What's the matter?" cried the pair in question, seating themselves at
+the table.
+
+"The ghost has been seen in Poplar Lane!" exploded Jessie, before Nita
+had time to get the words out herself.
+
+A look of intelligence passed between Winnie and Joyce.
+
+"Hold me up! When?"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"To-night. Just by the gate. Bella saw it herself."
+
+"If Bella saw it herself it must have been there!" burbled Winnie.
+
+"Or some other thingumbob very like it," piped Joyce, who seemed on the
+point of adding more, only Winnie trod on her toe, so she stopped short.
+
+"And it _may_ come inside the house," volunteered Doreen with a shiver.
+
+"What a blossomy prospect! I should think it very probably will," said
+Winnie.
+
+"Ghosts generally like houses better than lanes," echoed Joyce.
+
+"Isn't it dreadful, though?" said Nita, who felt that neither was
+sufficiently impressed, and was anxious to keep up the full horror of
+the situation.
+
+When bedtime arrived the younger children were in a state bordering on
+panic. Mademoiselle could not understand why they insisted upon going
+upstairs so very close together, why they shot past the dark doorways of
+other dormitories, nor why Elsbeth begged her almost in tears not to
+turn the light out, and to leave the door open so that they could hear
+the elder girls come to bed. Mamie and Alison were in hardly better
+case. They had retailed all the ghost stories they had ever heard, and
+had worked themselves into a thoroughly nervous condition. At the return
+of daylight, however, they were inclined to laugh at their fears and
+agree with Nesta that it was silly nonsense.
+
+"I don't think Winnie and Joyce minded in the least," ventured Alison.
+
+"No, I couldn't quite make them out," replied Mamie. "They were so queer
+over it and kept looking at each other. Didn't you notice?"
+
+"I never thought about it," said Nita. "They're always having private
+jokes. You can hardly say anything without Joyce poking Winnie or Winnie
+nudging Joyce. I get sick to death of their precious secrets."
+
+Everybody seemed ready that morning to make fun of the ghost, but when
+evening came again, superstitious terrors revived in full force. Jessie
+Drew spent a miserable half-hour practising with one eye on the window,
+having an uneasy sensation that the spectre would probably be gliding
+about the garden. She had not the strength of mind to draw down the
+blind, and so shut out the chance of the vision, and in consequence made
+such a peculiar rendering of her piece that Miss Fanny came in herself,
+scolded her sharply, and sat down by her side to insist upon her playing
+it properly.
+
+"I didn't mind the scolding in the least," Jessie told her chums
+afterwards. "I was so thankful to see anybody I'd have been glad if
+she'd boxed my ears. I was so afraid she'd go away again I played wrong
+notes on purpose. She said she'd never known me so stupid."
+
+"Miss Pollard sent me to her bedroom to fetch a book," said Nita. "I
+was simply shaking all over. That long passage is so dreadfully dark,
+and I saw something white at the end of it. It was only Bella's apron,
+though, that she'd hung over the banisters. The moonlight was coming in
+through the landing window, and, it looked so like ghosts I daren't go
+by, so I went down the back stairs and through the kitchen. I asked
+Bella if she'd seen anything more, and she said a big bird had flown
+against the window, and that's always a bad omen. Miss Pollard asked me
+why I'd been so long fetching the book, but I didn't dare tell her. I
+wonder what the bird was an omen of! I forgot to ask Bella."
+
+Evening preparation went on as usual, after which most of the boarders
+collected in their own recreation-room to read or paint or otherwise
+amuse themselves. Iva and Aubrey were practising, but Nesta was sitting
+with the juniors, of whom only Winnie and Joyce were missing. These two
+seemed to have mysteriously disappeared. Joyce came back after a short
+time, looking rather red and excited, but she made no remark, and taking
+a book began to read.
+
+"I can't find my post-card album anywhere," complained Nita, hunting
+disconsolately round the room, "and I did so want to put in those extra
+cards I got last week. I'm sure I left it on the bookcase."
+
+"I saw it in the cloakroom on the boot-rack," volunteered Joyce.
+
+"However could it get there?"
+
+"I don't know, but I saw it."
+
+"Miau! I daren't go and fetch it. I simply daren't. The cloakroom will
+be quite dark. Won't somebody go with me? Alison, be a mascot!"
+
+"No, thanks! You won't stir this child."
+
+"I'll go," proclaimed Joyce, jumping up briskly. "I don't mind at all.
+Come along Nita!"
+
+"Oh, you saintly girl!"
+
+The two went out of the room, Nita clutching tightly to Joyce's arm and
+volunteering gasping little remarks.
+
+[Illustration: IT CERTAINLY WAS A MOST ALARMING SPECTACLE _Page 137_]
+
+"The others are piggy to-night!--Mother always says I'm so nervous!--I'm
+really afraid of the dark, even when there are no ghosts!"
+
+The rest of the boarders went on with their various occupations, but in
+a few moments they were interrupted by the sudden opening of the door,
+and Nita burst in with a white face.
+
+"Girls! Oh, I say! I've seen the ghost! It's in the cloakroom! Oh, it's
+too awful! I'm ready to faint. Don't go, Nesta, don't!"
+
+"Of course I'm going," said Nesta. "We've had enough of this nonsense,
+and it's time it was put a stop to. Come along, everybody. We'll take a
+look at this ghost."
+
+She valiantly led the way, and the juniors followed more timorously,
+Elsbeth and Doreen, in the rear, giving squeals of terror, across the
+hall and past the dusky corner where the croquet-box was kept, then down
+the steps to the cloakroom door. They peeped in fearfully. At the sight
+they saw most of them backed with shrieks. The room was in complete
+darkness, but at the far side stood a figure which seemed to be shrouded
+in white, its face and uplifted hands shining with a brilliant light
+that gave it a most unearthly and uncanny appearance. It certainly was a
+most alarming spectacle, and enough to strike horror into any breast.
+Alison and Nita were almost in hysterics, and the rest would have run
+away if Nesta had not stopped them.
+
+"Don't be a set of sillies," she commanded. "I'll soon show you who it
+is."
+
+She dived into the cloakroom, and, after a sharp scuffle, came back
+hauling a kicking, struggling, protesting spectre that could evidently
+use both arms and legs in a particularly human fashion.
+
+"Winnie!" exclaimed the girls, as, in the light of the hall, Nesta
+pulled off the sheet and disclosed the well-known blue-serge dress and
+short lank hair of the champion ragger of the school.
+
+Everybody burst out laughing, even Nita and Elsbeth.
+
+"You absolute blighter!"
+
+"How priceless!"
+
+"Win, you're the limit!"
+
+"How did you manage to make your face and hands shine? They looked too
+awful."
+
+"I wet them and rubbed them with matches. Look! If I hold up my hand in
+the dark it's all steaming and glowing with phosphorus yet."
+
+"What a beastly trick."
+
+"You did give us spasms."
+
+"Come along and tell us about it."
+
+"Where's Joyce?"
+
+Joyce had been close by, enjoying the fun, and now joined with her chum
+in relating the story of their rag.
+
+"Of course we were the ghosts all the time," began Winnie. "Last night
+Joyce and I went to the side door. It was lovely moonlight, and we dared
+each other to run down the back drive. We'd got as far as the gate when
+we heard somebody behind us. It was Bella, so we dodged out into the
+road and a few yards up Poplar Lane. We thought Bella was going the
+other way. She stood still a minute and waited, then she turned and came
+straight towards us. I thought if she saw us she'd report us to Miss
+Fanny, so I whispered to Joyce, 'Get behind me and I'll act ghost!' and
+then I held my dress high above my head with both hands, and began to
+bow myself up and down and moan."
+
+"Bella yelled," explained Joyce, taking up the tale. "She ran back up
+the drive as fast as she could, and rushed round to the kitchen door. We
+were going to tell you about it, but when we got in you were full of
+Bella's story of having seen the ghost in Poplar Lane. So we thought we
+might as well have some fun out of the thing, and play a rag on you."
+
+"It was ever so difficult, though," continued Winnie. "We couldn't do it
+anywhere else except in the cloakroom, and we didn't know how to get you
+there. It was Joyce's idea to take Nita's post-card album away. Oh, how
+she and Alison screamed! I haven't got over it yet."
+
+Winnie was still hinnying and dabbing her eyes with a rather
+phosphorousy pocket handkerchief.
+
+"Look here, now," said Nesta, "we've had enough of this. You mustn't try
+any tricks on the maids."
+
+"Oh, just on Bella! It would be such a stunt to stand in the housemaid's
+cupboard and let her find me when she goes upstairs."
+
+"No!" decreed Nesta. "It's dangerous to frighten people. Bella may
+have a weak heart, and in any case she'd be certain to drop her jug of
+drinking-water. I'm a senior and you juniors have got to do what I say.
+No, Winnie! It's no use pulling faces and nudging Joyce. I mean it. I'm
+no tell-tale, but if I find either of you trying on this rag again I
+shall just march straight off and fetch Miss Fanny. So you know what to
+expect. There!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Round the Fire
+
+
+Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny liked to have an individual knowledge of
+each of their pupils, and as they did not yet know the Ramsays very well
+they asked them to tea one day. So after school Mavis and Merle stayed
+behind and washed their hands, and went with the boarders into the
+dining-room, and ate scones and honey and home-baked cake, and felt
+rather shy and hardly spoke at all, although they were both sitting
+close to Miss Pollard, who made most noble efforts at conversation. When
+tea was over, those girls who were due to practise departed to the
+several pianos, and began a kind of musical combat of scales and
+studies. The others collected round the fire in the recreation-room.
+Preparation had been put off on account of the visitors, and Miss
+Pollard had announced that she and Miss Fanny were coming in for half an
+hour's chat or fun.
+
+"You must decide what you'd like to do," she said. "Ask Mavis and Merle
+what are their favourite games. Do they know 'adverbs'? It must be
+something you can all play."
+
+Standing in front of the fire everybody proposed something different,
+and nobody wanted anybody else's suggestion. Matters seemed likely to go
+rather lamely till Mamie had a really sensible idea.
+
+"Let's ask Miss Pollard to tell us a Devonshire story instead of playing
+games."
+
+"Does she know any Devonshire stories?" said Merle quickly.
+
+"Heaps and heaps. She says she learnt them from the old people about
+Durracombe, when she was a little girl, and her father was vicar. She's
+written most of them down. She has them in a manuscript book. We want
+her to get it published some day, because they're so topping. They're
+all about Devonshire pixies and witches and charms and things."
+
+"I'd love to hear one."
+
+"So would I," added Mavis, "I'd like it far better than playing a game,
+if you others don't mind."
+
+"Oh, it's you visitors who are to choose."
+
+So when Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny entered, and inquired what was to be
+the particular form of entertainment, Mamie voted for Devonshire
+stories, and all hands were held up in favour of her proposal.
+
+"My little folk-tales!" exclaimed Miss Pollard, looking very pleased.
+"They're collected from the neighbourhood. The old people used to tell
+them years ago, but nowadays I don't think anybody in Durracombe cares
+about pixies. Most of them would have been forgotten if I hadn't written
+them down. I'll fetch the book. I'd rather read you one than try to
+remember it. I never can recollect the best points when I tell stories."
+
+Miss Pollard returned presently with a small manuscript volume, the
+result of rather careful work on her part, for she was interested in the
+old legends of the district. She settled herself in a wicker arm-chair,
+with Doreen on her lap, and Elsbeth squatting on the floor leaning
+against her knee, while Miss Fanny, on the opposite side of the hearth,
+gave similar petting to Jessie and Prue. It was a "home-y" little
+circle, not in the least like school. Mavis could not help thinking how
+sweet Miss Pollard looked, with the firelight shining on her silver
+hair, and an unwonted pink colour in her cheeks. Miss Fanny, too, was
+picturesque in the gloaming, and Prue's red-gold head made a bright spot
+of colour against her dull-green dress.
+
+"They're dears, both of them," thought Mavis. "Absolute dears! Anybody
+more unlike school-mistresses I never met in my life. They ought to have
+been married. They must have been so pretty when they were young. I
+suppose they never met anybody in this out-of-the-way place. The school
+may be old-fashioned, and behind the age, and all the rest of it, but
+they give the boarders a good time at any rate. They're just mothers to
+those Indian children. I'm glad to have had a peep at them behind the
+scenes and seen this side of them. I believe I'm rather in love with
+them both."
+
+But Miss Pollard had opened her manuscript book and, in her pleasant
+cultured voice, was beginning to read.
+
+    STOLEN BY THE PIXIES
+
+    Nancy Gurney sat by the side of the driftwood fire, and her
+    tears fell fast as she rocked the cradle of her sleeping child.
+    The afternoon sun shone brightly through the narrow casement
+    window, and lit up the earthen floor and the brown rafters with
+    a warm yellow glow. From outside came the fresh smell of the
+    sea, and the soft grinding of the pebbles, while the waves
+    lapped gently over the beach, as if they had never lashed
+    themselves into foaming breakers against the cliffs.
+
+    The red poppies which grew on the low-thatched roof raised up
+    their heads, battered by yesterday's storms, the great flat
+    fish, hung up to dry in the sun by the doorway, flapped in the
+    light breeze, and from the shore came the shrill eager voices of
+    children, who gathered the driftwood cast up by the gale. But
+    the fishing-boats! The brown-sailed fishing-boats that ought to
+    have beaten back so safely into the harbour with the turn of the
+    tide, alas! there was never a sign nor a sail of them to be
+    seen, and there was many an aching heart in Bulvertor that day.
+
+    "Maybe they've got safe off towards the Cornish coast," said
+    Kitty Trefyre, who sat knitting in the inglenook.
+
+    "Nay," said Nancy sadly, "they'd have been round the head by
+    now. It's only the stoutest of boats that could have weathered
+    such a gale as blew last night, and _The Dolphin_ was hardly
+    seaworthy at best. No! They're gone! They're gone! We shall
+    never see the brown sails again! The sea has taken my Peter as
+    it has claimed all my dearest and best, and my poor boy is a
+    fatherless babe."
+
+    She dropped her head on her hands, and sobbed till the tears
+    fell into the cradle over the sleeping child.
+
+    "Don't take it so hard!" said Kitty. "We won't give them up
+    yet! And whisht, girl, whisht! Whatever you do don't weep over
+    the boy! Have you never heard that if tears fall on a sleeping
+    child the pixies have power to steal it away?"
+
+    Nancy dashed the tears from her eyes, and walked to the doorway
+    to take one long wistful look over the bay. The old woman laid
+    aside her knitting and followed her.
+
+    "It's ill luck!" she muttered. "Ill luck to shed tears on
+    sleeping babes, and I doubt me but evil will come of it. I'll
+    gather some fern seed and drop it in the cradle. It's a
+    well-known charm for keeping off pixies or witches, and 'tis
+    better to be wise in time--wise in time!"
+
+    She hobbled out across the garden to where the ferns grew under
+    the hedge, while Nancy turned sadly again to the fireside. She
+    stooped over the cradle to kiss her sleeping child, but started
+    back with a piercing, bitter cry. _The cradle was empty!_
+
+    The sound of her grief soon brought old Kitty hurrying to the
+    cottage.
+
+    "My boy! My beautiful boy!" sobbed the despairing mother. "The
+    pixies have stolen him away. Oh, that I had wept myself blind
+    ere I let the tears fall over his cradle!"
+
+    She sat rocking herself to and fro in her sorrow, while the old
+    woman threw the fern seed, picked, alas! too late, into the
+    driftwood fire.
+
+    "There's one hope left," said Kitty, when the first wild burst
+    of grief had worn itself away. "I am cunning and wise in the
+    ways of the pixies, and I know that they dance each night in the
+    moonlight on the ledge of rock where the sea-pinks bloom on the
+    face of St. Morna's Cliff. If you hide yourself there, with a
+    wreath of vervain round your hair, and could catch them
+    unawares, my heart tells me you might force them to restore what
+    they have stolen. But, alas! the plan is well-nigh impossible,
+    for how could you tread safely over the crags where the boldest
+    of our cliff climbers scarce dare to venture?"
+
+    "Yet I will do it!" cried Nancy, as she rose up with a new light
+    in her eyes. "Quick! weave me the wreath of vervain, and show me
+    by what spell I may force the fairies to give me back my child."
+
+    "Nay, that I cannot tell you," said old Kitty. "Your own
+    mother-wit must find out the way. Start when the twilight has
+    fallen, and when seven stars are shining over the sea; tell none
+    your errand, and cast three sprigs from your vervain wreath if a
+    hare should cross your path. Turn your wedding ring round on
+    your finger before you venture to climb down the cliff, and call
+    on St. Morna to help you. Watch silently all that may happen
+    till you see your opportunity arise--and may good luck and my
+    blessing go with you!"
+
+    The dusk had fallen over the village, and the stars were
+    beginning to shine in the darkening sky, when Nancy, with the
+    wreath of vervain twined through her dark hair, crept softly
+    past the last of the cottages, and took the little briary path
+    which led through the low sandhills, and over the wind-swept
+    hill-side up to St. Morna's Cliff.
+
+    Not a sound broke the silence, for the sea-gulls had vanished
+    with the sunshine, and not even a fieldmouse stirred in the
+    bracken. With hasty step she hurried along, for she must reach
+    her post before moonrise. The path grew steeper, the bracken
+    gave way to heather, and at length she found herself on the
+    smooth grassy surface of St. Morna's Cliff. Down far below her
+    she could see the wide rocky ledge where the sea-pinks were
+    catching the last glow from the western sky. How steep the crag
+    looked! The few tufts of grass and jutting-out pieces of rock
+    offered her scarcely a foothold; should she make one false step
+    she must be dashed to atoms upon the precipice beneath. She
+    looked down and shivered; but the thought of her child sent a
+    thrill of courage to her heart. Kneeling down on the short grass
+    she prayed to St. Morna for help; then, turning her wedding ring
+    round upon her finger, she swung herself over the edge of the
+    cliff.
+
+    Clutching at a root here, feeling with her feet for the
+    slightest foothold, grasping the worn splinters of the crag, she
+    let herself down the face of the rock, till with panting breath
+    and bleeding fingers she fell among the sea-pinks on the ledge
+    below. She lay there for a while, half-insensible, till the
+    first rays of the rising moon began to shimmer over the sea.
+    Then she rose hastily, and, hiding herself behind a huge
+    boulder, waited for what should happen.
+
+    When the first faint moonbeams fell all silvery white upon the
+    ledge, the sea-pinks lifted their pretty heads; they grew and
+    grew till each had changed into a gorgeous tropical flower,
+    then, leaving their places, they ranged themselves into a wide
+    circle, and cast forth such a fragrance as might have stolen out
+    of the open gates of Paradise. Upon each hung a tiny silver
+    bell, and as they nodded their heads the bells chimed out the
+    sweetest fairy tunes. Little stars began to glitter among the
+    leaves, some pink, some blue, some golden, and the short green
+    grass inside the circle smoothed itself out into the most
+    beautiful dancing-floor.
+
+    Then there was a great rushing sound in the sky, and from far
+    and near there flew flocks of snow-white sea-gulls. As they
+    reached the ledge their wings fell from them, and they turned
+    into lovely little pixies, as light and transparent as gossamer.
+    Joining hands, they stepped inside the circle of flowers and
+    danced a graceful, intricate measure, while the fairy bells rang
+    out their sweetest tunes. On and on they danced, hour after
+    hour; the moon rose slowly in the sky, but the pixies' feet
+    seemed never to tire as they beat time to the enchanting music.
+
+    Hiding behind the boulder of rock Nancy had been quite
+    unnoticed, but her eager eyes watched all that had been taking
+    place. Stretching out her hand very gently she managed to steal
+    a pair of the sea-birds' wings, and hide them away in her bosom.
+
+    The little bells still rang out their chimes, and the pixies
+    tripped lightly over the grass, till at length the moon began to
+    wane, and the first glimmer of approaching dawn showed in the
+    eastern sky.
+
+    Then the tiny dancers stopped short in their merry pastime, and,
+    taking their white wings again, they flew away over the sea like
+    a cloud of foam flakes. The coloured stars and the silver bells
+    had disappeared, the tropical flowers broke up their circle and
+    changed once more into simple little sea-pinks, and the grass,
+    where the pixies had danced, grew up fresher and greener than
+    ever.
+
+    But one little pixie was left behind. She wandered round
+    wringing her hands and seeking vainly for the sea-bird's wings
+    that should have borne her away with the others. Tripping behind
+    the great boulder of rock she came face to face with Nancy, who
+    still crouched in its shadow.
+
+    "Mortal! cruel mortal!" cried the pixie, "you have stolen my
+    wings! Give them back, I pray you, before the dawn breaks, for
+    the first rays of sunshine will wither me up, and I shall turn
+    into a little faded brown leaf."
+
+    "Pixie! cruel pixie!" cried Nancy, "you have stolen my child!
+    Bring him back to my arms, and then and not till then will I
+    restore you your wings."
+
+    "How can I find you your child?" screamed the pixie. "Oh! give
+    me my wings--my pretty white wings; let me fly safely away over
+    the sea ere I turn for ever into a little withered brown leaf!"
+    and she stamped her tiny foot in her helpless passion.
+
+    "You can and shall find me my child," said Nancy, "for I know
+    that the pixies have stolen him away, and that only a pixie can
+    bring him back to me. Look! the sky is reddening already, your
+    time is short. Do my bidding speedily, and the wings are yours."
+
+    "The dawn! the dawn!" shrieked the pixie. "Mortal, I will grant
+    you what you ask! Each of the sea-pinks which bloom on this
+    green turf holds the soul of a child which we have stolen away
+    from its cradle. For a moment each pretty flower shall wear its
+    human face, then choose out your own child swiftly and let me be
+    gone."
+
+    She clapped her hands, and each of the little sea-pinks turned
+    to a smiling baby face. All the merry eyes and tiny curls were
+    there that mothers had mourned for all over the country-side,
+    and at her feet Nancy saw the sweet, laughing face of her stolen
+    child. With a cry of joy she clasped him in her arms.
+
+    "The dawn! the dawn!" cried the pixie. "Mortal, give me my
+    wings!"
+
+    Nancy drew them from her bosom, and gave them into the eager,
+    entreating fingers. With a great rush of light the sun rose, his
+    golden beams fell on the wide ledge of rock, lighting up a bed
+    of simple little sea-pinks, while over the broad blue sea there
+    flew a solitary sea-gull.
+
+    Folding her shawl about her child, Nancy slung him on to her
+    back, and with slow steps and painful fingers she climbed up the
+    face of the cliff. The larks were rising out of the heather, the
+    little blue butterflies were flitting over the yellow gorse, the
+    dew-drops hung like jewels in the gossamer, and far away on the
+    distant water she could see the brown sails of the missing
+    fishing-boats as they beat safely over the bar into Bulvertor
+    Harbour.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The story was told me in Devonshire dialect when I was a little girl,"
+said Miss Pollard, as she closed her book, "but I wrote it in ordinary
+English because the other is so hard to understand. It's funny that in
+the accounts of fairies they always seem to speak the local languages.
+Irish fairies talk Erse, and Welsh fairies sing in Welsh. Have you
+pixies in the north, Mavis?"
+
+"They're called 'boggarts' in our part of the world," laughed Mavis,
+"and I suppose they talk dialect. There's a north-country story about a
+boggart--a creature something like a brownie--that lived at a farm, and
+was such a bother that the people thought they'd remove to get rid of
+him. They put all their furniture on a cart, and started out. They met a
+neighbour, who said to them: 'So thee's flittin'!' and the boggart
+popped its ugly little head out of the churn and said: 'Aye, we's
+flittin'!'.
+
+"The people were so disgusted to find that it intended to go with them
+to new quarters that they turned back to their old farm and decided to
+put up with the nuisance."
+
+"Ayah used to tell us Indian fairy tales," said Mamie, "but they were
+about princes and devas and lovely ladies."
+
+"There are fairy tales all over the world," said Miss Pollard, "and if
+we go on telling them we shall never stop. It's time for preparation
+now. You little people must run away, and the others must fetch their
+books. Mavis and Merle must come some time to have tea with us again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Pixie-led
+
+
+Next morning Merle got out of bed on the wrong side. She did it
+deliberately and with intention. It was a rather awkward business to
+achieve, too, for the beds were placed close together with only a few
+inches between them, and to make her left-handed exit she was obliged to
+scramble over the recumbent form of Mavis, who protested sleepily.
+
+"Don't care! Bags me first innings at the hot water," blustered Merle,
+bouncing down with a plump on to the rush mat in front of the wash-hand
+stand.
+
+"Don't care came to a bad end," quoted a dormouse voice among the
+blankets.
+
+"Right-o! I'm in for it."
+
+After such a shameless tempting of fate it was not to be wondered at
+that matters immediately turned in the direction of bad luck.
+
+Merle poured out a liberal half of the hot water which Jessop had
+brought, then seized up the toilet jug to add some cold. But either her
+hand was wet or she was careless, or some unseen imp actually
+intervened; anyhow, the handle slipped from her grasp, down fell the
+jug, breaking its spout, and the contents spread themselves over the
+floor.
+
+Anybody who has ever upset a bedroom jug must have been astonished at
+the enormous volume of water it contains. It seemed to Merle as if the
+bath had suddenly emptied itself. Streams and trickles were running
+everywhere, and the rush mat was a swamp. She stood staring at it in
+utter consternation.
+
+"Mop it up, you Judkins!" shrieked Mavis, now thoroughly awakened. "Why
+can't you mop it up? Goody, what a mess!"
+
+Mavis put one foot out of bed into the wet pool, and drew it back like a
+cat. She reached for her bedroom slippers, pulled them on, then set to
+work with a sponge to try and remedy the damage. For what seemed about
+five minutes the girls were mopping and dabbing, getting the bottoms of
+their nightdresses soaked in the process, and having to scramble under
+the beds to follow some of the streams. Jessop, hearing the commotion,
+came in and scolded.
+
+"The new toilet jug! Whatever were you doing? What will your aunt say,
+I wonder? Girls are as careless as boys it seems to me! I used to make
+Master Cyril wash in the bathroom. We shall have to buy you enamel-ware
+if you break the china. Rivet it, did you say? No one could rivet these
+bits! Besides which, the old man who used to come round riveting things
+has never turned up since the war. The jug's done for and that's the
+long and short of it. There, get on with your dressing, or you'll be
+late for breakfast. I'll bring you some more water in a can. I suppose
+girls will be girls, and the thing's done now, and past praying for, so
+there's an end of it."
+
+It might be the end of the water jug, but unfortunately it was not the
+end of Merle's ill-luck. She must have been in a particularly awkward
+and maladroit mood, for at breakfast-time she actually managed to upset
+her cup of tea.
+
+"Hello! What are we doing here?" asked Uncle David, peering round his
+newspaper at the puddle on the clean tablecloth.
+
+"I don't know. I think the pixies nudged me. I'm fearfully sorry,"
+apologized Merle, thanking her stars privately that Jessop was not in
+the dining-room, and hoping to escape to school before that already
+offended domestic deity came to clear away and discovered the tell-tale
+evidence.
+
+"Ah yes! Put it all on to the pixies; they've broad shoulders," twinkled
+Uncle David, as he helped himself to more bacon.
+
+"It's like the Mad Hatter's tea-party," grunted Mavis, moving farther
+down the table to avoid the wet patch, which had spread in her
+direction.
+
+Certainly Merle seemed pixie-led, for everything went wrong. When she
+put on her boots she broke her boot-lace, and had to piece it with a big
+knot which ran into her instep and hurt her. She struggled into her
+coat, slammed on her hat, and tore out after Mavis, who had already
+started; but when she was half-way along the High Street she discovered
+that she had forgotten one of her books and had to run back for it. It
+was in the summer-house, at the bottom of the garden, where she had left
+it the day before, and as she scurried up the steps she stumbled and
+fell, and grazed her knee. She picked herself up, looked ruefully at the
+injured limb, seized her book, and rushed away, limping slightly on one
+leg, and grousing hard. She was late for school, though, in spite of her
+best efforts, and only slipped into the big classroom just when Miss
+Pollard was closing the register.
+
+"Where have you been, Merle?" inquired Miss Pollard in the most
+scholastic manner she knew how to adopt.
+
+"I forgot my history and went back for it--I'm very sorry," gasped
+Merle, much out of breath with running.
+
+Opal smiled, and counted over the books which she held on her lap with
+the air of one who is thinking to herself: "Other people don't forget
+their things!" Merle, by this time thoroughly cross, frowned at her
+darkly. There was something so aggravatingly smug about Opal; all her
+peccadilloes were well hidden, and never came under public and official
+notice. She took advantage of her position, too; for, as the girls filed
+out of the room, she stroked Miss Pollard's arm caressingly as she
+passed, a token of affection which Merle, who admired the head mistress
+after yesterday's tea-party, would have loved to bestow but did not
+dare.
+
+The pixies would not let Merle alone that morning. They jerked her pen,
+so that she made blots on her exercise, they whisked dates out of her
+memory, and put wrong figures into her sums. When it came to literature
+lesson they must have deliberately absconded with her copy of _Julius
+Cćsar_. She hunted for it in vain.
+
+"I _know_ I left it in my desk yesterday," she assured Miss Fanny, who
+was waiting to take the class and chafing at the delay.
+
+"You ought to have your books ready. Be quick and look again. It's
+probably underneath something else," urged the mistress impatiently.
+
+Merle seized a top layer of textbooks and essay paper and dumped them
+down on the floor, the more readily to burrow deeper into the rather
+mixed and miscellaneous collection in her desk.
+
+"Merle Ramsay! Really, you forget yourself," chided Miss Fanny. "Pick
+those things up and put them back. A more disgracefully untidy
+performance I never saw. I won't have that litter on the floor. Is your
+_Julius Cćsar_ there, or is it not?"
+
+Apparently it was not, for Merle turned over her heap of confusion in
+vain; and in her agitation let the lid of the desk fall with an awful
+slam that echoed through the room. She sat up scarlet in the face.
+
+"That will do!" said Miss Fanny icily. "You must look on with Mavis if
+you can't find your own."
+
+"Please, Miss Fanny, I saw a _Julius Cćsar_ in the pound this morning,"
+volunteered Opal demurely. "I don't know whose it is."
+
+The mistress turned to the lost-property basket, stooped down, drew out
+the missing book, and handed it reproachfully to Merle.
+
+"If you kept your desk in better order you wouldn't lose your things.
+See how you've delayed the whole form! You must bring a penny for the
+missionary box this afternoon."
+
+Merle sat through the lesson with a face like thunder. She was
+absolutely certain that she had left the book inside her desk, and she
+strongly suspected Opal of having deliberately taken it out and placed
+it in the pound.
+
+"Just like one of her disgusting tricks. She'd do anything mean. I'll
+have something to say to her after school," she mused gloomily.
+
+She tackled Opal in the cloakroom when the latter was tying her
+shoe-laces.
+
+"Look here, you blighter," she began, "what do you mean by cribbing my
+books and sticking them into the pound? It's the absolute limit."
+
+Opal tied an elegant bow, and put out a foot to admire the result.
+
+"I've never seen your books, my good girl," she yawned. "What are you
+setting on me for?"
+
+"You have! You took it out of my desk and put it in the pound on
+purpose. I know you did!"
+
+"I didn't!"
+
+"What a whopper!"
+
+"Look here, just stop talking!"
+
+"I shan't! I'll say what I think. We used to play 'rags' at Whinburn
+High, but when one girl started that rag of hiding books we all 'booed'
+her out of our secret society as a sneak."
+
+"How clever of you!" sneered Opal. "What you did at your precious high
+school is nothing to me, I'm sure."
+
+"Well, my _Julius Cćsar_ is at any rate. You took it away, and it's you
+who've got to put the penny in the missionary box for it."
+
+"Don't count on me to pay your fines for you; I'm always stony broke,"
+laughed Opal, as she put on her coat.
+
+"Opal Earnshaw, I _shan't_ pay that penny when it's your business."
+
+"Dear, dear! What tempers we get ourselves into!
+
+    "'Little children should not let
+       Their angry passions rise!
+     Their little hands were never made
+       To scratch each other's eyes!'"
+
+Opal spoke airily as she arranged her hat.
+
+"It'll come to scratching in another moment!" exploded Merle. "You
+_know_ it's all your fault."
+
+"Merle, _darling_! _Don't!_" remonstrated Mavis, seizing her sister's
+arm and whispering "It's no use and it only makes Opal all the nastier.
+I've put the penny in the box for you already. I told Miss Fanny, and
+she said it was all right. It's a shame, I know, but we can't do
+anything."
+
+"I'd like to spifflicate that girl," fumed Merle, looking after Opal,
+who was walking away giggling.
+
+Poor Merle took life hardly. She went home still reviling Fate. Directly
+lunch was over she seized her writing-pad and scribbled the following
+letter as fast as her pen would go.
+
+        "Un-dear Opal,
+
+            "I think you're the horridest, meanest girl I have ever
+    met in my life, and that's saying something. You think yourself
+    very clever and pretty, and all the rest of it, but you're not.
+    You may get Miss Pollard to shut her eyes to what you do, but
+    some day she'll find you out and then there'll be squalls, and
+    I for one shall dance for joy. If you want to know what I think
+    about you, I call you a proud popinjay; it's the best name to
+    suit you! I wish you were not at this school or else that I
+    hadn't come to it!
+
+                "With the reverse of love,
+                    "Yours unaffectionately,
+                        "MERLE RAMSAY."
+
+"There! That's done me good!" she declared, handing the letter to her
+sister.
+
+Mavis read the effusion quite calmly, folded it, and placed it in the
+envelope addressed to Miss O. Earnshaw.
+
+"Shall we put it in our usual post office?" she asked, then dropped it
+into the fire.
+
+She understood Merle, who loved to relieve her feelings by writing
+violent letters, which fortunately never reached the people to whom they
+were directed. It was merely a form of letting off steam, and did nobody
+any harm. Mavis always took care, though, to make sure that the epistles
+were safely consigned to the flames. She had pulled Merle out of many
+scrapes, and knew just how to manage her hot-tempered sister.
+
+"Opal's simply not worth thinking about," she consoled. "Let's forget
+this business. Uncle David says he's going to pay a visit at a farm on
+the moor this afternoon, and if we'll scurry home quick from school at
+four, he'll wait for us and take us with him."
+
+"Oh, Jubilate!" rejoiced Merle, recovering her good spirits. "What fun!
+I was just pining for a jaunt in the car. Go? I should think we will,
+rather! We'll fly the very second Mademoiselle lets us off. Thank
+goodness, it will be something decent to think about all the afternoon.
+Opal Earnshaw may go to Hong-Kong if she likes. I don't care about her
+and her meannesses. We're wangling a drive with Uncle David.
+Cock-a-doodle-do!"
+
+Merle got through her music lesson with moderate success, and did her
+drawing with tolerable correctness, so, except for a lost button and
+breaking the hinge off her pencil-box, she had no more conspicuous
+mishaps. She nearly undid herself by catching up her drawing-board and
+rising to go the moment the clock began to strike four, which caused a
+glare from Mademoiselle, who added:
+
+"Sit down till I dismiss the class. If you go too soon I shall make you
+stay behind all the others and wait."
+
+[Illustration: "HERE WE ARE AT CROSS NUMBER TWO" _Page 163_]
+
+Much terrified lest the teacher should keep her threat, Merle popped
+back into her place, and filed out in orderly fashion behind Maude
+Carey, fuming that the latter's movements were so dilatory and slow. She
+and Mavis hurried home almost at a run.
+
+After all they need not have been in such fearful haste, for they found
+Uncle David and Tom busy in the yard putting the spare wheel on the car.
+
+"Just had a puncture," explained Dr. Tremayne. "A nasty bit of broken
+glass in the High Street. Fortunately I was almost home. No, Tom, I
+haven't time to stay now while you mend it. I must get off to see old
+Mr. Tracy at once. We must just trust the spare wheel won't puncture,
+that's all. People ought to be prosecuted for leaving broken glass about
+to cut tyres. It's a dastardly trick to play on motorists. If I were a
+magistrate I'd fine them for it. The amount of time I waste over
+punctures is perfectly disgusting."
+
+The spare wheel was put on at last, in place of the one with the
+punctured tyre, and Uncle David and Mavis and Merle got into the car,
+and started off on to the moors. It had been quite clear in Durracombe,
+though not sunny, but directly they were up amongst the peat and heather
+great white clouds came rolling across the road, and in a few moments
+they were in the thickness of a white Devonshire mist. It was possible
+to see only for about a space of ten feet all round them. The doctor
+drove slowly, sounding his horn to warn anybody who might be approaching
+either in front or from behind.
+
+"I didn't think we should have caught a mist to-day," he commented. "I'd
+have started earlier if I'd known it was going to be like this. Curious
+how these queer fogs come on. I suppose it's our nearness to the sea.
+It's a regular winding-sheet. No use turning on the lamps, for they
+don't help. What's that! G-r-r-r! Great Scott! I believe we've got
+another puncture!"
+
+The unmistakable jarring sensation that betrays mishap to a tyre brought
+Dr. Tremayne to a sudden standstill. He got out to inspect.
+
+"Yes, it is! And the spare wheel, too! Of all the hard luck. I shall
+have to set to work and mend it. And here in the midst of all the fog.
+It might have kept up till we'd reached the farm. This is the second
+puncture this afternoon."
+
+"I'm afraid I'm the Jonah," said Merle. "I've had a pixie day ever since
+I got up this morning. Every single thing has gone wrong. I believe in
+bad luck, especially if you start badly. You'd better throw me
+overboard."
+
+"We must get started again before we can throw anybody overboard."
+
+"Can we help you, Uncle?" asked Mavis.
+
+"No, dear, not just at present. It's a question of finding the puncture.
+Ah! Here it is! And, would you believe it? another bit of broken glass!
+Some wretched tourist has been picnicking up here, I suppose, and
+smashed a ginger-beer bottle. Well, now I've found the spot, I can get
+to work."
+
+It was rather cold standing in the midst of the fog watching Uncle
+David. The girls began to walk up and down the road instead while they
+waited for him. They could see a patch of heather on either hand, and
+occasionally, looming through the mist, the dark body of a mountain pony
+or a bullock. Quite close to them, on the top of a small mound, was a
+little old, old worn cross, and they naturally stepped aside to look at
+it. Perhaps it marked some traveller's grave, or had been part of a
+shrine in long-ago times. Standing by its shaft they could make out
+through the fog another cross only a short distance away. It seemed a
+pity not to inspect this also. It was a far finer one than the first,
+and they walked all round it; then because they thought they spied a
+cromlech on the top of another mound they set off to inspect that too.
+It was not a cromlech after all, only a pile of boulders, so they turned
+back again.
+
+"Here we are at cross number two," said Merle.
+
+"Ye-e-s," agreed Mavis doubtfully. "It seems to have gone rather
+smaller, though. I don't remember that clump of ferns at the bottom."
+
+"Well, there's the first cross at any rate. Come along."
+
+But when they reached what they supposed to be the first cross they were
+more doubtful still. It was quite unfamiliar. Moreover, there was no
+road within sight of it.
+
+"We--we've come wrong!" faltered Merle.
+
+"There must be several of these crosses."
+
+"Let's go back to that one over there, then perhaps we shall find our
+first one."
+
+But meanwhile the treacherous mist was rolling up thicker and thicker.
+The girls hurried back as fast as they could, but this time they missed
+the cross altogether. There is nothing so easy as to get lost in a fog
+on the moors. Thoroughly frightened, they called to Uncle David, but
+they could hear nothing in reply. They wandered on, hoping he would
+sound the hooter and so give them some clue to his whereabouts, but
+everything was deadly still. It seemed as if a great white wall had
+arisen and shut them up in some elfin castle on the moor.
+
+"We're pixie-led. That's just all about it," said Merle. "I told you it
+was an unlucky day."
+
+"Well, look here, we mustn't go too far! If we walk on like this we may
+be going straight away from the road, and might tramp miles or get into
+a bog. We'd better stay where we are and shout every now and then, and
+perhaps Uncle David will find us."
+
+Two very forlorn girls, feeling extremely chilly and cold in the clammy
+fog, squatted down on the heather and took it in turns to call
+"Coo-e-ee!"
+
+"What are we to do if we have to stop here all night?" asked Merle,
+nearly crying.
+
+"I don't know!"
+
+"How long do these mists last?"
+
+"Oh, days and days sometimes I suppose!"
+
+"Should we be dead before morning?"
+
+"Oh, I hope not! Shout again!"
+
+They both called together, but there was no response.
+
+"I'm going to count a hundred, and if we hear nothing by then I shall
+walk on somewhere. It's so bitterly cold sitting still," said Mavis, who
+was shivering.
+
+She counted aloud, and at the end they gave a frantic shout. Not even a
+bird rustled in reply. "Well here goes, there's nothing for it but a
+plunge," said Mavis. "I've not the glimmer of an idea which way to
+take."
+
+"I shall follow my nose," said Merle, setting off.
+
+"Don't go too fast or you'll lose me. Let me take hold of your arm. We
+never came this way, I'm sure. We certainly didn't pass a little
+stream."
+
+"Any way is better than no way," said Merle desperately. "Hello! why
+there's the road!"
+
+The relief at finding themselves back upon the track of civilization was
+intense. They ran joyfully along, and in a few moments came upon Uncle
+David, just screwing on his last nuts and whistling to himself quite
+unconcernedly.
+
+"Where have you two been?" he asked.
+
+"Where!" answered Merle with dramatic unction. "Where? Why, getting lost
+like the babes in the wood! We thought we were going to perish upon the
+moors and never see home again! We wandered on for _hours_. Didn't you
+hear us shouting?"
+
+"Exactly twenty-five minutes," corrected Dr. Tremayne, consulting his
+watch. "No, I never heard you shout. I should have hooted if I had. I
+wondered where you were. Better not run off too far another time. Well,
+I've mended this tyre, and been remarkably quick over it too, I think.
+I'm rather proud of myself. It's a record."
+
+Feeling a little small, the girls got into the car. It was humiliating
+that Uncle David did not seem to realize their terrific adventure, and
+was far more concerned over the tyre than over their possible loss and
+death from exposure and starvation.
+
+"It's all the fault of the Devonshire pixies," whispered Mavis.
+
+And Merle nodded emphatically.
+
+"Rather! I consider we were absolutely and entirely pixie-led. I can
+almost hear the little wretches laughing about it over there. I'll do
+for them if I catch them! It's been a pixie day."
+
+"Then for goodness sake do get out of bed to-morrow on the right side,"
+implored Mavis.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+Blackthorn Bower
+
+
+As a direct consequence of sitting on the damp moor in the mist Mavis
+caught one of her bad bronchial colds and was put to bed and cosseted by
+Aunt Nellie, and was fussed over by Jessop, and was visited by Uncle
+David, and had flowers sent her by Tom, and for a few days was the
+centre of the entire household. She was such a dear gentle little
+patient, and her blue eyes and dull-gold hair always looked so effective
+against the background of a pillow, that she invariably received much
+petting and spoiling when she was ill. Merle, who went through some
+stormy scenes when left to her own devices at school, declared that
+Mavis was "a lucker", and that it paid to be an invalid. She did her
+share of the spoiling, however; for though she might sometimes affect to
+be jealous, no one was more thoroughly devoted to her sister than
+herself. It was characteristic of Merle that she would not go to
+Chagmouth alone.
+
+"I'll wait till Mavis is better and then we'll go together, thanks,
+Uncle David," she said decidedly, in response to all tempting offers of
+a run in the car.
+
+Mavis pulled round much faster at Durracombe than she would have done at
+Whinburn, and, though several weeks saw the doctor set off alone for
+Chagmouth, one Saturday arrived when he started with a pale and a rosy
+face beside him, and two wagging tongues keeping up an excited
+chatteration. The girls felt as if they had been away from the village
+for years. The short time of their absence had made changes, for the red
+pyrus japonica was in blossom on some of the houses, and daffodils and
+wallflowers were blooming instead of snowdrops and crocuses in the
+cottage gardens. It was a glorious heavenly day, one of those blue March
+days that are linked in our memories with young lambs and violets. They
+had caught the wind coming across the moor, but the Cove of Chagmouth
+was sheltered from it, and was calm and warm as summer.
+
+"Just the very weather for Mavis to be out-of-doors," said Dr. Tremayne.
+"If Bevis can spare the time we'll ask him to take you a walk. You ought
+to go and see Pixies' Cave--that's the place I was telling you about the
+other day, where the Antiquarian Society excavated and found so many
+prehistoric weapons. Bevis was there helping them. He's got one or two
+of the things, I believe. He must show them to you. It's only about a
+mile and a half to the cave if you go along the cliffs. You can manage
+that, Mavis?"
+
+"Rather. I'm not a scrap ill now, and ready for anything."
+
+Bevis had completely forgiven the girls for deserting him on the former
+occasion. Moreover, he had kept his promise, and had made them a
+miniature grindstone upon which to sharpen their penknives. It turned
+with a handle, and was quite a neat little piece of workmanship. They
+welcomed it with much admiration.
+
+"It's absolutely dinky! How could you ever manage to do it?" they asked.
+
+"Oh, it was quite easy!" replied Bevis airily, looking gratified all the
+same.
+
+He agreed at once to escort them to the cave, and directly lunch was
+over they started forth. This time they went in the opposite direction
+to the sanatorium. They climbed above the village, and struck a footpath
+among woods that overhung the cliffs. On this sunny March day it was
+like a peep of fairyland. The trees were still bare, but between the
+network of branches showed the brilliant blue-green of the sea below; an
+aspect of the scene not possible in leafy summer. The ground was
+spangled with little tufts of primroses, peeping from among the grass
+and dead leaves, as the pre-Raphaelite artists so loved to paint them in
+their masterpieces. Mosses, lichens, and hardy Polypody ferns grew
+thickly on the trees, so that grey and green were mingled with the tones
+of brown and gold into one soft harmony of rich colour. The air was
+soft, and yet had an invigorating sparkle of spring in it. Everything
+seemed to hold the thrill of awakening life, and the magnetic atmosphere
+was that of an old-time folk-tale when the world was young and all its
+objects were sources of wonder and worship.
+
+The girls caught the spirit of the place and ran about like dryads in a
+rapture of delight, picking flowers, gazing up into the tracery of the
+bare branches, or peeping over edges of cliff at the waves dashing
+below. They were so enthralled with the wood that it was difficult to
+drag them any farther. Yet it was finer still when they had left the
+trees and walked out to the open headland. This was the grandest side of
+Chagmouth, and the view of steep jagged rocks and wide waters was
+sublime. There is a spiritual exaltation in being on the heights, else
+why have the greatest souls ever born ascended into mountains for their
+periods of meditation and transfiguration?
+
+Bevis was a most satisfactory person to act guide, for he appreciated
+everything so much himself. He invariably stopped at exactly the right
+places and said, "There!" The boy was a keen naturalist, and was always
+watching the birds, poking about for nests, picking up snail shells, or
+making a dash after some insect specimen that he wanted. His pockets
+were generally full of miscellaneous objects, and he had a growing
+collection put by in boxes inside the tool-shed. He had been much with
+Mr. Barnes, the local antiquary, and had acquired a smattering of
+archćological lore, enough to make him take a wild interest in the
+excavations which were carried on by a learned society from Port Sennen.
+He had himself helped to dig and to sift the gravel, and had been lucky
+enough to light upon quite a good find. The best of his discoveries had
+been sent to the County Institute, but a few objects had been private
+treasure trove, and lived in the museum of his pockets.
+
+The point to which he was taking the girls was a little grassy plateau
+that jutted out from the sloping cliff. Nature must have designed it
+specially for her early children, as it was sheltered from the
+prevailing winds and faced the sun. Moreover, it was the outer courtyard
+of a large cave which shelved into the hill-side. Many thousands of
+years ago successive generations of the old prehistoric race, who once
+inhabited these islands, had lived there, and had hunted the mammoth and
+elk. No one would have known anything about them had they not left
+behind them their rude weapons and the bones that remained over from
+their feasts.
+
+It was from these relics, buried under yards of gravel, that
+antiquarians had pieced together some idea of the life in those ancient
+times.
+
+The cave was dark, and, so the girls declared, decidedly "spooky", but
+Bevis had brought a piece of candle and a box of matches; so they were
+able to explore its recesses. There was really not much to see except
+rugged bits of rock, and heaps of gravel, over which they stumbled in
+the dim flicker of their solitary candle. They were both extremely
+relieved when they stepped outside again into the sunshine.
+
+"Ugh! Shouldn't have liked that for a home, thank you!" declared Merle.
+"I'd have lived outside if I'd been a prehistoric woman."
+
+"How about wild beasts catching you?" asked Bevis. "You'd have been glad
+to fence yourself safely into the cave at night."
+
+He was turning out the miscellaneous collection in his pockets, and now
+proudly produced the specimens he had found in the cave--some flint
+arrow-heads, a skin-scraper, and two bone needles.
+
+"I often wish they could talk," he said, "and tell me who owned them,
+and what animals they killed, and what hides they scraped and sewed
+together into clothes. They must have seemed such treasures to the
+people who first made them. Mr. Barnes is going to dig again here this
+summer. Perhaps we shall find something more. Last June I helped him to
+open a mound in the field over there."
+
+"Did you find arrow-heads and bone needles?"
+
+"No, it belonged to the Bronze Age, and a chief was buried there. His
+wife was lying by his side. The skeletons were quite perfect, and their
+hands were clasped together. She had a little baby in her other arm.
+There was a necklace round her throat, and a torque on his head. They
+must have been grand people when they were alive. I'll show you the
+mound if you like to come."
+
+Of course the girls wanted to come, and they scrambled up a steep place
+on to a yet more beautiful part of the headland. The tumulus stood in
+the midst of a rough field, like the green grassy hillock of a fairy
+legend. Below, with a hedge between, lay a tiny quarry, where blackthorn
+was breaking into blossom, and ivy trailed over the remains of an old
+wall. This seemed a suitable spot to sit down and eat the slices of
+home-baked cake that Mrs. Penruddock had sent with them. They settled
+themselves happily for their picnic. From the vantage-point of the wall
+they could see spread out before them the whole grand panorama of the
+Bay of Chagmouth. Away on the farther side of the harbour lay The
+Warren, half-hidden in woods, and higher up gleamed the slated roof and
+many windows of the Sanatorium.
+
+"We're monarchs of all we survey here," laughed Merle.
+
+"I should think this is No Man's Land on the top of the cliffs," said
+Mavis.
+
+"As a matter of fact it's part of the estate that goes with The Warren,"
+said Bevis. "Mr. Barnes had to get permission before he might excavate
+in the mound. And an absurd fuss they made about it, too, between Mr.
+Glyn Williams and the agent. They said at first he would have to write
+to General Talland in the West Indies."
+
+"It seems funny to live in the West Indies when you've got all this
+beautiful place belonging to you here."
+
+"Ah, I only wish it were mine! You bet I wouldn't be an absentee
+landlord," broke out Bevis bitterly. "It seems to me the limit that
+people should own things and care nothing about them. The old General
+hasn't been at Chagmouth for fifteen years. I don't suppose he remembers
+there's such a beauty spot as this where we're sitting now, even if he
+ever saw it. He's turned the property over to the Glyn Williams, and all
+the value _they'd_ put on this scrap of hill-side would be its worth for
+the shooting. It's hard that things should go so unequally. There's a
+lot of injustice in this world. The people who care for the things ought
+to own them."
+
+"Don't you think in a sense they do?" Mavis spoke slowly and
+hesitatingly. "What I mean is that all beautiful things belong in a way
+to the people who love them: old castles, and pictures, and landscapes,
+and everything of that sort. If you appreciate them they're yours, and
+nothing can ever take them away from you. This little quarry, and the
+sloe blossom, and the primroses, and the view over the water, are ours.
+They can't belong to people who've never seen them. I'm going to call it
+'Blackthorn Bower', and take possession. I feel as if we'd a right to
+it."
+
+"Cheerio! Here are your title deeds, 'Lady of the Bower'!" laughed
+Bevis, peeling a piece of bark off a tree and handing it to her as if it
+had been a manuscript, "if there's any dispute with the old General
+we'll go to law about it, and prove that we're the lineal descendants of
+the mound dwellers or the cave folk, and have a prior claim on the
+property."
+
+"The land for the people," quoted Merle. "This patch of land certainly.
+The Lady of the Bower has proved it's ours. She's a regular Portia at
+arguing, and there isn't a Shylock who could stand against her."
+
+"It's our joint estate then, and belongs to us three. We'll call
+ourselves The Triumvirate!" proclaimed Mavis. "Have you a penny in your
+pocket, Bevis? Merle, give me one too! Now, we'll bury these three
+pennies in the ground, like the Romans used to do before they began a
+building, and that'll mark the spot ours for ever more."
+
+"I wish we _had_ a building here," said Merle, producing her penny.
+
+"Oh, so do I! A sort of ancient British hut, made of boughs and turf.
+Wouldn't it be priceless? We could almost imagine ourselves mound
+dwellers, and feel as if we were living in the Bronze Age."
+
+"Would you really like it?" asked Bevis quickly.
+
+"Rather!"
+
+"Well, we'll see what can be done. No, I can't exactly promise anything;
+but look here! if you care to come here again next Saturday afternoon
+perhaps I might have a surprise ready for you. No, I shan't tell you
+anything about it, or it wouldn't be a surprise. You must wait and see!"
+
+"Do whisper just a teeny-weeny hint," begged Mavis coaxingly, but Bevis
+was adamant.
+
+"I don't know myself yet! Wait till next Saturday. Give me your pennies,
+and I'll dig a hole. Here's a foundation at any rate. Good luck to
+Blackthorn Bower."
+
+Having solemnly interred the three coins, the young people regretfully
+remembered the time, and turned away from the lovely spot to go back to
+Chagmouth. For the sake of variety they went by another path, which led
+over the top of the headland and down on to an inland road. In the deep
+sheltered green lane early violets were blooming, and presently, on the
+banks of a little pond, they spied the first kingcups of the year. They
+were growing in a rather swampy place, and it would have been prudent of
+the girls to have let Bevis gather them for them; instead of which they
+both insisted upon venturing on to some very spongy ground, with the
+result that Mavis made a false step and plunged suddenly, well over her
+knees, into water. She splashed out again immediately, but the damage
+was done. Here was a pretty business--Mavis, newly recovered from a bad
+attack of bronchitis, was wet through and shivering already.
+
+"Oh, she'll get cold!" cried Merle. "What _are_ we to do?"
+
+"I feel like a dr-r-r-owned r-r-r-at!" said Mavis through her chattering
+teeth.
+
+"Mrs. Jarvis lives close by. She'd dry her things," suggested Bevis.
+
+"Oh, do let us go there at once then!"
+
+Where Mavis's health was concerned, Merle, through sad experience, was
+an anxious little mother. The Triumvirate hurried off post-haste in the
+direction of a white-washed cottage whose chimney peeped above the hedge
+on the opposite side of the road.
+
+Mrs. Jarvis was a short, wizened, elderly widow woman, who had
+suffered badly in the battle of life and had come off with many scars.
+Fourteen years ago she had been the village nurse, and had been sent for
+on that tragic evening when poor Mrs. Hunter, helpless and speechless,
+lay gasping with fluttering breath on the sofa in the parlour of the
+King's Arms. It was Mrs. Jarvis who had performed the last offices, who
+had supplied what information she could to the doctor and the coroner,
+and had indeed been one of the principal witnesses at the inquest. It is
+said that misfortunes never come singly, and on the day when all
+Chagmouth had flocked to the churchyard to watch the stranger's funeral,
+Mrs. Jarvis had been overwhelmed with a trouble of her own. Her one
+child, a wilful headstrong lad of thirteen, had run away, and had taken
+with him the few savings that she had kept stored inside an old tea-pot
+in the cupboard. All search for him had been in vain, and it was
+generally supposed in the neighbourhood that he had walked to Port
+Sennen and gone to sea as a cabin boy in one of the many vessels that
+lay in the busy harbour. Certainly from that day to this his mother had
+had no further news of him. This grief had been the bitter culmination
+of many black years, and it had preyed on the poor woman's mind to such
+an extent that she was often strange in her manner, and indeed for a
+time had been an inmate of the County Asylum. She was perfectly
+harmless, and though she could no longer be trusted as a nurse, she
+fulfilled the duties of an extra postwoman and delivered letters at
+outlying farms. She had one unreasoning obsession. She was certain that
+Jerry, her boy, might come back at any moment. A little table in her
+kitchen was always set out ready for him, with clean cloth, tea-pot, and
+knife and fork. Every evening at dusk she lighted a candle, and placed
+it in a window to guide him home by the short cut he had been wont to
+take over the cliffs from the village. She was brisk and cheerful, and
+would talk eagerly of the lad whom she daily expected, oblivious of the
+fact that nearly fifteen years must have changed him almost out of
+recognition. People humoured her on this point, and treated her with
+that kindly consideration which is often meted out in country places to
+those who are labelled "daft".
+
+Amongst her other work Mrs. Jarvis went weekly to scrub floors at
+Grimbal's Farm, so Bevis knew her well, and had no hesitation in taking
+Mavis to be dried at her fire. The door of the small fuchsia-covered
+cottage was open, and the postwoman, still in her uniform, was newly
+returned from her upland tramp, and was blowing sticks into a blaze
+under her kettle. She took the advent of a drenched visitor with the
+utmost calm.
+
+"Well, Bevis! Who'd have thought of seeing you. The young lady wet!
+Yes, yes! Nasty thing to be wet! Very nice fire! The kettle's just on
+the boil! Take her things off? Yes, missy. Come with me and I'll take
+wet clothes off. Very dangerous to sit in wet clothes."
+
+Poor Mrs. Jarvis might be half-crazy, but she collected her scattered
+wits sufficiently to usher Mavis into her tiny bedroom, to lend her some
+dry garments, and to make her a steaming cup of hot tea.
+
+"I can't give her _his_ place," she murmured, glancing in doubt at the
+table set ready for Jerry, and beginning to twist her hands in the
+nervous fashion that accompanied any distress in her mind.
+
+"No, no! She's better here by the fire," said Bevis soothingly. "I'll go
+out and find you some fresh wood, and then you can make a regular
+blazer. Don't you begin to worry! I know you're glad to do anything for
+Dr. Tremayne's niece, aren't you?"
+
+"Yes, indeed! A nice gentleman--Dr. Tremayne. Very kind always when my
+head's bad. A very nice gentleman and all!"
+
+By the aid of a perfect bonfire of sticks and brushwood, which Bevis
+foraged out of the fields, Mavis's clothes were dried at last, and the
+little party were able to start off on their way back to Chagmouth. They
+hurried along, being afraid lest Uncle David should have returned from
+the Sanatorium and be waiting to set off in the car for Durracombe. As
+they clattered down the steep steps that led from the footpath into the
+village, they almost ran into Gwen and Babbie Williams, who, looking
+charming in white serge coats and little ermine caps, were going to post
+letters in the pillar-box. Gwen stood still and stared in utter
+amazement, first at Mavis's mud-stained garments and then at Bevis. The
+latter raised his cap, but Gwen did not acknowledge the courtesy, and
+remained gazing as if absolutely petrified, while the Triumvirate,
+conscious of intense disapproval, scurried past in the direction of the
+farm.
+
+"Why do we _always_ happen to meet the Glyn Williams just when we're not
+tidy. It really _is_ too bad," groaned Mavis.
+
+"There's fate about it I think. I've only to lose my hair ribbon, or
+forget my gloves, or dirty my boots, and Gwen turns up round the corner
+as neat as if she'd stepped out of a bandbox. It's most fearfully
+aggravating. I wish to goodness they'd stay at The Warren instead of
+acting fashion plates in the village. I'm thoroughly cross," grunted
+Merle.
+
+Bevis said nothing, though he might have added that it was not pleasant
+to have your civility acknowledged only with a stare. There was a
+curious stubborn look on the lad's dark face, such as the girls had
+noticed there on that first afternoon when they had been obliged to put
+off their appointment with him in the tool-shed. He turned abruptly into
+the stackyard when they reached the farm, and though, afterwards, they
+hunted about for him to say good-bye, they could not find him anywhere.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Nicky Nan Night
+
+
+Immediately after the lesson, on the next French day, Gwen Williams
+sauntered in the direction of the Ramsays.
+
+"Do you go out for walks with that Penruddock boy from Grimbal's Farm?"
+she asked rather insolently.
+
+"Do you mean Bevis Hunter?" Mavis's voice was iced politeness.
+
+"Yes. I told Mother, and she _was_ surprised! Does your uncle know?"
+
+Merle was on the point of bursting out, "It's not your business!" but
+her more discreet sister gave her a hasty poke.
+
+"It was Uncle David who sent us out with Bevis," answered Mavis with
+stately dignity. "He thinks very highly of him, and so do we. I've never
+met anybody who knows so much about natural history, or who can tell us
+more about excavations and prehistoric mounds and things. He was curator
+of the school museum when he was at Shelton College."
+
+Gwen gazed at Mavis as if she were speaking an unknown language.
+
+"It's a matter of taste of course," she replied. "_I_ shouldn't care to
+go about with the boy from the Penruddocks' Farm."
+
+She walked away, leaving sad heart-burnings behind her. The Ramsays had
+been very simply brought up at home, and were accustomed to judge people
+merely by whether they liked them or not, and knew little of worldly
+standards. Bevis, with his jolly, merry ways, and his intense love of
+nature, seemed a far pleasanter companion than Gwen or her brother
+Tudor. Intellectually he was more than the equal of those who despised
+him, and his romantic story suggested many possibilities.
+
+"Bevis might be _anybody_," ventured Mavis.
+
+"I don't care who he is, he's our friend," fumed Merle stoutly.
+
+"Rather, and we'll stick to him in spite of all the Glyn Williamses in
+the world. It really doesn't matter to us what Gwen thinks."
+
+Fortunately for the Ramsays, Gwen only came to school twice a week, but
+to their sorrow Opal was there every day. Lately she had been growing
+more and more out of hand. She had begun to adopt a patronizing attitude
+towards Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny, called them "poor old dears",
+quizzed their clothes, their manners, and their methods of teaching, and
+voted them hopelessly slow and out of date. There is a certain phase in
+girls who are growing up at which they are fiercely critical of their
+elders. As a child Opal had immensely admired her two godmothers, and
+had been proud of their many accomplishments. Now, because she too had
+acquired a certain skill in music and painting, she rather looked down
+upon their talents. She thought her own superior, forgetting that though
+a well-taught girl may seem clever at sixteen, there is no guarantee
+that she will go on developing in the same ratio, and will therefore be
+a genius at the age of thirty-seven.
+
+The fact was that Opal ought long ago to have been sent away to a
+boarding-school, where she would have found her level among other girls
+of her own age, and have been thoroughly sat upon by elder ones. Her
+position of prime favourite at The Moorings was bad both for herself and
+for everybody else. The juniors, encouraged by her example, began to
+evade rules, and to do many things they had never dreamt of before. Miss
+Fanny, finding them unusually troublesome, puzzled over the reason. She
+decided there must be bad influence somewhere, but it never struck her
+to fix the blame upon Opal. She was always ready with an excuse where
+her god-daughter was concerned.
+
+Among other subjects which Miss Fanny taught at The Moorings was the
+piano. She was a very good and correct musician, and had studied under
+an eminent master of her day. Perhaps her fault as a teacher was that
+she concentrated too much on the technique to the exclusion of the
+artistic element. She would stop a pupil every few bars to correct
+errors in touch or the position of the hands, and was such a martinet
+over these details that the spirit of the piece was often entirely lost.
+Merle, who liked to dash away and get a general impression of a
+composition, oblivious of a few wrong notes, chafed terribly under this
+severe régime.
+
+"It knocks all the poetry out of the music," she complained. "I
+hardly know what tune I'm playing when Miss Fanny is watching my
+hands like a cat watching a mouse, and that abominable metronome is
+tick-tack-tick-tacking on the top of the piano! How I hate the beastly
+thing. I'd as soon recite Shakespeare to a metronome as play Chaminade.
+It would be just as sensible. Music, to my mind, is like reciting, you
+want to hurry up some phrases and to linger on others, not go pounding
+on like a pianola or a piece of clockwork! Tick-tack-tick-tack--Ugh! I
+hate it!"
+
+Opal, who also suffered from the metronome, chimed in with her side of
+the grievance.
+
+"My cousin learns from Mr. Jardine, the best teacher in Burchester, and
+she never uses one!"
+
+"I don't see why we need. I wish somebody would break the wretched old
+thing, or lose it, or otherwise dispose of it. They'd have my blessing
+I'm sure."
+
+The juniors, who had gathered round to listen, giggled at Merle's
+heroics. It was rather nice to hear elder girls grumbling.
+
+"Why don't you do it yourself," piped Betty Marshall.
+
+Merle, just for fun, seized the object of her invective from the top of
+the piano, and opening the window placed it outside upon the sill.
+
+"It may stay there and tick-tack to the birds if it likes," she
+declared. "If I had my way it would never come back again. Yes, I mean
+it."
+
+The juniors laughed again as they ran from the room, and Merle, also
+laughing, lifted the unfortunate metronome inside and placed it back on
+the piano. She and Opal chased the smaller ones along the passage, and
+caught them, squealing with delight, in the cloakroom.
+
+"You little pussies, I'll tickle you!" cried Merle, swinging Posie
+Andrews off her feet and tucking her under one arm, while she made a
+grab at Florrie Leach.
+
+The children, wild with fun, danced about like so many imps.
+
+"It's Nicky Nan Night to-night," twittered Betty as she jumped and
+pranced. "We're all Nicky Nans. Look at us!"
+
+"Hooray! It's Nicky Nan Night," shouted the others.
+
+"Heavens, so it is. I'd completely forgotten!" said Opal.
+
+She stood for a moment as if thinking, then she suddenly ran back to the
+schoolroom. She was only gone a moment or two, but she returned to the
+cloakroom with a curious look of amusement on her face.
+
+"What have you been up to?" asked Merle, eyeing her suspiciously.
+
+"Ah! Wouldn't you just like to know?"
+
+"You've been doing something!"
+
+"Indeed! How clever we are all of a sudden. Are you clairvoyante may
+I ask?"
+
+"Not at all, but I know Opal Earnshaw. You're pluming yourself no end."
+
+Opal broke into a fit of delighted giggling, but refused all
+explanations, and slamming on her hat rushed away home, leaving the
+juniors still dancing about the cloakroom like pixies and loudly
+proclaiming: "It's Nicky Nan Night. We're all Nicky Nans!"
+
+"What on earth is Nicky Nan Night?" asked Merle rather crossly, but
+nobody troubled to answer, so she struggled into her coat and joined
+Mavis, who was waiting at the door, and forgot all about the matter
+directly.
+
+Later on in the evening, however, she began to understand. Durracombe
+was a little old-world place, and had preserved many quaint and curious
+customs from ancient times. One of the most extraordinary of these was a
+kind of carnival held by the boys of the town at the beginning of the
+season of Lent. As soon as it was dusk they commenced to prowl about the
+streets wearing black paper masks and carrying turnip lanterns. They
+were supposed to represent imps of darkness, or perhaps will o' the
+wisps, and their chief sport was to ring door bells, or rat-tap with
+knockers, and then run away. Mavis and Merle, hearing repeated peals
+from the surgery bell, were amazed that Jessop did not answer it, till
+she explained it was merely a ruse of the Nicky Nans, and that nobody in
+Durracombe who knew their tricks would respond to such a summons. She
+offered however to take the girls out for ten minutes to look at the
+fun; so they donned coats and scarves and issued into the dim High
+Street. It was a moonless night, which made things all the better for
+such a saturnalia. In the distance a cluster of lights began to dance
+about, and presently up ran half a dozen little urchins, disguised in
+masks and waving turnip lanterns pierced with holes for eyes and mouths,
+so that the candles shining through them gave them the appearance of
+gruesome goblins. The children had indeed vied with one another as to
+which could produce the most horrible looking turnip head, and part of
+the sport was to hide in dark alleys and suddenly to exhibit the
+lanterns to unwary passers-by, to try to raise a scream. The small imps
+careered round and round, prancing and giving an occasional yell of
+"Nicky Nan". The girls laughed in much amusement, and Jessop, who had
+witnessed the custom from her youth up, felt in her pocket for some
+pennies, and threw them into the road to be scrambled for.
+
+Presently came the noise of a tin-kettle band, and down the High Street
+marched a procession carrying "Jack o' Lent", a grotesque figure on the
+lines of a Guy Fawkes, stuffed with straw and wearing a mask and an old
+top hat. The Nicky Nans flew to join their fellows, showing their
+lanterns like the wise virgins in the parable, and the Guy was escorted
+by quite a crowd of leaping dancing will-o'-the-wisps, who added squeals
+and whistling to the din made on the old tea-trays and pans. They
+crossed the bridge to a field on the farther side of the river, where a
+bonfire had been built. Upon this Jack o' Lent was carefully hoisted,
+and a match was put to the straw. The Ramsays, hurried indoors by Jessop
+lest Mavis should catch cold, watched the scene from Aunt Nellie's
+bedroom window, and had a fine view of the flames blazing up, and the
+Nicky Nans prancing round in a circle, waving their weird turnip lights.
+
+On this one night in the year the town's children were veritable
+Devonshire pixies. By immemorial custom they were licensed to carry away
+brooms, pails, or any objects which people were so foolish as to leave
+unguarded outside their houses. These they pounced upon and bore off as
+booty, exhibiting them the next morning in the pound, whence they might
+be redeemed by their owners for a fee varying from a penny to sixpence,
+according to their value. As the proceeds went to their football club,
+the Nicky Nans were naturally anxious to pick up every trifle which they
+could possibly find lying about, and every house and garden in the town
+was visited for that purpose. The matron, who missed her scrubbing-brush
+or her bucket, knew what Pucks and Robin Goodfellows had been flitting
+round in the darkness, and made a visit to the pound to recover her lost
+property, paying the price with a good-natured remembrance of the fun of
+her own young days.
+
+Mavis and Merle, on their way to school on the morning following the
+saturnalia, peeped into the pound, a walled enclosure intended for the
+detention of lost cows or strayed sheep, and saw half a dozen of the
+boys, still wearing masks, guarding quite a collection of treasures and
+chaffing some of the owners over the gate. Evidently they had had a most
+successful evening, and the funds of their football club would be
+replenished.
+
+"Little wretches. They're as light-fingered as elves," remarked Merle.
+"They've even taken the pots of geraniums off people's window-sills."
+
+"I shall never forget them dancing in a mad circle round the bonfire,"
+laughed Mavis, as the pair passed on.
+
+When the pupils at The Moorings assembled that morning for call-over,
+Miss Fanny entered with a look upon her face which everybody at once
+mentally registered at stormy. Her "Good morning, girls!" was cold. She
+never noticed the vase full of flowers which the boarders had arranged
+upon her desk, and she took the names, as if she were reading a list of
+criminals, in a deep sad voice without an atom of her usual geniality.
+When this first preliminary was finished she turned to what was
+evidently the pressing business on her mind.
+
+"Girls!" she began. "A very unpleasant thing has happened in the school.
+The metronome is missing from the piano. None of the boarders has
+interfered with it. Can any of you day girls tell what has become of
+it?"
+
+A look of much astonishment passed round the assembled faces. On
+several it was even mingled with relief. To get rid of the metronome did
+not seem an unmixed evil. Perhaps Miss Fanny noted the expression. She
+paused for a whole solemn minute, then spoke again in a yet sterner
+voice.
+
+"I put every girl in this room on her honour to tell what she knows."
+
+There was a stir among some of the younger children, a bending together
+of heads, and a faint whispering like the buzzing of bees, then Betty
+Marshall held up her hand.
+
+"Please, Miss Fanny, there's a metronome just like ours in the pound.
+Posie and Florrie and I saw it as we came to school."
+
+"In the pound!" Miss Fanny's voice quivered with amazed indignation.
+
+"Yes, the Nicky Nans had taken it."
+
+"But surely no boy would dare to venture into our schoolroom. It's
+outrageous! I shall have to complain to the schoolmaster if they go
+beyond bounds like this. To take it off the piano!"
+
+Posie and Betty glanced doubtfully at one another as if uncertain
+whether to explain further. Then Posie held up a chubby hand.
+
+"Please, Miss Fanny, it wasn't on the piano; it was outside on the
+window-sill."
+
+"On the window-sill! Who put it there?" The teacher's voice had reached
+crescendo.
+
+Posie wriggled and looked uncomfortably at Betty and then at Florrie,
+finally in a rather tremulous whisper she murmured:
+
+"Merle Ramsay."
+
+Merle stood up at once with flaming cheeks.
+
+"I put the metronome outside the window for a minute, Miss Fanny, but I
+didn't leave it there. I put it back upon the piano."
+
+Miss Fanny glared hard, first at Merle, and then with a kind of
+comprehensive sweeping glance over the whole school.
+
+"Can any other girl volunteer any information?"
+
+There was dead silence. Opal was rather ostentatiously sharpening the
+point of her pencil. The teacher's gaze came back to a focus on Merle.
+
+"You had no business to interfere with the metronome at all. I certainly
+consider it your fault that it has been taken. In future I can't have
+you day girls staying in the schoolroom after four o'clock. You must
+leave directly you've put your books away. Go to your forms now, girls!
+We've wasted too much time already."
+
+Merle stumped off, feeling extremely cross. She was absolutely certain
+that Opal, who had run back last thing into the schoolroom, must have
+put the metronome outside on the window-sill, knowing that the Nicky
+Nans would be sure to carry it off. At 'break' she taxed her with it.
+But Opal simply laughed, and went on eating biscuits.
+
+"Don't set all the work of the Nicky Nans down to me," she declared.
+"It's a pity they didn't keep the metronome. Miss Fanny will trot down
+to the pound and pay her sixpence and get it back, and it will be
+tick-tacking again on the piano as gaily as ever, unless some of those
+priceless kids have chanced to break it."
+
+"But you put it outside for them?" persisted Merle.
+
+"I? I never do naughty things!"
+
+"Don't you? It strikes me you tell the biggest fibs of any girl I've
+ever yet come across. I call you the absolute limit," said indignant
+Merle as she flounced away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+The Squatters
+
+
+On the next day but one after Nicky Nan Night, Mavis and Merle had
+returned from school, and were walking in the garden on the terraced
+path that overlooked the river. It was a vantage-point which gave them
+as good a view across the bridge and along the high road as any medićval
+maidens might have had from a castle turret, and they gazed at all
+comers with interest not unmixed with curiosity. There were certainly no
+Sir Lancelots or Sir Percivales riding into the town clad in golden
+armour, and carrying silken banners, only modern motor-cars and
+bicycles, creaking country wagons and homely foot passengers. But
+presently there was a sound of hoofs, and a smart well-groomed little
+horse came trotting along from the south. Mavis put up her hand to shade
+her eyes from the sun, and took an inspection of the rider as he crossed
+the bridge. Something in the fair, rather delicate face seemed instantly
+familiar.
+
+"I verily believe it's Tudor Williams," she said.
+
+It was undoubtedly Tudor, and he was evidently coming to Bridge House.
+He rode round into the stable yard, called to Tom to take his horse,
+dismounted, and went to the surgery entrance. In the course of a few
+minutes he came out again, walked briskly on to the terrace, and greeted
+the girls.
+
+"Your aunt sent me to find you. She's asked me to stay for tea. I came
+to see Dr. Tremayne, but he's out at a case, so I'm going to wait till
+he comes back. I say! You've got a nice old garden here, haven't you?
+I've never been in it before. It's ripping overlooking the river."
+
+Suddenly placed in the position of hostesses Mavis and Merle did the
+honours graciously. Tudor seemed in a very amiable frame of mind, and
+was inclined to make himself agreeable. He chatted about the
+neighbourhood, the weather, some theatres he had visited in town, told
+them one or two school episodes, and discussed the prospects of the new
+Durracombe golf club. Mavis, who had discovered his pleasanter side at
+The Warren, was soon talking quite eagerly, and even Merle, who had a
+deep prejudice against him, put in a remark now and then. Tea was quite
+a jovial affair. Aunt Nelly liked to be amused by young people, so they
+all made jokes and related adventures, and sat on enjoying the fun till
+the car returned and they heard Uncle David's footstep in the hall.
+While the Doctor interviewed his patient the two girls ran out to the
+stable to look at "Armorelle", the lovely satin-coated little horse that
+snuggled a soft nose against Merle's shoulder, and ate sugar from
+Mavis's hand. They stood by in much approval of her beauty as Tom led
+her forth for her master to mount.
+
+"I'd change all the cars in the world for her, sir," said Tom, stroking
+the glossy neck caressingly. "You don't know what it's been to me to
+lose my horses. It was like losing children. It's been a pleasure to
+have her in the stable, sir. It's minded me of old times."
+
+"She's a spoilt darling, and she ate three lumps of sugar," said Mavis.
+"What a glorious ride you'll have home. I love that road to Chagmouth."
+
+"You must come and see us again at The Warren! And you too" (nodding to
+Merle). "Are you keen on tennis? So am I. We've a cinder court that we
+play on in spring. Just drop in some Saturday when you're over with your
+uncle. Mother and the girls will be pleased to see you, I'm sure. We're
+generally, some of us, about the place."
+
+Tudor rode away, leaving a much more favourable impression behind him
+than the girls would have believed possible on their first encounter in
+the lane above Grimbal's Farm. That unpleasant episode was beginning to
+fade from their memories. Jim, the fox terrier, ran up to them now in
+friendly fashion if they chanced to meet him in Chagmouth, though
+Mavis's skirt, beautifully darned by Jessop, still retained traces of
+his teeth. It is no use keeping up ill-will against boy or animal, and
+the Ramsays were quite ready to let bygones be bygones. They even began
+to decide that they rather liked Tudor, though of course not nearly so
+much as Bevis. When they went to Grimbal's Farm as usual on Saturday
+they could not help pouring out to their friend an account of this
+reconciliation.
+
+"Tom let me climb on Armorelle's back in the stable. Oh, how I'd love to
+ride her!"
+
+"There's a topping cinder court at The Warren. We're going to bring our
+rackets with us sometime. Mrs. Glyn Williams has sent a message to Aunt
+Nellie to say we must go there whenever we like and play tennis."
+
+Bevis was sitting on a hurdle in the stackyard, untwisting a piece of
+rope while he listened. He bent his head down over his work. They could
+not see his face at all.
+
+"You won't want to come walks with _me_ now you've made friends at The
+Warren," he said in a low, strained voice. "I quite understand. I never
+thought you'd care to go about with a fellow like me. It wasn't to be
+expected. It's all right!"
+
+When Bevis, in that strangled tone, said "it's all right", it was
+invariably a sign that matters were all wrong. The girls, aghast at
+their own lack of tact, hastened to set things straight, and to reassure
+him that they would not miss their walk with him that afternoon for
+worlds.
+
+"You promised us a surprise at Blackthorn Bower!"
+
+"We've been looking forward to it the whole week, and counting the
+days."
+
+"It's really nothing worth taking you up there for." (Bevis's voice was
+still gloomy.) "If you'd rather go to The Warren, please go. It's all
+right."
+
+"Look here, don't be absurd," urged Merle. "We want to see the Bower
+again, and we're going there this afternoon. You can please yourself
+whether you come with us or not."
+
+"But I don't think we _quite_ remember the way," added Mavis artfully.
+"It would be so very tiresome if we were to lose ourselves."
+
+Of course that settled it. Bevis was bound to offer himself as guide,
+and by the time they started he appeared to be in a smoother temper. He
+whistled quite cheerily as he slung a shooting-bag over his back. He
+gave the girls three guesses each as to its contents, but would not tell
+them whether they were right or wrong.
+
+"You'll see when you get there," he replied, and went on whistling
+softly to himself.
+
+By mutual but unacknowledged consent they walked by an upper way across
+the fields. It was a little longer, but it avoided all possibility of
+meeting the Glyn Williams anywhere in the village. To run up against
+them would have been most embarrassing. As it was, nobody mentioned even
+their names. The girls, having once "put their foot in it", were
+cautious, and avoided all reference to The Warren.
+
+Fortunately their backs were turned in that direction, as they walked
+towards the headland.
+
+When they reached Blackthorn Bower they found an immense surprise
+awaiting them. Bevis must have been very busy during the time which had
+intervened since their last visit. He had taken some of the stones from
+the old wall, and some sods and some branches, and had constructed a
+kind of beehive hut, such as must have been used by the primitive
+dwellers in these islands.
+
+"It's just the sort of thing they lived in in the Bronze Age," he
+explained. "I borrowed one of Mr. Barnes's books, _Antiquities of
+Devonshire_, and it gave a fancy picture of what some of the prehistoric
+villages probably looked like. The only bit I altered was the doorway. I
+made it big, so that we could see out of it; and of course they had low
+holes that they crawled through, and blocked with a stone."
+
+Mavis and Merle were delighted with the structure raised in their
+honour. They had been keen on history at Whinburn High School, and had
+studied the Stone and Bronze Ages under an interesting teacher, so that
+it was particularly fascinating to find what seemed as good as a real
+live specimen of a house of the period actually before their eyes. They
+went inside at once and took possession. There were some logs for seats,
+and a big stone for a table placed in the middle of the hut. While they
+were examining these, Bevis slung his shooting-bag carefully from his
+shoulder and began to unpack it. Then he produced what he evidently
+considered his masterpiece.
+
+There was a small quarry near Chagmouth whence China clay was shipped.
+He had begged a big lump of this, kneaded it and moulded it into
+handleless cups, and had baked them in the oven at the farm. They were,
+of course, roughly made, but they much resembled prehistoric pottery,
+even to the willow-withe markings which he had put on them. They were
+stained on the outside, one red, one blue, and one yellow.
+
+"So that we shall each know our own," he explained, handing the blue to
+Mavis and the red to Merle.
+
+It was undoubtedly an anachronism that Bevis had brought a thermos flask
+in his shooting-bag, and offered his friends tea in their home-baked
+cups, but they were not disposed to quarrel with such a mixture of
+ancient and modern. They sat on their log seats, eating cake and sipping
+the modern beverage in defiance of historic accuracy.
+
+"I feel as if the Bronze Age people who were buried in the mound ought
+to rise up and come and turn us out and say it was their shanty,"
+laughed Merle.
+
+"What did they do with the skeletons that were found there?" asked Mavis
+suddenly.
+
+"Took them to the County Museum," answered Bevis. "I didn't like the
+idea myself. I think it was hateful to put the poor things' bones in a
+glass case. They ought to have left them where they were buried, with
+their hands still clasped and the little baby in the woman's arm. They
+must have been fond of each other thousands of years ago."
+
+"Perhaps he built her a hut like this and made her clay pottery,"
+speculated Mavis.
+
+"I've no doubt he did."
+
+"But she didn't drink tea out of it anyway," snorted Merle. "Don't be
+sentimental over the Bronze Age people, you two. I'd rather call the
+tumulus a pixie mound, and imagine the wee folk coming tumbling out of
+it some moonlight night, and dancing on the grass. Don't Chagmouth
+people tell any stories about pixies?"
+
+"They wouldn't be Devon folk unless they did. Yes, there are heaps of
+pixie tales. They say an old man from Groves Cottage was once pixie-led
+on the moor. He wandered round and round in a circle, and couldn't find
+his way home till he turned his coat inside out, and that broke the
+spell. There was an old woman over by Tangoran who used to tell a
+wonderful tale about a fairy."
+
+"Oh, what was that?"
+
+"It's a weird sort of story. There was once a lad named Will
+Killigarth, who lived at Horndon, up on the moor. There was a witch in
+the village, and she told him that if he would go on Hallowe'en and dig
+inside one of the ancient stone circles that he would find treasure,
+only he must go at midnight, and go alone. He was rather frightened of
+the business, but he took his father's spade and went. It was heavy work
+digging, but at last he struck something, and drew out a bowl of rough
+pottery, all full of gold pieces. He was just picking this up when he
+heard a cry, and in the moonlight he saw a most lovely girl with
+streaming yellow hair stretching out her hands imploringly to him. She
+said she was the guardian of the gold, and begged him to bury it again
+where it was in the circle. He said he would do so if she would marry
+him, and after thinking awhile she said yes. So he buried the treasure
+and took the girl home to the village and married her. She lived with
+him just a year, and then on the next Hallowe'en she vanished, and he
+never saw her again. He hunted for the stone circle where he had dug
+before, but he never could find the right one again. There are so many
+of them up on the moor. So he lost both the treasure and the girl."
+
+"Did they actually _believe_ these stories?" asked Mavis, knitting her
+brows.
+
+"Oh yes, in the old days they believed them, just as they believed in
+witches and charms and all the rest of it. Mr. Barnes calls all the old
+tales folk-history. He says the pixies were the prehistoric Stone Age or
+Bronze Age people who lived on into historic times, and hid themselves
+in the mounds or caves or wild places on the moor. The stories of the
+pixies' habits and haunts read just like accounts of very primitive
+people. Bronze Age or Stone Age folk would be sure to come at night and
+steal things from the Celtic tribes who had settled in Devon, and they
+would bury their treasures inside their huts. The stone circles on the
+moor are the ruined walls of their huts."
+
+"But surely the Stone Age folk didn't go living on till about the
+seventeenth century?" asked Mavis, still puzzled.
+
+"No, but you know how people like to bring a story up to date. They
+often tell you a thing happened to themselves when you know it must have
+happened to their great-grandfather. The old Celtic accounts of the
+little men on the moor would keep being handed down, and each generation
+would fit the story with fresh names, and a few extra details."
+
+"Miss Donald told us a lot about that at Whinburn High. She said the
+dragons of old folk-tales were probably prehistoric animals that had
+lingered on in lonely places--very likely pterodactyls."
+
+"I dare say they were. To judge from the fossils that have been found
+the old monsters must have been pretty common in Devon. You should ask
+Mr. Barnes. He's great on all this kind of thing, always poking about
+and digging, and measuring hut circles and all the rest of it."
+
+"It's awfully fascinating," said Mavis.
+
+"Ye-es, but just a trifle spooky," admitted Merle. "Honestly I shouldn't
+like to spend a night up here camping out in this shanty. I'd be scared
+to death of the mound dwellers. What are we to do with our prehistoric
+cups, Bevis? Leave them here or take them back?"
+
+It was decided to wash the cups in a pool of water close by, and leave
+them inside the hut to be ready for some future picnic. That domestic
+duty finished, the Triumvirate wended their way back in the direction of
+Chagmouth. This time they climbed by a pathway down the cliffs on to the
+beach, in order to go home along the shore. It was low tide, so they
+could walk on the firm sands at the edge of the high-water mark. Little
+gentle waves were rippling in over the rocks, cormorants were diving for
+fish, and the inevitable seagulls were wheeling and screaming, or
+settling down in the pools to hunt for tit-bits. At the corner of the
+cove, built on the solid rock barely above the level of winter storms,
+stood the little old, old church of St. Gervan's, disused now, except
+for an annual service. Before the building of Chagmouth church in the
+eighteenth century it had served a wide district, and there were tales
+that its bell had often proved a signal for ships in a fog, and had
+warned them off the rocks. There were other and wilder stories, of
+smugglers who had hidden their contraband goods inside the pews, of the
+press-gang who had waylaid the fishermen as they returned from service
+and had carried them off to serve in His Majesty's navy, and of a wicked
+parson, foremost among a gang of wreckers, whose uneasy ghost still
+haunted the beach on moonlight nights.
+
+Bevis, who knew all the legends of the village, poured out these tales
+for the girls' benefit, and of course they naturally wanted to take a
+look at the place. So they climbed the eighty-seven rough stone steps
+that led up from the shore, and scrambled over the wall into the little
+churchyard. It was a neglected spot, but all the more picturesque on
+that account. Long grass grew over the graves, and moss had almost
+obliterated the names on the fallen stones, the framework of the doorway
+had sunk at one end, and the tower had lost some of its coping in the
+last gale. The great pieces lay strewn about the path. The windows
+looked cobwebby, but one of them was open, and, with some difficulty,
+Bevis hoisted the girls up to peep inside. The poor little church, flung
+aside now like a cast-off ecclesiastical garment, nevertheless showed
+signs of its former glories, when worshippers had given of their best to
+deck it forth. Its pre-reformation rood-screen, one of the very few to
+escape the commissioners' hatchets or Puritan whitewash, was carved with
+quaint figures of saints, and still showed traces of colouring in red
+and blue and gold. The oak benches, grey for want of oil or polish, were
+also carved, and in the chancel there was a splendid pew with a wooden
+canopy embossed and painted like the rood-screen, though plainly of a
+later date. The whole was mouldy and ill-kept, but at least had been
+saved from the ruthless hand of that foe to all antiquarian lore, the
+nineteenth-century restorer, who would probably have stripped it of
+rood-screen and carved benches, and have replaced them with pitch pine.
+
+"I'd like to sit in that gorgeous pew," said Mavis, dropping down from
+her perch, and examining her grazed hands tenderly.
+
+"That belongs to the Tallands. It goes with The Warren. There's an old
+monument down the nave to some of the family. You couldn't see it
+properly from that window," explained Bevis.
+
+"Don't they ever clean the place up?" asked Merle.
+
+"They do once a year, before the festival."
+
+"When is the festival?"
+
+"Late in May. They always have kept it at Chagmouth, and they make much
+more of it now because they have the war-memorial service at the same
+time, and everybody goes to that. The cross is up there, just at the top
+of the churchyard."
+
+The people from the several places which the tiny church had originally
+served had joined together in erecting a memorial to their brave boys
+who had fallen in the Great War--a plain Celtic cross of granite, placed
+on a platform of rock above the church, where it could be very plainly
+seen by all the vessels that passed by in or out of the harbour. It was
+a magnificent situation for it, far more romantic than any in the town,
+and to judge from the wreaths and bunches of flowers laid at its foot,
+it was the goal of an easy walk along the cliffs on Sundays. Mavis, who
+stopped to read the roll of honour, took the violets from her
+button-hole and laid them with the rest of the floral tributes.
+
+"I like this wee church much better than St. John's," she remarked.
+"Although it's so dirty and cobwebby and dilapidated, it seems to have
+more of the old spirit of Chagmouth about it somehow. It takes one back
+to Drake and Raleigh, almost to the days of King Arthur. I'm so glad
+Merle and I are Devon folk on Mother's side at any rate. We're
+tremendously proud of it."
+
+Bevis was looking beyond the ancient walls to where the little town lay
+alongside its harbour at the edge of the grey sea.
+
+"The boys over there have always taunted me that I don't belong to
+Chagmouth, but I've got the spirit of the place in me all the same," he
+said. "I don't believe there's one of them that cares for it like I do.
+As for the Glyn Williamses they'd modernize it to-morrow if they were
+allowed. I hope to goodness General Talland will never sell them the
+property, or they'd sweep away every picturesque corner in it, and widen
+the street so as to bring cars down. They've not a scrap of taste. That
+new Institute may be all right for lectures and theatricals and the rest
+of it, but I should think they chose the most hideous plan that the
+architects submitted. It's a perfect eyesore standing just where it
+does. You should hear Mr. Barnes hold forth about it. He got his way at
+any rate about the war memorial though, and insisted on a Celtic cross.
+Mr. Glyn Williams wanted a sort of 'Cleopatra's needle' and nearly
+carried the committee. Think of planting an ancient Egyptian monument on
+the cliff here. It would have been ridiculous. The Glyn Williamses may
+look down upon me and call me a 'nobody', but I've better taste than
+they have, and know more about old things too. I can't see that having
+pots of money gives people the right to ride rough-shod over the whole
+town."
+
+The boy spoke hotly, almost furiously. Evidently the subject was a sore
+one.
+
+"You're not called a nobody," said Mavis.
+
+"I _am_ a nobody, and no one knows that better than myself. If I'd even
+the slightest clue, I'd be off and away to hunt out my own relations. I
+wouldn't stay here only I'm needed so on the farm. I sometimes think
+I'll----" but here Bevis stopped and looked rather ashamed.
+
+"Don't take any notice of me," he continued more quietly. "I don't often
+break out like this. Why should I bother you with my troubles? They're
+nothing to you!"
+
+"Yes they are," said Mavis gently. "We're very interested indeed."
+
+"And very sorry," added Merle.
+
+They had the good sense, however, to change the subject, and Bevis,
+though at first his answers were rather short, gradually recovered
+himself. By the time they reached the farm he was chatting just as
+usual, and telling more stories of Devonshire pixies. He went into the
+surgery and helped Dr. Tremayne to dispense some medicines, and as the
+girls were starting home in the car they saw him in the orchard cutting
+down an apple tree, chopping away with most terrific energy.
+
+"I guess he's working off steam," said Merle waving her hand.
+
+"Yes, I didn't know what a volcano he was covering up till he let some
+of it bubble out this afternoon. Uncle David! What's going to become of
+Bevis? Will he always stay on the farm? He's so clever!"
+
+"Yes, poor lad, he's worthy of better things, and would make a name
+for himself some day if he got the chance. He ought to be back at
+school. It's hard luck on him to have his education broken off just when
+he was beginning to do so brilliantly. A nice lad too--a very nice
+lad--one of the nicest lads I know," muttered the old doctor, half to
+himself, as the car sped up the hill, and the sound of Bevis's blows on
+the apple tree grew fainter and fainter, then died away behind them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+Trotman's Circus
+
+
+One morning, towards the end of March, as the day girls were walking
+home from school, they came across a bill-sticker pasting a flaming red
+poster upon a hoarding. Naturally they stopped to look. The
+advertisement was headed:
+
+"Trotman's Circus & Menagerie", and set forth that on Monday next the
+famous show would visit Durracombe for one day only, and would give two
+performances, at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., introducing the latest novelties and
+sensational displays. Here was an excitement for the sleepy little town.
+It was years since any travelling circus had come that way, and very few
+of the children had seen elephants, performing sea-lions, trick-horses,
+gymnasts, North American Indian riders, or any of the marvels set down
+in the programme. Of course all the juvenile population was a-thrill at
+the prospect. The day girls at The Moorings carried the news to the
+boarders, and the arrival of the wonderful show at once became the most
+important date in the school calendar. Trotman's Circus had rather a bad
+reputation for missing its appointments, and, as it had once before
+advertised its advent but had failed to turn up, people declared they
+would not believe in it until they actually saw the procession marching
+into the town.
+
+"You'll take us if it really comes, won't you?" begged the boarders at
+The Moorings.
+
+Miss Pollard would not commit herself.
+
+"I must hear something about it first," she said guardedly. "These
+travelling shows aren't always very select."
+
+"It's a wonderful programme," urged Iva, who had seen the posters.
+
+"That doesn't guarantee it from being extremely vulgar," returned Miss
+Pollard.
+
+On Sunday afternoon, just as the scholars were pouring out of
+Sunday-schools, there came the rumble of wheels along the road, and
+presently down the High Street passed a remarkable procession of gilded
+caravans, horses, and elephants. The men who led them, and the women who
+peeped from the little curtained windows, were a tired-looking crew who
+deserved a Sunday's rest; but directly they had crossed the bridge, and
+arrived in the meadows at the opposite side of the river, they began to
+work hard at erecting tents, stabling their horses, and setting their
+temporary camp in order. Nearly all the children in Durracombe stood on
+the bridge and watched them. It is not every day you can see elephants
+or a camel or a troupe of tiny piebald ponies. To most of the small folk
+it was the opportunity of their lives.
+
+Mavis and Merle, from the vantage-ground of the terraced walk by the
+river, had a splendid view of the settlement. They were almost too near,
+indeed, for they were much disturbed during the night by weird noises,
+the roaring of lions in cages and the trumpeting of elephants. They
+dressed next morning, feeling as if they had slept in a jungle or in an
+African forest. They found all the girls at school in a state of flaming
+excitement. Miss Pollard had not yet decided whether the circus was a
+sufficiently refined entertainment to justify her in taking her
+boarders. She was old-fashioned in her notions, and very particular
+about what was suitable and proper for children. She hesitated and
+vacillated, and even wrote a note to the vicar to ask for his opinion,
+and was more embarrassed still when she found he had gone out on his
+motor-cycle, and might not be back until the evening. She and Miss Fanny
+had discussed the matter threadbare in private, but could not make up
+their minds in the least. Meantime a whole school full of fluttering
+girls centred the circus as the one event of the term.
+
+"Of course we're to have a half-holiday this afternoon," began Opal.
+
+"There's no 'of course' about it," returned Miss Pollard, eyeing her
+god-daughter gravely. She did not like Opal's tone, which was both
+uncompromising and truculent.
+
+"Oh, but we've simply _got_ to have a holiday! We can't miss this
+circus. All of us day girls have been promised at home that we may go,
+and we _shall_."
+
+Miss Pollard was long-suffering where her pet pupil was concerned, but
+it is possible for even a prime favourite to go too far.
+
+"That's not the way to speak to me," she rebuked. "Your parents may make
+any arrangements they wish for taking you to the evening performance,
+but you will all attend school this afternoon. Do you thoroughly
+understand me, girls? I give _no_ half-holiday, and I expect you all to
+be present here as usual at 2.30. You may take that message home with
+you."
+
+Miss Pollard, very much on her dignity, glared first at Opal, and then
+round the entire room. She did not intend to be dictated to or forced to
+give her consent against her better judgment. She was Principal of The
+Moorings, and as such meant to maintain discipline over her pupils.
+
+Her announcement caused them all to look very sulky, and produced much
+grousing during 'break', but nobody thought of disputing it. The day
+girls consoled themselves by hopes of attending the evening performance.
+The less fortunate boarders said it was just like their luck. Everybody
+was more or less in a bad temper, but resigned. Mavis and Merle, walking
+back from Bridge House about 2.15, passed the corner of the Earnshaws'
+garden, and saw Opal's face peeping over the paling.
+
+"Hello! Going to school like two good little girls," she jeered.
+
+"Why! Aren't you?"
+
+"I! Rather not! I call it the limit! I say, will you give a message for
+me to Miss Pollard?"
+
+"What do you want us to say?"
+
+"Tell her I've got a fearful headache, and I'm going to lie down."
+
+"We'll do nothing of the sort," snapped Merle.
+
+"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," said Mavis.
+
+Opal only grinned.
+
+"What nice good little girls," she repeated mockingly. "You'll give me
+the trouble of sending a note, that's all."
+
+"What does your mother say?"
+
+"She's gone to Port Sennen to-day, so I can't ask her. Look here, people
+are saying in the town that there's not going to be any evening
+performance. Trotmans want to pack up the show and start early, so as to
+travel at night. They've had a bother with the police about those vans
+blocking the roads in daytime. They held up a whole row of motors in
+Blagden, and no one could pass them for half an hour. Do you think I'm
+going to miss that circus and toddle up to school to write exercises and
+have a music lesson? Hardly! If you'll take my advice you'll scoot back
+home and do the same. I shouldn't be surprised to find an epidemic of
+headaches this afternoon."
+
+"If I stopped away, at least I wouldn't tell fibs about it," said Merle.
+
+Both the Ramsays agreed that it was very unsporting of Miss Pollard to
+refuse the holiday, and decided to get up a sort of eleventh-hour
+petition amongst the girls to ask her to grant it. They hurried on to
+school, therefore, not without hopes, though a little trembling as to
+how she would receive the appeal. They arrived at The Moorings to find
+the hive in a delighted ferment. The Vicar, Mr. Carey, had returned home
+to lunch, and had read Miss Pollard's note, and had sent a reply by his
+daughters to the effect that in his opinion the circus was a most
+harmless and innocent form of entertainment, and that it would be a pity
+for the girls to miss it. He suggested, indeed, that the whole school
+should visit the show _en bloc_. The Misses Pollard, being themselves
+daughters of the late clergyman, set a high value on clerical sanction.
+The Vicar's letter settled the matter.
+
+"If Mr. Carey approves, it must be perfectly right," fluttered Miss
+Fanny.
+
+"I'm so glad to know what he thinks about it," agreed her sister.
+
+The poor ladies were really anxious to give their boarders a treat, and
+as the day girls were already assembled, and time was flying, they
+decided to adopt the suggestion, and march the whole school in an
+orderly crocodile to the tent. Just before they started, a small village
+boy came running up the lane and delivered a note. Miss Pollard tore it
+open hastily.
+
+"Dear me! How unfortunate," she exclaimed. "Opal ill with a bad
+headache. The child was perfectly all right this morning. Thank you,
+there's no answer. Now, girls, take your partners and form into double
+line. Quietly, quietly! Not so much talking! Iva and Nesta first.
+Where's Mademoiselle? Has Mamie brought her scarf? Those tents are
+sometimes very draughty. Betty, if you can't behave you'll be left
+behind! Are you ready? Then quick march!"
+
+It was very exciting indeed to file along the High Street and across
+the bridge on to the meadow, and more thrillsome still to enter the big
+circular tent with its green canvas roof flapping in the breeze. The
+seats were only wooden planks covered with red baize, and swayed about
+when people sat upon them, but Durracombe audiences were not accustomed
+to luxuries, and the juvenile portion would have cheerfully sat anywhere
+to watch the show. A caravan drawn up by the entrance acted as pay desk,
+and a big, fat gipsy-looking woman took the money and said, 'Thank you
+very much' to those who bought the more expensive tickets. The school
+secured a block of reserved seats all to itself, and the girls settled
+themselves with little ones in front, and big ones behind. In the middle
+of the tent was a large circle strewn with sawdust, and the spectators
+were ranged round this as in a Roman amphitheatre. Through the open door
+opposite might be caught a glimpse of horses standing outside. A very
+large part of the audience was composed of children. Most of them had
+been waiting in a queue for a long while before entering, and they were
+over-excited and tired. They were all impatience for the performance to
+begin, and the hum of their little voices sounded like the buzzing of
+bees. Through the gaps between the walls and the roof of the tent long
+shafts of sunlight streamed like Jacob's ladders over the heads of the
+children, and into the sawdust circle. One almost expected elves and
+fairies to slide down them and perform on the magic ring. One tiny boy,
+tired of waiting, strayed from his place, and stood a moment under one
+of these shafts of light like a fair-haired cherub. The spectators
+cheered him as if he were part of the programme.
+
+The contingent from The Moorings were sitting close to the main
+entrance, and as their united glances strayed round the tent they
+presently began to nudge each other and focus their gaze in one
+particular direction. Miss Pollard, aware of the undercurrent, looked
+also. What she saw caused her to take out her lorgnettes and stare
+amazedly through them to satisfy herself that failing eyesight had not
+produced an illusion. On the other side of the tent, exactly opposite to
+their party, sitting on a red-baize-covered reserved seat, was
+Opal--Opal who was supposed to be lying on her bed prostrate with
+headache, and whom she had pitied for missing the treat. Miss Fanny had
+also just made the same discovery. The sisters glanced at one another,
+and drew their own conclusions. If Opal had turned rather white at the
+entrance of the school party, she had apparently recovered from the
+shock, and was bluffing the matter out. She was sitting with some
+friends, girls much older than herself, and was laughing and chatting as
+if in thorough enjoyment.
+
+And now at last, after much tiresome delay and waiting, the show began.
+Through the far door was seen a vision of men in gay costumes, and the
+strains of a band were heard.
+
+"O-o-o-oh!" came from the children all round, as the procession streamed
+into the tent. It was headed by the band, then followed piebald horses
+with riders in gorgeous velvet costumes or spangled dresses; there were
+Roman chariots, and a drove of tiny ponies, and an Eastern lady on a
+camel, and several funny men who bounced about like india-rubber balls,
+and three stately elephants, and some wild-looking Red Indians in
+war-paint and feathers. These all paraded round the ring to allow the
+audience to have a good view of them, then went off again, so that the
+programme might proceed in its separate items.
+
+It really was a capital show. There was no mistake about that. First
+entered the gymnasts, wonderful people who jumped easily on to one
+another's shoulders, and swung head downwards from trapezes, and made
+themselves into a human pyramid, and performed other amazing and
+marvellous feats. Then came the horses, which ambled round the circle in
+pairs, with riders who stood astride two of them, one foot on each,
+marvels of equilibrium, and ladies in gauzy dresses who jumped lightly
+from horse to horse as if on wings. When these had cantered off the
+scenes appeared "Queenie", a beautiful Arabian trick horse with her
+playfellow "Pixie", a tiny piebald pony. The manager, a gorgeous
+individual in evening dress, stood in the centre cracking a whip, while
+Queenie and Pixie ran in contrary circles, reared, knelt, and lay down
+to music, and finally did a dying scene together, with Pixie's head
+resting sentimentally on Queenie's back.
+
+"I want that 'ickle pony," called out a small voice from the audience,
+at which remark even the manager smiled.
+
+Then it was the turn of the clown, a funny man in baggy white pants and
+a red patch on each of his cheeks. He kicked up six hats in succession,
+and caught them all, one on the top of the other, on his head in a
+pyramid, and had a comical fight with somebody who was dressed up as a
+lion and tried to pounce upon him.
+
+"Here we are again. No harm done this time," he kept saying, after
+somersaults and jumps that made some of the audience tremble for his
+safety.
+
+Next a tight-rope was fixed, and two lady gymnasts in spangled garments
+and holding parasols walked across it, and even danced upon it, shaking
+bells on their ankles as they moved. The funny man pretended to be
+envious and begged to be allowed to try; so he climbed up too and at
+first made the tight-rope wobble in the most alarming fashion, but
+finally performed a jig upon it, holding aloft a big black umbrella.
+
+"No harm done this time," he proclaimed laughingly.
+
+An Eastern lady, who arrived veiled on a camel, did a marvellous turn
+with Queenie, the trick horse. Slow music was played, and when the lady
+danced Queenie moved her fore-feet as if dancing also. Then the lady
+skipped, and the horse also skipped over a rope held by the manager and
+the clown, a performance which called forth cheer after cheer from the
+spectators. When Queenie ran out of the ring two elephants took her
+place. They saluted by trumpeting, a form of greeting which rather
+scared most of the children, and even brought squeals from some of them.
+The elephants with their slow heavy gait were favourites, however, and
+quite captured the house when one of them acted nurse to a rag baby,
+placed it inside a cradle, and rocked it gently to sleep.
+
+The Red Indians, with their wild, spirited horses, performed most
+daring feats, careered round the ring clinging to the tails of their
+steeds, jumped from one horse to another when in full gallop, and had a
+most exciting battle in which a little girl was bound to a stake by one
+party and rescued by another. Then one of the elephants came in again,
+and played skittles with the clown, who kept calling out "Cheat fair,
+old girl," though he always let her win in the end, and rewarded her by
+drinks from a bottle which he produced out of his big hat. The funny man
+was indeed the very heart and soul of the circus and worked hard to keep
+the audience amused. When the elephant had finished her tricks he
+brought in a pair of seals who flapped into the ring on their fins,
+roaring and snorting as they came. Their feats were, if anything, even
+more clever than those of the elephants: they balanced cups on their
+noses, played football with the clown, and flapped their fins or roared
+in answer to his questions. They played a game of hide-and-seek, and
+finally posed on either side of their human friend apparently whispering
+into his ear.
+
+A Roman chariot race followed, as a variety, and afterwards some trick
+riding by ladies accompanied by a jazz band to which the elephant played
+the drum. It was all clever and amusing, yet everybody smiled when the
+funny man, after a short interval for rest, made his reappearance in the
+circle. He seemed indefatigable, and his limbs might have been made of
+india-rubber by the way he jumped and bounced and pranced about. This
+time he was to give a performance on the trapeze, and he ran up the
+ladder as easily as a monkey, cracking out many jokes. He swung on the
+trapeze, and turned somersaults, and hung by his heels and did other
+hair-raising experiments, always ending with his usual "no harm done
+this time".
+
+Then he commenced to swing himself backwards and forwards for an
+enormous leap on to another trapeze. He accomplished it safely, and
+turned to make the bound back again. But either the rope was faulty, or
+for once his nerve deserted him, or he miscalculated his distance, for,
+instead of landing lightly upon the pole, he missed it, and fell down,
+down on to the edge of the net, and off again on to the ground below.
+
+For an instant the audience thought it was part of the performance, and
+that he would bounce up with one of his merry jokes. But this time there
+was harm done. Instead of springing to his feet he lay limp and quiet
+among the sawdust in the ring. There was a buzz of horror from the
+spectators as two of the gymnasts ran in with a stretcher and hastily
+removed him. Many could not bear to look at any more and left the tent,
+though the manager made a short speech and begged people to remain for
+the rest of the programme, bringing on the ponies, and causing them to
+run and jump round the circle.
+
+Miss Pollard and her girls felt they had seen enough, and withdrew
+quietly, very much upset at the horrible accident. Mavis and Merle,
+running home with the news, found Dr. Tremayne just starting for the
+cottage hospital, whither the unfortunate clown had been carried from
+the circus. Jessop was helping to hunt out splints, bandages, &c., and
+hastily packing them into the car.
+
+"Here's a pretty business," said Uncle David. "I hear the poor chap's
+badly hurt. I've an urgent call to Bragdon--man in an epileptic fit--but
+he'll have to wait till I've attended to this case first. It's a mercy I
+hadn't started. Jessop, where's the chloroform bottle? Put it here in my
+bag, please! If I want anything else I'll send someone over with a
+message. You know where the other splints are? Good! Telephone to Mrs.
+Goodwin that I can't possibly see her till to-morrow, but she must go on
+taking the medicine, and if Johnson's boy comes with a message, keep him
+till I get back."
+
+And Dr. Tremayne, having collected all the various things he considered
+he was likely to need, jumped into his car, and departed to the cottage
+hospital on his errand of help, a very real angel of mercy though clad
+in twentieth-century garments.
+
+"Will the poor fellow die?" the girls asked with awestruck faces.
+
+Jessop shook her head enigmatically.
+
+"It depends how much damage is done. You never can tell in a case like
+this till the Doctor has seen him. You may be sure your uncle will do
+the best that human skill can."
+
+"That goes without saying," said Mavis as she and Merle went gravely
+upstairs to wash their hands for tea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+The Sick Clown
+
+
+Opal turned up at school next morning in one of her most defiant and
+reckless moods. She marched into the cloakroom with a jaunty "don't
+care" air, and immediately began to talk about the circus.
+
+"I was caught neatly, wasn't I!" she proclaimed. "Never got such a
+surprise in my life as when you all came parading in like a flock of
+lambkins. Miss Pollard had rather spasms to judge from her face."
+
+"_You'll_ get spasms later on if I'm not mistaken," said Merle.
+
+"Oh, I can always fix up the poor old dears. They've a blind eye where
+I'm concerned."
+
+"How about that note you wrote?"
+
+"Well, I _had_ a headache, only it got better in time for the circus.
+I'm a wonderful person at getting well when I make up my mind to it.
+Will power I suppose. There's nothing neurotic about me!"
+
+"You're the biggest fibber I know!"
+
+"What _are_ fibs?" asked Opal flippantly. "I only make a little
+picturesque variation sometimes instead of telling the brutal truth.
+It's what's called diplomacy, and finesse, and all the rest of it. In a
+matter of expediency I hedge the question."
+
+"Use the plain Anglo-Saxon word 'lie' and I understand you," retorted
+Merle, turning disgustedly away.
+
+Opal laughed, and some of the younger children, who had been standing
+like little pitchers listening with all their ears, laughed too.
+
+"Look here, you kids," said Merle, facing round again. "You may think
+all this is very clever and funny, but I tell you it's most
+dishonourable. You've some queer notions in this school. I wouldn't give
+anything for a head girl who can't speak the truth. She's not worth her
+salt. Yes, I mean it. All this underhand work isn't done in decent
+schools, and the sooner you get that into your silly little noddles the
+better. Fibbers were 'sent to Coventry' at Whinburn High."
+
+"Were they indeed," mocked Opal. "What an extremely superior place it
+must have been. I wonder you condescend to stay at The Moorings among
+such a set as ourselves. We're evidently not good enough for you."
+
+Merle took no further notice but walked away, and Opal followed her,
+giggling, into the classroom. She thought matters would be passed over
+by the Principal as they had always been condoned before. Her boast that
+she could do what she liked with her godmothers had hitherto been
+justified. She had, however, gone a step too far. Miss Pollard's eyes
+had at last been opened, and in the light of yesterday she suddenly
+began to remember very many sinister incidents which might easily be set
+down to the head girl's influence.
+
+"I'm afraid, my dear, we have been utterly mistaken in Opal," she
+confided to her sister, and Miss Fanny, who had also had her doubts,
+regretfully agreed with her.
+
+Miss Pollard took the call-over that morning, but when she had closed
+the register she paused.
+
+"There's a matter I wish to set straight," she said impressively. "Opal,
+I received a note from you yesterday afternoon telling me you were in
+bed with a headache. Will you kindly explain how it was that we saw you
+at the circus?"
+
+"My head was better, thanks, and I felt well enough to go," replied Opal
+perkily. She was lolling on her seat, and sharpening a pencil as she
+spoke.
+
+"Sit up, and put that penknife in your pocket," commanded Miss Pollard,
+in a stricter tone than she had ever used before to her favourite. "Now
+answer me. Do you consider that you have been behaving in an honourable
+fashion? Your letter was sent with the intention to deceive me! What
+have you to say for yourself?"
+
+Instead of doing as she was told, Opal went on sharpening her pencil
+rather ostentatiously. There was a sullen look on her face. She was
+trying her strength against Miss Pollard's. She had won before in minor
+battles, and she hoped to score in this. A faint giggle from one of her
+satellites among the juniors spurred her on. She would show the girls
+that she at any rate was not afraid of the head mistress. She leaned
+back in her seat and yawned.
+
+"If you ask me, I think it's a case of much ado about nothing," she
+replied. "I've explained that I felt better, and I can't say any more."
+
+This was the limit even for The Moorings. The girls looked at Opal in
+amazement. As for Miss Pollard she stared for a moment as if absolutely
+mesmerized with horror. Then, with a gasp, she recovered her presence of
+mind, and, summoning all her dignity as Principal, delivered her
+ultimatum.
+
+"If that's the view you take of your deceit and falsehood the sooner you
+leave this school the better. Get up and go home at once. You can tell
+your mother the reason I have sent you, and say I will call and see her
+this afternoon at five o'clock. Now go immediately!"
+
+Opal, still with the sullen and defiant look on her face, rose slowly
+and gave a glance of triumph round the room, which, however, met with no
+response. Then she walked jauntily out and slammed the door after her.
+
+What happened at her own home nobody ever knew. Miss Pollard called and
+had a long talk with Mrs. Earnshaw, the result of which was that Opal
+was sent away for a few weeks to stay with an aunt, and arrangements
+were made at once to place her at a boarding-school after Easter. In
+justice to her it must be chronicled that she apologized to her
+godmothers, and said she was really sorry, but they were wise enough not
+to try the risky experiment of letting her return to The Moorings. She
+was too old for so small a school, and needed strict discipline, and the
+pressure of a high moral standard among girls of her own age. At
+Brackenfield College she would not find her "fiblets", as she called
+them, applauded or tolerated, and she would have to be straight and
+honest if she wanted to win golden opinions. In spite of her many lapses
+from the code of honour, there were elements of good in Opal, and under
+the influence of straightforward girls such as Dona Anderson and Ailsa
+Donald, who were at present leading spirits at Brackenfield, she was
+likely to make a fresh start and retrieve her past.
+
+The Moorings, freed from the shadow of her bad example, seemed a
+different school. Iva Westwood was appointed head girl, and filled the
+office conscientiously. The juniors, who took their colour from their
+elders, soon dropped certain unpleasant practices, and were square in
+their work. Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny also, feeling they had been too
+slack and trustful, kept a tighter hand over things, so that cheating
+and shirking were no longer possible as of yore. In respect of
+favouritism they had learnt their lesson, and became strictly impartial.
+
+"It hardly pays to be a boarder nowadays," mourned Aubrey Simpson.
+"We're all treated so exactly alike."
+
+"And a good business too," snapped Edith Carey. "I always said it was
+time we had a turn. I like things to be fair all round, without anybody
+getting special privileges. The school's been nicer this last fortnight
+than it has ever since I came here. I used to detest Miss Fanny, but I'm
+beginning almost to like her now."
+
+"Though she _is_ making a horrible crusade about punctuality," groaned
+Maude, who, as usual, was late for everything. "Just fancy! She actually
+made me go to drawing-class without my pencils because I couldn't find
+them."
+
+"Poor old sport! Buck up! Buy a pencil with a ring at the end and cable
+it on to you so that you won't lose it. You could wear it round your
+neck like a baby's comforter."
+
+"It wouldn't be much use at drawing when I want an 'H.B.', a 'B', and a
+'B.B.'," grumbled Maude, who had small sense of humour and rarely saw a
+joke.
+
+But we must return to the day after the circus. The unfortunate clown
+had been carried after his accident straight to the Cottage Hospital,
+where his injuries were attended to by Dr. Tremayne. He was badly hurt,
+and, though there was a possibility of his recovery, it would be months,
+if ever, before he could resume his profession. The manager and the
+ringmaster, and several other people from the show, came to the hospital
+to inquire about him, but the circus was due at another town, and they
+were obliged to move on at once. So that very evening the vans were
+packed, and the great rumbling cavalcade, with all its horses, and
+ponies, and elephants, and camels, jolted along the High Street, and
+turned up the north road in the direction of Warebury.
+
+The piece of wreckage whom they left behind them lay very still and
+quiet in the clean, white bed, at the Cottage Hospital, and made no more
+jokes. His leg was in splints and his head was bandaged, and his right
+arm was held in a sling. Dr. Tremayne, going to see him for the third
+time on the following day, took Mavis and Merle, in the hope that
+visitors might distract his thoughts. They went rather shyly into the
+ward. It was strange to see "the funny man" lying flat on his pillow,
+with hollow, sleepless eyes, and lines of pain round his poor mouth.
+They offered him the flowers they had brought, and began to talk about
+the circus. He brightened up a little at that. Evidently he was proud of
+his reputation as a gymnast.
+
+"It was the rope that failed. It wasn't my fault," he said. "I've done
+that trick thousands of times, and never missed before. And I'd do it
+again."
+
+"You must make haste and get well then," said the sister-in-charge
+kindly. "When we get your splints off you shall give us a special
+performance in the ward if you like. We'll ask these young ladies to
+come and see it, won't we?"
+
+The ghost of a smile flickered round his lips for a moment.
+
+"I can't say 'no harm done this time'," he whispered.
+
+It was the first attempt he had made at a joke. Sister said visitors
+had done him good, and though she sent Mavis and Merle away then, she
+asked them to come again. So every day they ran into the hospital for a
+few minutes on their way to school, and again at lunch-time and after
+tea. They never stopped long enough to tire the patient, but they
+brought him flowers or newspapers or some little thing from the outside
+world to help to cheer him up. They chatted to him and asked him what
+towns he knew, and he told them he had travelled over most of England
+and Scotland with the circus, and had even been to America.
+
+"I've seen a-many beautiful places! But there's none to beat Devon in my
+opinion."
+
+"That's what we always say," cried Mavis. "Devonshire is the loveliest
+county in England, and Chagmouth is the most beautiful little place in
+all Devonshire."
+
+"Chagmouth! Do you know Chagmouth?" asked the clown quickly.
+
+"We motor over every Saturday with our uncle when he goes to take
+surgery. Do _you_ know it?"
+
+"I used to when I was a boy. I haven't seen it now though for a matter
+of fourteen year or so. I dare say it's changed."
+
+"I don't believe it has much. People say it's just the same as it always
+was. You must make haste and get well, and we'll ask Uncle to take you
+there for a drive when you're able to get out of hospital."
+
+"Ah--when?" echoed the clown, closing his eyes.
+
+He was restless, and seemed in much pain. Dr. Tremayne came in later
+and examined him, and gave him morphia. Sister's report the next morning
+was unfavourable. His temperature was very high, and his pulse was
+fluttering.
+
+"I'm sorry I shan't be about to-day," said Dr. Tremayne. "I'm obliged to
+go over to Halford to perform some eye operations at the hospital. I
+don't suppose I shall be back till nine o'clock. I'll leave the
+hypodermic syringe and if he needs it give him another dose of morphia.
+We've done the best we can, but it's an anxious case all the same."
+
+Mavis and Merle were detained after tea that day, and could not go round
+to the hospital until about six o'clock. Sister greeted them with
+relief.
+
+"I've kept expecting you, and was going to send you a message if you
+didn't come," she said. "He keeps asking for you all the time. He's gone
+downhill rapidly to-day, poor fellow. He's sinking fast, and I don't
+believe he'll ever see the night through. He's wandering a little in his
+head, and he says you two know Chagmouth, and he wants to speak to you.
+I'll tell him you've come."
+
+Very gently the girls entered the ward where the patient was lying. The
+signs of a great approaching change were on him. The hands that little
+more than a week ago had grasped the trapeze so strongly now lay white
+and frail on the counterpane. His face was shrunken, and his eyes held
+the far-away look of one who is beginning to sight things beyond our
+earthly plane of vision. He smiled feebly at Mavis and Merle, and tried
+to raise his head. Sister lifted him a little and propped him up with an
+extra pillow.
+
+"You know Chagmouth?" he whispered.
+
+"Yes! Yes!" Mavis was stooping down beside his bed.
+
+"Is Mrs. Jarvis still living there--the nurse?"
+
+"Yes, we sometimes see her. She's postwoman now."
+
+"Could you fetch her here? To-night?"
+
+"We'll try!"
+
+"Tell her it's Jerry as wants her--her boy Jerry! She'll understand!"
+
+"We'll bring her somehow, don't you worry," said Merle.
+
+"I'm slipping west, and I'd like a word with her afore I go. You've been
+so kind--I thought I might ask you to do that for me."
+
+His breath came in gasps. His face was drawn with a spasm of pain.
+
+Sister took the girls quietly aside.
+
+"If there's anything you can do for him, you'd better do it," she said.
+"I don't think he'll last the night."
+
+Mavis and Merle saw for themselves that if mother and son were to meet
+again on earth they must fetch Mrs. Jarvis quickly. How could they get
+her to Durracombe in the shortest possible time? Outside the hospital
+door they held a whispered consultation. Uncle David and the little
+Deemster car were fifteen miles away, at Halford. They must find some
+other means of conveyance. They went, therefore, to the Swan Hotel,
+where motors were to be hired, and explained the urgency of their
+errand. The manageress shook her head.
+
+[Illustration: "YOU KNOW CHAGMOUTH?" HE WHISPERED _Page 232_]
+
+"Mr. Johnson's out himself with the four-seater, and Bates has gone to
+the station with the little car to meet a lady and take her to Rushton.
+There's only the old Ford left, and no one to drive it."
+
+"A Ford! May I look at it?" said Merle eagerly.
+
+"You can if you like."
+
+The car was standing in the yard, rather a shabby specimen, but in
+workable order. Merle examined it carefully.
+
+"It's exactly like Daddy's at home," she said. "I've often driven that.
+Will you let me try this?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know whether I dare!" gasped the manageress.
+
+But Merle got inside the car and showed such a working knowledge of its
+various levers and begged so hard to be allowed to take it out that at
+last Mrs. Johnson relented.
+
+"If it weren't a matter of life and death, as you might say, I wouldn't
+let you for a minute. It seems almost like murder to trust you two
+alone, and those hills and all. Still you do seem to know how to drive.
+Be very careful of the brakes, and don't go tearing along too fast. I
+shan't know a moment's peace till I see you safe back again. Little
+George will give you a start. He knows how to do that, though he can't
+drive yet."
+
+George, a small boy of twelve, turned the starting-handle, and soon the
+engine was humming. Merle took off the brake, put in the low gear, waved
+a good-bye to Mrs. Johnson, and with Mavis by her side steered
+successfully through the gate-posts of the garage yard into the High
+Street. The girls devoutly hoped that neither Aunt Nellie nor Jessop
+would be looking out of the windows as they crossed the bridge. The
+risky ride must be ventured, but they preferred to spare the feelings of
+those at home.
+
+To Merle it was a gorgeous opportunity. She was not in the least afraid
+and perfectly confident that she could manage the car. She had always
+wanted to go for a drive entirely on her own. Mavis, rather nervous but
+ready to stick to her sister through all perils, kept an anxious eye on
+the road, in case a motor-lorry should suddenly whisk round a corner, or
+a flock of sheep emerge from a field.
+
+"May Providence sweep all nails and bits of broken glass out of our
+path. I don't know what we should do if we got a puncture," she
+murmured.
+
+"Run on the rim," returned Merle. "As long as the old car can keep going
+I'll make her go. She's really doing very decently considering she's
+rather a ramshackle concern. I'll get some pace out of her, you'll see,
+when the road's clear ahead. I wonder if the speedometer is working?"
+
+"Oh, do be careful!" implored Mavis. "There's something coming now.
+Sound your hooter! It's one of those wretched furniture vans, and they
+never leave proper room."
+
+"I'm glad we haven't to pass the circus at any rate," said Merle,
+squeezing the bulb of the hooter, and lurching dangerously as she did
+so, but regaining the left side of the road before they met the van.
+
+Mavis was thankful when they were out of the deep Devonshire lanes and
+up on the comparatively safe level of the moors, where there were no
+high hedges to conceal approaching vehicles, and the road could be seen
+stretching like a long ribbon in front of them.
+
+"Shan't find any police trap here," chuckled Merle, increasing the speed
+till the rattling old car seemed to be flying. "That speedometer isn't
+working, but I dare say we're going at thirty miles an hour. I believe
+she'd do forty."
+
+"Merle, _don't_" squealed Mavis. "For goodness sake slow down or you'll
+be upsetting the whole business into the ditch."
+
+The hooting of a motor-cycle that wanted to pass them stopped Merle in
+her mad career, and reminded her that she was occupying the middle of
+the road. She steered to the left, and proceeded more soberly.
+
+"We must be half-way there already," she triumphed. "We've simply
+bounded along like a house on fire. Who says I can't drive? I shall tell
+Daddy about this. It'll be a score for me, won't it."
+
+"I hope we shan't meet a policeman anywhere who'll ask for your
+licence."
+
+"Don't care if I do. I just shan't stop, however much he waves his
+white gloves at me. He can take the number of the car, and prosecute me
+afterwards if he likes. I'd rather enjoy going before the bench of
+magistrates. I'd tell the reason, and say the end justified the means."
+
+"You'll make an end of us if you go bumping so fast over this lumpy
+road. The holes are enough to upset a tank. What a sharp wind there is
+up here! I wish we'd got our thick coats."
+
+"You ought to have brought a wrap!" Merle's voice was self-reproachful.
+"Turn up the collar of your jersey. Oh, I'm all right, thanks. It's hot
+work to drive, I can tell you. There's Gundry Tor. We really _are_
+getting on. We shall soon be at Chagmouth now."
+
+What Mavis was dreading most was the tremendous hill that ran down the
+ravine into the little town. It was a very steep gradient, and was
+marked with a danger signal. She hoped the brakes of the rickety old car
+would be equal to their duty. The road was unfenced, and had several
+awkward bends, where an unskilled motorist, losing control, might dash
+over the edge, and down into the woods. How she longed for Dr.
+Tremayne's firm steady hand on the driving-wheel! It is always far more
+anxious work to sit and watch a novice than to do a thing yourself.
+Merle, in her girlish confidence, felt no alarm. She was ready to
+venture anything in the way of a descent.
+
+Fortunately for the safety of the sisters, her powers had no need to be
+tested. While they were still on the level road at the top of the hill
+they saw, walking briskly along in front of them, a little stumpy figure
+in a navy-blue uniform, and with a leather bag slung over her back.
+
+"Mrs. Jarvis, by all that's wonderful," exclaimed Mavis, in much relief.
+
+The postwoman was coming back from collecting letters at a pillar-box in
+a neighbouring village. It was the merest luck that they had overtaken
+her at that particular spot. Merle stopped the car, and the girls
+explained their errand.
+
+"You must come with us at once," said Mavis. "Never mind the letters. We
+can hand them in at the post-office at Durracombe instead. It will be
+all right."
+
+Poor Mrs. Jarvis did not need any urging. As soon as her clouded brain
+understood who wanted her, she was ready to throw her post-bag to the
+winds. She jumped into the back part of the car and took her seat,
+trembling with excitement and eagerness.
+
+"Jerry! My own boy Jerry!" she kept repeating. "Bless him! The little
+table's all spread out in the kitchen ready for his tea. I knew he'd
+come back to me some day. Bless his heart."
+
+Merle with much difficulty managed to restart the old Ford, and to turn
+it with its bonnet in the direction of Durracombe; then they set off
+again at a rather reckless pace. Every minute seemed of importance now,
+and Mavis did not remonstrate though they bumped over holes, tore round
+corners, or flew across the moor at thirty miles an hour. Perhaps her
+nerves were getting used to it. She gave a sigh of satisfaction,
+however, when at last they came in sight of their destination, and
+motored back across the bridge into the High Street. Merle drove
+straight to the hospital, where the girls took Mrs. Jarvis inside and
+asked for Sister.
+
+"Will you come into the ward, please," said the nurse who returned with
+the message. "You've brought her just in time!"
+
+Mavis and Merle stood aside to give precedence to Mrs. Jarvis. They had
+warned the poor mother that it was no lad of thirteen whom she must
+expect to see, that long years had passed away, and had changed him
+possibly past recognition. There was little resemblance between the
+round cheeks she used to kiss, and the sunken face on the pillow. But
+mother hearts cannot forget, even though the brains may be blurred. She
+knew him instantly as she stepped to his bed-side.
+
+"Jerry! My own boy, Jerry! Come back at last!"
+
+Then Nurse put a screen round the bed, and mother and son were left
+alone, for there are some scenes too sacred for even the kindest friends
+to witness.
+
+Mavis and Merle returned an hour later to inquire, having taken back the
+car, delivered the post-bag to the authorities, and reassured Aunt
+Nellie of their whereabouts. They met Sister in the corridor of the
+hospital. They looked at her in mute interrogation, and she shook her
+head.
+
+"I knew it was hopeless this afternoon, but it's been quicker than I
+thought. He didn't suffer much, and he was so glad to have his mother
+with him. Will you please tell Dr. Tremayne."
+
+Very softly the girls went out of the hospital door. It was dark, and
+bright stars were shining overhead, but there was still a faint streak
+of red where the sun had set. They looked at it for a moment or two
+without speaking, then:
+
+"It will rise over there," gulped Mavis, pointing eastward, and Merle
+understood her meaning.
+
+All the jokes and tricks of the funny man were over now, and his poor
+hurt body was lying quiet and still, but he himself had "gone west", and
+though the tea-table was spread in vain in the little cottage,
+somewhere, in the light of the eternal dawn, mother and son would meet
+and know one another again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+Greek meets Greek
+
+
+On the last Saturday in March, by special invitation from Mrs. Glyn
+Williams, the Ramsays spent the day at The Warren. They went in their
+best dresses and took their tennis rackets with them. They were not at
+all sure whether they wished to go, but it was one of those coercive
+visits which society demands, and which there is no evading, so they set
+forth, Mavis in one of her quiet moods, and Merle, with an awkward
+remembrance of past skirmishes, on her very best behaviour. There is no
+better fence than good manners, and it is really impossible to squabble
+with a person who preserves a studied politeness. To-day, however, the
+Glyn Williams did not wish for quarrels. They might have their faults,
+but they could be pleasant enough hosts and hostesses when they liked,
+and they really made an effort to entertain their guests. When their
+shyness thawed, Mavis and Merle began to enjoy themselves. The cinder
+court was in excellent order, and it was rather delightful to have a
+game of tennis. Tudor and Merle played Gwen and Mavis, and beat them in
+two sets, a score which caused them much triumph.
+
+"I say, you know, you're a jolly good player," said Tudor to his
+partner. "Those swift serves of yours are A1!"
+
+"We had cinder courts at school in Whinburn," replied Merle. "It makes a
+difference if you're used to them."
+
+She might have added that she had been one of the champions, and had
+helped to win a tournament, but she was not given to boasting. It is
+pleasant, though, to be congratulated on present prowess, even if you
+feel too modest to mention your past successes. She began to relent a
+little towards Tudor. He was so obviously doing his best to give her a
+good time. According to his own lights he tried to be amusing.
+
+"The cinder court is my last stronghold," he assured her. "Just when we
+get the grass courts into decent order in the summer the Mater always
+insists on having half Chagmouth up to trample over them--wheezy old
+women who drink tea till you think they'll never stop, and awful
+children who stuff themselves with buns, and run races for bags of
+sweets. You don't know what I suffer. And the Mater says: '_Do_ come and
+speak to them'! Speak to them! What the Dickens am I to say? I'm longing
+to tell them that I wish the whole lot of them were at Jericho rather
+than messing about our garden. Why can't they drink tea and run races
+down in the town? The Mater says we _must_ know our neighbours, but I
+say bother our neighbours. If she likes to do the Lady Bountiful
+business I wish she'd leave me out of it."
+
+"Chagmouth is a lovely place," ventured Merle.
+
+"Oh yes, but they're a cantankerous set of people. Never satisfied
+whatever you do for them. The shooting here isn't really up to much
+either, nor the fishing. I stayed with a friend of mine once in
+Herefordshire. His father has a splendid place there. I can tell you we
+had some sport. The woods here haven't been half preserved. Every Dick,
+Tom, and Harry from Chagmouth thinks he may go into them, and the same
+on the headland. They pretend there's a right of way along the cliffs,
+and it's nothing on earth but an excuse for poaching. They go rabbiting
+up there. I've found lots of traps, and flung them over the cliffs into
+the sea. Beastly cheek, setting traps on our land. I tell Dad he ought
+to put up a fence and dispute that right of way along the headland. I
+believe he's going to too. You must stand up for your rights with these
+people, or they'll take advantage of you at every end and give you no
+thanks either."
+
+After lunch, Tudor, a large part of whose interests centred round the
+stables, offered to show the horses, and all the young people went to
+admire and pet beautiful "Armorelle", Gwen's pretty cob "Taffy", and
+Babbie's little pony "Nixie". Merle would have liked to beg to mount
+Armorelle, but good manners prevailed, and she only stroked the soft
+nose instead.
+
+"Do you ride?" asked Gwen rather grandly.
+
+"A little," said Merle, not liking to confess that her equestrian
+experiences were mostly confined to donkeys on the beach at the
+sea-side.
+
+"Brought your habit with you?"
+
+"No," answered Merle, who did not possess a riding-habit at all.
+
+"What a pity! But of course your uncle has sold all his horses. He
+always goes about in that little yellow car now, doesn't he? Motoring's
+well enough--one must have a car naturally--but give me a horse."
+
+"Yes, give me a horse, too, for choice," echoed Tudor. "I simply
+couldn't live without horses."
+
+On the whole the Ramsays spent a pleasant day at The Warren. Gwen and
+Tudor might be rather patronizing, and too fond of showing off their
+possessions, and "talking large", but these were their obvious failings,
+the direct result of their early training and upbringing, and they were
+not without pleasanter traits. Everybody is a mixture of perfect and
+imperfect, in greater or lesser degree. The young Glyn Williamses might
+have false standards of life, and would perhaps have to suffer many hard
+knocks before they learnt to revise them, yet in their own way they
+certainly meant to be kind. Gwen gave Mavis several foreign stamps, and
+was liberal in handing round chocolates. Little Babbie waxed really
+affectionate. She had liked the Ramsays from the first, and had begged
+her mother to invite them. In the drawing-room, after tea, she asked
+them to repeat the dialogue which they had given at The Moorings on the
+wet afternoon when the day girls waited for the storm to clear.
+
+"I've never forgotten how you two acted," she urged. "It was splendid!
+Just like going to the theatre. _Please_ do it again! _Please!_ Mother
+and Tudor haven't heard it."
+
+"We want two other characters," objected Merle.
+
+"Oh, never mind! We'll imagine the other two, and you can say their
+parts for them. Give the funny piece where the aunt says what she thinks
+about the modern girl. You did it so well."
+
+"May we dress up a little?" asked Mavis.
+
+"As much as you like. Come upstairs and take what you want."
+
+So after a time the visitors returned duly costumed for the piece, Merle
+as an elderly spinster with white cotton-wool hair and a black veil tied
+over a toque, and Mavis in a sporting coat and rakish hat belonging to
+Gwen. They played up to the best of their ability, and delivered the
+amusing little sketch with much vigour. Merle, as the maiden aunt, was
+inimitable, and quiet Mavis astounded everybody in her pose of the
+up-to-date damsel. Tudor stared as if he had not suspected she had so
+much in her. The audience of four clapped tremendously at the close of
+the performance.
+
+"It's really very clever. You're quite actresses," commented Mrs. Glyn
+Williams. "Have you ever performed in public? No! Why, when you leave
+school I should think you'll be tremendously in request for dramatic
+performances in aid of charities."
+
+"We ought to get up something here in the Institute," said Tudor. "It
+would be topping fun, and astonish the natives no end. I should think
+everybody's sick to death of their eternal concerts. It's always the
+same old business--part song by the choir, timid warble by village
+soprano about spring or roses, seafaring song roared by the bass,
+ambitious operatic air attempted by tenor, who makes a hash of it,
+strains on a violin badly out of tune, temperance speech by the Vicar,
+who, of course, wants to butt in with a word on 'Prohibition', action
+song by kids from the school, then votes of thanks till everybody has
+thanked everybody else all round, and said how clever they all are. Then
+'God Save the King', and thank goodness one may go home."
+
+"Tudor's a naughty boy," laughed Mrs. Glyn Williams. "I never _can_ get
+him to take an interest in Chagmouth."
+
+"Well, I hate being trotted out to these functions," declared her son.
+
+When Mavis and Merle, brushing their hair as they went to bed that
+night, compared notes on their experiences at The Warren, both decided
+they had had a very enjoyable time there. Merle had revised her first
+opinion of Tudor.
+
+"He's quite jolly in his own way," she admitted. "I rather like him."
+
+"But of course he's nothing to Bevis."
+
+"They're in a different running altogether."
+
+The two boys were certainly an utter contrast, in circumstances,
+disposition, and attainments. Tudor was fond of sport, but not at all
+intellectual. From various hints the girls had gathered that his school
+career was not unchequered; indeed they strongly suspected, from a
+foolish remark of Babbie's, that ill-health was not the sole reason for
+his passing this term at home, and that for some episode, carefully
+hushed up, he had been temporarily suspended by the authorities. Tudor's
+accomplishments all seemed to stand on a foundation of wealth. Take away
+his horses, his gun, his woods, his visits to town to see theatres, and
+he would have no resources left. His pleasures were inseparable from the
+spending of money, and though they were well enough in their way, and
+kept him amused, they were not cultivating the highest part of him. The
+citizen side, which seeks to be of some use to the community, was
+conspicuously absent. He posed, indeed, as deliberately scorning the
+masses, and laughed at his mother for her well-meant efforts at trying
+to entertain her neighbours. Human souls are surely at different stages
+of evolution, and his was an undeveloped one that had not yet progressed
+beyond the period of self-serving. Sometimes a rough lesson is needed to
+clear the soul's vision, and teach it what things are really worth
+while; and Fate, who jolts us about much to our own indignation, had her
+special plan for his education, which in the fulness of her time she
+meant to bring about.
+
+Bevis, reared up from babyhood at Grimbal's Farm, had learnt to shoot
+and to ride as well as Tudor, though he had not so good a gun nor so
+fine a mount. He was a splendid swimmer, and he had brought back many
+medals from school gained at athletic sports. He could almost do a man's
+work in the fields now, and while he hated farm labour it had made him
+physically very fit. He rejoiced in his young strength, with something
+of the pure gladness of the old Greeks merged with the Christian ideal.
+Mavis, looking at him as his muscular arms chopped with an axe in the
+spinney, or his long legs came jumping over a fence, always thought of
+some lines that she had copied for her "pet quotation" in the High
+School calendar at Whinburn.
+
+    "God who created me
+     Nimble and light of limb,
+     In three elements free
+     To run, ride, or swim.
+     Not when the sense is dim,
+     But now from the heart of joy
+     I would remember Him--
+     Take the thanks of a boy."
+
+Bevis's brain capacity fully balanced his bodily strength. He liked to
+read the newspapers, and think out all the problems of the times, and
+the country's needs. He relished a mental tussle with the same keen zest
+as he enjoyed a football match or a vaulting contest. Whoever his father
+and mother might have been the boy was innately refined, and at school
+had caught up all the culture that his foster parents--kind homely
+people--unfortunately lacked.
+
+It was a matter of amazement to Mrs. Glyn Williams that Mavis and Merle
+were allowed to go for walks with Bevis, and she blamed the Doctor for
+slackness in the care of his nieces, but Dr. Tremayne knew the boy
+thoroughly, and was perfectly satisfied that he was a fit companion for
+them.
+
+The girls themselves thought him a most delightful comrade. He was so
+well versed in all country lore, and he could make so many things, and
+he was so jolly and humorous and full of fun and jokes. They looked
+forward to their weekly excursions, and felt they could not have
+explored Chagmouth half so thoroughly without Bevis as guide. Saturday
+at the beginning of April saw the three once more setting off for
+Blackthorn Bower. It was a showery day, but they had their mackintoshes,
+and did not mind the light rain. Mavis was so wonderfully better that
+she could now do with impunity what before might have been risky. She
+had grown, and seemed altogether stronger, though she still looked more
+ethereal than Merle. That, however, was partly a matter of temperament.
+The months in Durracombe had been an immense delight to both girls.
+After the severe winters of Whinburn they had seemed like perpetual
+spring, and they called Devon "the Garden of Eden". To-day, as they went
+up the lanes towards the headland, there were many excitements. Bevis,
+who seemed to have a kind of second-sight for discovering birds' nests,
+found a hedge-sparrow's, a robin's, and a thrush's, full of eggs, and
+showed them where a tit-lark was beginning to build. Then they actually
+saw the first swallow, an early arrival which had come before the
+cuckoo, but whirled past with unmistakable forked tail and white breast.
+The primroses were a dream, and Mavis gathered a bunch of wild hyacinths
+and some purple ground ivy, and Merle thought she saw a snake, but was
+not perfectly sure about the matter. They were following a footpath
+which led through the field where the tumulus lay, on to the headland.
+When they reached the usual point where they had always passed through a
+gap in the hedge to get down to the tiny quarry they found their way
+barred. A strong fence had been erected, with prickly gorse placed upon
+the top of it. The girls halted in much dismay.
+
+"Who's been stopping the path?" asked Merle blankly.
+
+"Some of those keepers, I expect," answered Bevis. "They've no right to
+do it. It's been a public way for years and years. People come across
+the hill, and go along the headland, and down to the beach. They always
+have done, and they always will. There was a bother once before about a
+right of way through the woods, and Mr. Glyn Williams went to law about
+it, but he lost his case."
+
+"What are we going to do now?"
+
+"Take down the fence, that's all. It's easily done."
+
+Bevis set calmly to work, and pulled away first the gorse, and then
+enough of the fence to enable his companions to scramble across. He
+laughed as he handed them over.
+
+"Those keepers will be jolly vexed when they find their work spoilt,
+but it serves them right. They shouldn't try to stop a public footpath."
+
+The girls had an uneasy remembrance that last Saturday Tudor had spoken
+of this very matter of a right of way along the headland, and had said
+that he had urged his father to dispute it. They had not mentioned to
+Tudor that they knew the spot, though they had guessed where it was from
+his description. They did not care for him to know about Blackthorn
+Bower, or the cups of rough pottery, and their picnics and talks about
+the prehistoric people. They felt instinctively that he would not
+understand or sympathize in the least, and would only sneer at it all as
+nonsense. They did not say anything about Tudor to Bevis now, because
+the subject always seemed a sore one, and their friend was in such a
+particularly jolly mood that they did not want to bring the cloud that
+sometimes settled over his face. They took his word for it that they
+were not trespassing but pursuing a perfectly legitimate path, and
+climbed down the bank to the little quarry.
+
+Here a horrible surprise awaited them. Their beautiful bower, put up
+with so much skill and trouble, had been completely pulled to pieces.
+The staves of its roof were stacked in a pile, and the sods had been
+thrown down the cliff. For a ghastly moment they stared as if hardly
+able to believe the evidence of their own eyes. Then their indignation
+found vent.
+
+"What an abominable shame!" exploded Merle.
+
+"Oh, it's _too_ bad! Our _lovely_ hut!" quavered Mavis, practically in
+tears.
+
+Bevis said nothing. He gazed round the ruin, then stooped and picked
+something up from the ground. It was a fragment of the blue pottery cup
+smashed to atoms. He looked at it with somewhat the same consternation
+with which a hedge-sparrow might regard her torn and robbed nest and
+broken eggs.
+
+"I'll make somebody pay for this!" he muttered.
+
+The girls were still exclaiming in much wrath and annoyance. At first
+they were so busy bemoaning the hut that they never heard sounds on the
+bank behind, then becoming aware of voices they walked out from the
+quarry to find Tudor, and two of the keepers standing by the fence.
+
+"Hello!" cried Tudor, springing down and greeting them joyously.
+
+But at that moment Bevis stepped from the ruins of Blackthorn Bower and
+faced him.
+
+"Is this your doing?" he asked abruptly.
+
+The two boys glared at one another with looks that suggested clashing of
+steel.
+
+"Certainly it's by my orders," returned Tudor in his most lofty and
+insolent tone. "What business had you building a hut on my property? A
+regular squatter! I won't have you fellows from the village coming
+poaching up here. I'll throw every rabbit trap I find down the cliffs,
+so I give you warning. I could prosecute you for breaking down that
+fence."
+
+"Oh, Tudor! Bevis _doesn't_ poach," interposed Merle.
+
+"He built the hut for _us_," put in Mavis.
+
+Unfortunately the girls' remarks only made matters worse.
+
+"A nice fellow you are to take young ladies about!" continued Tudor
+tauntingly. "I wonder they'll condescend to walk with you. A nobody like
+you, who doesn't know where he comes from! You may fancy yourself no
+end----"
+
+But here Bevis, whose dark face held a "Hast thou found me, O mine
+enemy" expression, sprang at him in an anger too deep and furious for
+words.
+
+Both the boys were wrestlers. For one wild minute they held each other,
+and swayed to and fro as they struggled, while the girls shrieked in
+alarm, and the keepers, standing by the fence, gaped too utterly amazed
+to interfere. Then Bevis, by far the fitter and stronger of the two,
+gained the mastery, and seizing Tudor, flung him violently away. He
+fell, and rolled over and over nearly twenty feet down the side of the
+cliff. Then the keepers recovered from their frozen paralysis, and
+rushed to the rescue of their young employer.
+
+Fortunately Tudor had landed upon a platform of rock, but he lay there
+quite quiet and still, and did not stir when the men carried him up. His
+eyes were closed, and his head hung loosely as they laid him down beside
+the ruined bower. One of them fetched water in a hat and bathed his
+temples, and the other rubbed his hands. The girls looked on in pitiful
+distress. Bevis was still standing on the patch of grass that was the
+scene of their combat. He stared at Tudor's prostrate form with wild,
+horror-stricken eyes.
+
+"I've murdered him," he gasped to Mavis and Merle. "It's murder! Yes,
+that's what it is! I'm going away, and you'll never see me any more! I'm
+not fit to say good-bye to you!"
+
+And without another look he turned and began scrambling recklessly down
+the cliff, not following a path, but dropping anyhow over the rocks as
+if he did not care what happened to him. For a moment or two he was
+visible, and then he vanished.
+
+After more water and vigorous rubbing Tudor at last revived and opened
+his eyes. He was stiff and much shaken, but there seemed no bones
+broken, and with the help of the two keepers he was able to walk home.
+Mavis and Merle fled back to Grimbal's Farm with the disastrous news.
+They poured out the story to Mrs. Penruddock as she was feeding the
+fowls. She dropped her pan of Indian corn on to the ground.
+
+"There now! I always said it would come to that," she bemoaned. "Bevis
+flown at young Williams and run away. What will his father say? The
+lad's so hasty, and he flares up when he's roused. Don't you cry! You
+say there's not much harm done after all, and I dare say Bevis will come
+creeping back at dark when things are quiet. It's not the first time
+he's run off, and turned up again when he felt hungry."
+
+"He said we'd never see him any more," sobbed Mavis, much upset by the
+whole affair.
+
+"He'd say anything, but he doesn't mean it. I'm sorry it's happened
+because it will make fine trouble with The Warren, and we've trouble
+enough as it is, goodness knows! But I'm not afraid for Bevis. He'd
+never go off without fetching some of his things at any rate. He loses
+his temper and there's a flash, and then it's all over. I know Bevis!
+He'll come back all right, don't you fear!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+At Half-mast
+
+
+For once Mrs. Penruddock was mistaken in her calculations. Bevis did not
+come back. His supper waited in the oven, and his room over the kitchen
+was ready, but the potatoes were spoilt, and his bed was never slept in.
+Nobody in Chagmouth had seen anything of him, and all inquiries were in
+vain. Day after day passed without bringing news of the truant. When
+Mavis and Merle motored over with Dr. Tremayne on the following Saturday
+they found sad trouble at Grimbal's Farm.
+
+"It's not like Bevis," proclaimed Mrs. Penruddock. "He's never treated
+us in this way before. To run off without a word when he'd know well
+enough we'd take his part even if there was a little trouble with The
+Warren. We thought he might have gone to his school, and we telegraphed
+to the headmaster, but they'd seen nothing of him. We're afraid the
+silly lad must have tramped to Port Sennen, and got on some vessel
+there. If that's so goodness knows where he may be by now, or when we
+shall have a letter from him. If we could only be sure he was all right
+we shouldn't mind so much. It's this waiting that wears one out. Young
+folks don't think of all it means to their elders when they do these
+things. I can't sleep at nights for worrying. The place doesn't seem the
+same without Bevis. Such a good lad he's always been too."
+
+Mrs. Penruddock's pleasant face looked quite puckered, and there was a
+choke in her voice which she had to cough away. She was busier than
+usual, and hurried off into the dairy to serve customers who came for
+their Saturday portions of scalded cream. (Chagmouth people could not
+eat their Sunday tea without jam and cream on their bread.) She missed
+her foster-son's help with the poultry, and in many other matters. He
+had never shirked work on the farm, and had always been ready to lend a
+strong hand when she needed it.
+
+Mavis and Merle, strolling round the stackyard, agreed with her. The
+place was certainly not the same without Bevis. It seemed very slack and
+slow indeed now he was gone. To kill time before lunch, while Dr.
+Tremayne saw his patients in the surgery, the girls took a walk down the
+town towards the beach. Midway in the quaint steep street there was a
+spot railed off where people could sit on benches and look out over the
+sea. It was a favourite lounge, and two or three old fishermen were
+generally there discussing catches and tides, or the village invalids
+were sunning themselves and collecting local news. In the middle stood a
+flagstaff where the Union Jack was kept flying. To-day as the Ramsays
+passed this observation point they noticed that the flag was at
+half-mast.
+
+"I wonder what's the matter?" said Merle.
+
+"I don't know. Somebody dead, I suppose, and we haven't heard yet. I
+hope it's not the King! Shall I ask?"
+
+"Yes, do. Ask that old man!"
+
+"Oh, I daren't! You do!"
+
+Merle, having more courage with strangers, made the necessary inquiry.
+The blue-jerseyed individual whom she addressed pulled his pipe from his
+mouth and grunted a reply:
+
+"It's General Talland as is gone. There was a telegram come this morning
+from the West Indies. He was only sixty-one. He ought to a' been good
+for another ten year or more."
+
+"They do say the climate is awful over there," chimed one of the
+loungers, quite willing to discuss the event.
+
+"Ay! He should a' stayed in his native air!"
+
+Other listeners had strolled up and began to give their opinions.
+
+"I don't hold with foreign parts myself."
+
+"Not to live, though it's nice to see them."
+
+"There's always fever about in those hot places."
+
+"He'll be buried out there!"
+
+"And his son was buried in India!"
+
+"It seems as if the luck was against the family."
+
+"Mr. Glyn Williams will be for buying the property now!"
+
+"If he can get hold of it."
+
+"It's what he's been after ever since he came here."
+
+"Well, I suppose he'd make a better landlord than some."
+
+Mavis and Merle were not remarkably interested in General Talland, so
+they said "Thank you" for the information they had received, and walked
+down to the shore, where they amused themselves till it was time to
+return for lunch. When they got back to Grimbal's Farm, however, they
+found Mrs. Penruddock full of the news, which she had learnt from some
+of her customers.
+
+"It seems trouble on trouble," she declared. "Everybody is saying that
+Mr. Glyn Williams will be sure to get hold of the estate now, and with
+our lease just falling in, and this business between Bevis and young
+Williams which they'll likely not forgive, we may be turned out of the
+farm for all I know. I came here when I was married twenty-five years
+ago, and Mr. Penruddock was born here. It would break our hearts to have
+to go anywhere else."
+
+"Oh, I hope it won't be as bad as that!" said Mavis consolingly.
+
+At lunch-time the girls told Uncle David about the matter.
+
+"Will Mr. Glyn Williams really buy the property?" asked Mavis.
+
+"I don't think he can," replied Dr. Tremayne; "the estate's entailed."
+
+"What's 'entailed'?" said Merle, looking puzzled.
+
+"It's a legal term, which means that a property cannot be sold, but must
+always pass to the next heir in the male line, so that the owner really
+only has a life interest in it."
+
+"And who is the heir then?"
+
+"A distant cousin of General Talland's, Mr. George Talland, a most
+unsuitable man from all accounts. I believe he spends most of his time
+gaming at Monte Carlo. Very probably he will make the same arrangement
+as before with Mr. Glyn Williams, and will let him the The Warren and
+the shooting. There's a possibility, though, that Mr. George Talland and
+his son might 'cut the entail'. If owner and heir both agree to sell a
+property they can legally do so, and they might care to have the ready
+money and settle up their debts rather than only the income of the
+estate."
+
+"Pity General Talland hadn't a son to leave it to."
+
+"Yes, poor Austin. He died in India. It must be fifteen years ago now.
+There was a persistent rumour at the time that he'd been privately
+married out there, and had a son of his own, but no wife and child ever
+turned up to claim his heritage, which they would most certainly have
+done if they had existed. It was all gossip and hearsay. People love to
+invent these stories, but when you come to sift them there's no truth in
+them. I'm sorry the estate will go to the George Tallands. The son--also
+a George--has six daughters, but no son, so the male line comes to an
+end in that direction. That's why I fancy they may cut the entail--to
+get a little money for the girls. It seems a sad pity for an old family
+to die out absolutely. There have been Tallands at Chagmouth from time
+immemorial. After the younger George goes, the name will become quite
+extinct. Many of the old Devon families have died away like that for
+want of heirs."
+
+The troubles of the Tallands seemed to Mavis and Merle quite a minor
+business, however, compared with the overwhelming misfortune of Bevis's
+running away. They did not quite know what to do with themselves after
+lunch. They would have gone with Uncle David to the Sanatorium, but he
+wished to drive a patient up there, and had no room for them in the car.
+They might of course have gone to The Warren, where they had a general
+invitation to play tennis, but they hesitated, partly because they felt
+a delicacy in going without being definitely asked and certain of
+welcome, and partly because after what had happened the week before they
+were not very keen to meet Tudor. They could not forget the way he had
+taunted Bevis, and they had not yet forgiven him for it.
+
+"Gwen would be sure to say something nasty about last Saturday,"
+ventured Merle, who had carefully avoided the Williamses at school on
+French days.
+
+"I vote we go a walk by ourselves," decided Mavis.
+
+So they set off, and instinctively their steps turned in the direction
+of their dismantled bower. They did not, however, choose the upper road
+to it, which would have led them over the forbidden fence, but went the
+same way as on their first visit, taking the footpath among the woods.
+Spring had come since they were there before, and had brought out the
+leaves, so that the sea was seen through a screen of greenery. The
+primroses were nearly over, but hyacinths were opening like a blue
+cloud, and great purple orchises were shooting up. In clumps at the
+edges of the cliff bloomed the pink thrift and white sea-campion, and
+patches of the yellow lady's-fingers. Merle thought she heard the
+cuckoo, though Mavis was certain it was only a little boy who was
+anticipating the well-known call. They lingered and loitered for a long
+time in the wood, picking flowers and hunting about for birds' nests,
+and wishing Bevis were there to find them for them. At last they left
+the trees behind, and coming out on to the headland reached the grassy
+plateau that jutted out from the sloping cliff.
+
+The cave looked very dark and particularly "spooky" to-day. Merle
+peeped timorously inside, and turned away shuddering. Mavis, more deeply
+interested, ventured farther. She had neither matches nor candle, and
+could only trust to the faint twilight that reigned within. It seemed to
+her as if in a dark corner a heap of something was lying. She did not
+think it had been there on their former visit. Wild thoughts of
+smugglers and contraband goods flashed into her mind. Were there
+smugglers nowadays? Was it a bale of silk or a case of champagne that
+was being stored there for safety? With rather a fluttering feeling she
+crept nearer. It was no case of wine or bale of silk; in the darkness it
+looked more like a tumbled bundle of clothing. What could it be? She was
+frightened, and almost turned to go; but some attraction greater far
+than curiosity seemed to draw her on. She was quite close to it now. Her
+eyes had grown accustomed to the dim light, and she could just
+distinguish the sleeping figure of a boy, covered with a mackintosh
+coat.
+
+"Bevis!" she whispered. "Oh, Bevis!"
+
+He roused at her voice, and sprang to his feet with a cry, turning to
+her such a white, haunted face that she scarcely knew him. Merle ran
+forward from the entrance, and seeing both the girls he came slowly
+towards them.
+
+"It's you, is it?" he said. "Have you brought the police with you?"
+
+"Police! Why no, Bevis, of course not!"
+
+"Why should we?"
+
+He put his hand wearily to his head. His face was very pale, and his
+eyes were bright and big with dark rings round them.
+
+"No, you wouldn't bring them, I know, but they'll come all the same! I'm
+wanted. Wanted by the police. They're after me!"
+
+"Oh, Bevis, don't talk like this! No police want you. Why don't you go
+home?"
+
+"Go home! Go to Chagmouth! His ghost would stop me! Tell me, where have
+they buried him?"
+
+"Buried whom?"
+
+"Why, Tudor Williams of course--the poor boy that I murdered."
+
+"But Tudor's all right. He wasn't really much hurt. He walked home."
+
+Bevis stared searchingly at Mavis, then shook his head.
+
+"I _know_ he's dead. It's no use telling me he isn't. I murdered him.
+Haven't I heard the bell tolling for his funeral? It never stops. I tell
+you it never stops. I hear it night and day, and I feel like Cain!"
+
+The girls glanced at one another. Bevis was plainly very ill. He looked
+ghastly, and his knees trembled so greatly that he had to lean against
+the wall of the cave.
+
+"Where have you been all this week?" Mavis asked him.
+
+"I don't know. Here mostly, I think. I thought I'd walk to Port Sennen
+and try to get on board a ship, but somehow I feel weak. Perhaps I could
+get off to-night if I tried."
+
+"Come home, Bevis," persuaded Merle.
+
+But he sank down again on to the bed of leaves which he had made, and
+drew the mackintosh coat over him.
+
+"It's so cold," he shivered. "First I'm burning hot and then I'm cold.
+It's the curse of Cain!"
+
+Mavis took Merle's arm, and drew her outside the cave.
+
+"He's in a high fever, and simply raving," she whispered. "He's not fit
+to walk home even if we could get him to try. You go back to the farm
+and tell Mrs. Penruddock, and I'll stay here. We mustn't both leave him
+or he might wander off somewhere on to the cliffs. Be as quick as you
+can."
+
+"I shall run all the way," declared Merle. "Oh, the _poor_ boy. Think of
+staying here by himself the whole week."
+
+Mavis went back into the cave, and kneeling down by Bevis tried to
+soothe him. She had been ill so often herself that she could sympathize
+as he shuddered and shivered. His hands were burning hot, and his great
+dark eyes shone like fires in his white face. She told him over and over
+again that Tudor was safe; but he scarcely seemed to understand, and
+kept moaning that he had murdered him.
+
+"I'm not fit for any one to speak to. It's the curse of Cain," he
+repeated.
+
+Meantime Merle, who was swift of foot and had won many long-distance
+races at school sports, flew back to Chagmouth with record speed, and
+carried her news to Grimbal's Farm. Mrs. Penruddock was in the kitchen.
+She ran at once and called her husband from where he was working in the
+orchard.
+
+"I'll put the horse in the trap," he said briefly. "We'll go by the
+upper road, and then slip across the fields to the cave. Best take his
+overcoat and a rug."
+
+Merle went with them, not that she could be of any special use, but
+because she simply could not stop behind, and after all she was able to
+render a service, for she held the horse while Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock
+hurried down the fields to the cave. They came back after a short time
+half-carrying Bevis along, with Mavis, looking extremely grave, walking
+beside them. They lifted him into the trap, and drove him home, meeting
+Dr. Tremayne on the very doorstep.
+
+The Doctor shook his head when he heard of the nights in the damp cave.
+
+"Get him to bed, and we'll do our best," was his verdict. "He has youth
+and strength on his side at any rate. Please God we'll pull him round
+again. I've seen people worse than he is, Mrs. Penruddock, so keep your
+heart up. While there's life there's hope, remember. That's a proverb I
+always tell my patients, and one of the best that was ever invented."
+
+"I know, Doctor," gulped poor Mrs. Penruddock. "I know if anybody can
+pull him through, you will. But it's hard to see him looking like this
+all the same--Bevis, who's hardly had a day's illness in his life
+before."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A Confession
+
+
+All the next week Bevis lay desperately ill, and in the gravest danger.
+Every morning Dr. Tremayne motored over to Grimbal's Farm to see him,
+and arrived back with the same unsatisfactory report. Mavis and Merle,
+who waited anxiously for the daily bulletin, would run in from school at
+lunch-time hoping for better news. When Saturday came round again they
+begged to be allowed to go to Chagmouth as usual.
+
+"We wouldn't be a scrap of bother to Mrs. Penruddock," said Mavis. "If
+Jessop may give us some lunch we could eat it on the cliffs or in the
+woods."
+
+"That's a great idea," declared Uncle David. "I'll do the same to-day.
+Jessop shall make us up a lunch basket, and we'll all have a picnic meal
+together somewhere before I go up to the Sanatorium. It will certainly
+save them trouble at the farm. Mrs. Penruddock won't want to do any
+cooking for us, I'm sure, when she's so busy nursing."
+
+As they motored along towards Chagmouth, the girls felt strongly, what
+had sometimes struck them before, that it was good to belong to a
+Doctor's family, and to be taking skilled help where it was so greatly
+needed. They had the utmost confidence in Uncle David, and knew that he
+would give every service that human aid could render or his long
+experience could suggest. He came down that morning from his patient's
+room with no better report:
+
+"He's still very ill. I can't get his temperature down. But I'm trying
+different treatment, and we must see what that will do. I'm glad I shall
+be about the place to-day. They know where to find me if they want me."
+
+Dr. Tremayne went into his surgery to attend to the string of other
+patients who were waiting for him, and Mavis and Merle sat in the little
+front garden, on the green bench under the fuchsia tree outside the
+French window. They had not the heart to go for a walk. Mrs. Penruddock,
+kind as usual, but overwhelmed with trouble, had greeted them, and taken
+them upstairs for one brief peep at the invalid. They had not gone
+inside the room, but from the doorway they had seen Bevis lying in bed
+with ice on his head, so thin and changed and hollow-eyed, that he
+scarcely looked like their old friend. As they sat in the garden,
+talking in undertones, the gate clicked, and Tudor Williams came up the
+path to the door--such a subdued Tudor, without any of his former
+jauntiness and gay flippancy of manner. When he saw the girls he crossed
+the grass and shook hands with them.
+
+"I've come to ask about the poor chap," he said quietly. "Mother sent
+down a message to Dr. Tremayne to say that if there's anything we can do
+we'll be very glad. We'd send Jones for ice or anything of that sort,
+you know. He'd take out the car directly and get what was wanted."
+
+"Thanks very much, we'll tell Uncle David. Oh, there's Mrs. Penruddock!
+Perhaps you'd better speak to her and give her the message. There might
+be something wanted at once."
+
+Mrs. Penruddock had come into the parlour, and now walked to the French
+window to meet Tudor, who inquired about Bevis, and explained his
+errand. She mopped her eyes as she thanked him.
+
+"I'm sure people have all been so kind," she gulped. "Everything that
+can be done has been done. But there he lies rolling his head on his
+pillow, and talking for ever about the 'curse of Cain'. He can't get it
+out of his mind but what he's murdered you. It seems no use telling him.
+He just listens, and goes on again how he knows you're lying dead on the
+cliff. I wonder if he saw you if it would put that right? Could I ask
+you to step up to his bedroom for a minute, and let him have a look at
+you, and see for himself that you're alive?"
+
+"Oh, may I?" said Tudor, passing through the French window into the
+parlour, and following Mrs. Penruddock upstairs.
+
+He came down again after perhaps five minutes, and, big manly boy though
+he was, his eyes were red, and his voice was choking.
+
+"I'd no idea the poor chap was in such a state," he burst out to Mavis
+and Merle. "It's awful to see him with his hollow eyes and his white
+hands. He asked me to forgive him! Forgive him! It's I who ought to ask
+for forgiveness. It was all my fault! Mine entirely! I was an utter
+vulgar brute and beast! I never thought--" But seeing somebody coming to
+the gate, and boy-like not wanting to give an exhibition of his
+feelings, Tudor bolted back into the parlour, and going out by the side
+door into the stackyard, crossed the orchard, and went home over the
+fields to The Warren.
+
+Mavis and Merle were rather glad that they were not having lunch to-day
+at the farm. Mrs. Penruddock was busy and upset, and though many
+neighbours had come in to help her, nobody seemed to know exactly what
+to do, and they sat in the kitchen talking and shaking their heads.
+
+"Just like a set of old crows. As if that could do Bevis any good!"
+exclaimed Mavis rather impatiently.
+
+"They're telling each other all sorts of tales about early deaths and
+funerals. Nice cheerful kind of conversation for a sick-house," agreed
+Merle.
+
+Of course as they were in a hurry to get away, Dr. Tremayne had more
+patients than usual, and was detained a long time in the surgery. They
+waited for him in the garden, where the lilac bush under Bevis's window
+was already breaking into blossom, and swallows were darting past.
+To-morrow would be Palm Sunday, and next week was Easter week, and
+Father and Mother would be coming down to Durracombe for a brief
+holiday. It was three months since they had seen them, and to-day, in
+the midst of all the sadness around them, the girls felt rather
+home-sick, and were longing for a peep at their "ain folk".
+
+"Are they going to take us back with them to Whinburn?" speculated
+Merle.
+
+"I don't know! I've asked Mother in almost every letter, and she's not
+answered my question."
+
+"I'm torn in two!"
+
+"So am I. I want Dad and Mother, and yet I don't want to leave dear
+Devonshire."
+
+"Or Uncle David?"
+
+"No. I've got real right-down fond of Uncle David. He's a darling!
+There's nobody else in the world exactly like him."
+
+Dr. Tremayne worked through his list of waiting patients at last, and
+went round to the stackyard to fetch his car. Mavis and Merle jumped
+joyfully in, and they drove away up the hill. They went in the opposite
+direction to the Sanatorium because the Doctor had a visit to pay at a
+farm, and he wished to combine with it a call on Mrs. Jarvis, whose
+cottage would be close by his destination. The manager of Trotman's
+Circus had sent some few possessions which had belonged to her son
+Jerry, and they had brought the parcel with them in the car.
+
+"We'll have our lunch first," decreed Uncle David, "then we'll go and
+see the poor old body afterwards. I want something to eat before I
+interview any more patients."
+
+They chose a quiet spot at the edge of a wood, and drawing up the car on
+a patch of grass by the roadside, they took their basket among the trees
+and spread forth their picnic. Jessop had provided handsomely for them,
+and they immensely enjoyed the meal in the open air.
+
+"If I'd only time, I'd go skirmishing all over Devonshire. It's my ideal
+of a holiday, to motor just where you like, and not have to think of
+your surgery," admitted Dr. Tremayne, throwing pine cones at the girls,
+and behaving quite boyishly in spite of his sixty-five years.
+
+"Can't Daddy take surgery for you while he's over and give you a rest?"
+suggested Merle. "I'm sure he'd help if he could."
+
+"It's rather a brain wave. Perhaps he might," said Dr. Tremayne
+thoughtfully. "I'm growing a little tired of being perpetually in
+harness. When a man gets to my age he begins to crave for some leisure.
+I've been trying for the last three years to write a book on 'The
+Treatment of Tuberculosis', but I can't find the time to do it. Directly
+I begin somebody rings up and wants me to go and see them."
+
+"I should smash the horrid old telephone and then they couldn't ring you
+up," laughed Merle.
+
+"That's all right, little Pussie, but they'd send a messenger to fetch
+me instead, so it would come to just the same thing in the end."
+
+"Why do doctors always go?"
+
+"Because people can't do without us, I suppose. Of course we don't make
+unnecessary journeys, but when a case is serious we turn out whatever
+the weather or however late it is."
+
+"I know; that's what Daddy always says," put in Mavis. "He comes in
+tired to death, and goes out again in a snowstorm because the case is
+serious. I think doctors are just the best and kindest men in all the
+world."
+
+They were quite sorry to leave the wood and go back to the car, but time
+was creeping on fast. Dr. Tremayne paid his visit at Clavedon Farm, then
+drove on to Mrs. Jarvis's cottage, which was close by. The girls took
+the parcel between them, and they all three walked together up the
+little garden to the open door. They found Mrs. Jarvis sitting in her
+kitchen with a neighbour to keep her company. Since the death of her son
+the postwoman had failed greatly, and for the last week she had not
+undertaken her duties in connection with the pillar-box. To-day she
+seemed hysterical and excited. She sprang up at the sight of Dr.
+Tremayne, and began a loud complaint of pains in her head, mixed up with
+lamentations on the death of General Talland.
+
+"She's been like this all the week, Doctor," explained the neighbour.
+"She's not fit to be left alone. Ever since she heard the news about
+General Talland, she's been going on with this wild talk. We take no
+notice of her. He's nothing to her. It's just one of those queer fancies
+she gets sometimes. She'll perhaps calm down again."
+
+[Illustration: SHE REACHED DOWN INTO SOME DARK RECEPTACLE AND DREW UP A
+BROWN-PAPER PARCEL _Page 275_]
+
+"Can you bear to look at some of Jerry's things, Mrs. Jarvis?" asked the
+Doctor.
+
+At the mention of her son the poor woman's excitable mood changed;
+instead of shouting she spoke more quietly, and her eyes filled with
+tears as she turned over the trifles that had been sent to her.
+
+"Jerry! My boy Jerry!" she murmured. "I always said he'd come back. He
+oughtn't to have gone and left me--ought he? And he took--I never told
+anyone what he took! He was a bad son to me."
+
+"Never mind that now he's dead and gone," put in the neighbour.
+
+"Ay, he's dead and gone, and so is General Talland, so is General
+Talland."
+
+"She's off again on that point," groaned the neighbour.
+
+But Mrs. Jarvis was looking at Dr. Tremayne with a curious craftiness in
+her eyes.
+
+"General Talland's gone," she repeated. "And I hear they've to go a long
+way to find an heir to the property. What if there was an heir close at
+hand--here in Chagmouth?"
+
+"What do you mean?" asked the Doctor.
+
+"Ay, what do I mean? I'm not so demented as some folks think me.
+There's something that I could tell if I liked. I wouldn't have said a
+word if _he'd_ a-lived, but he's dead and gone, so it makes no
+difference to him now if I speak. Sit you down, Doctor, and the young
+ladies too! I may as well tell it to plenty of witnesses while I'm about
+it. Do you remember, Doctor, when I was village nurse over fourteen year
+ago? I was called in all of a sudden one day to attend Mrs. Hunter, the
+lady who'd been taken ill at the King's Arms."
+
+"I remember," nodded Dr. Tremayne.
+
+"Well, I swore at the inquest that she died without saying a word, but I
+swore false. I was left alone with her for just one minute in the
+parlour while Mrs. Tingcomb fetched more brandy, and Mr. Tingcomb sent
+Bob hurrying on his bicycle to Durracombe with a message for you. In
+that minute she got her breath. She knew that she was going fast, and
+she gasped out that she'd come to Chagmouth to find General Talland,
+that she'd been married secret to his son, and that the child was the
+heir. 'I've all the papers', says she, but then the faintness took her
+again, and though Mrs. Tingcomb ran in and gave her brandy she never
+come round."
+
+"But I thought at the inquest it was distinctly said there were no
+papers. I remember that point of the evidence particularly," said the
+Doctor.
+
+"There were none in her handbag or in her portmanteau. She had them all
+in a hanging pocket slung round her waist under her dress skirt. I found
+them when I was laying her out. I put them by, and said nothing about it
+just then. I meant to give folks a big surprise at the inquest. I took
+them home and looked them over. There was forty pounds in notes amongst
+them. My poor boy Jerry was lying in bed asleep, as I thought, but he
+must have been watching me, for he up and away as soon as it was light,
+and took the notes and my bits of savings too out of the old tea-pot.
+Why didn't I tell at the inquest? They'd have issued a warrant against
+Jerry! I wasn't going to put my own boy in prison! No one knew about the
+pocket, and the safest thing was to keep my mouth shut. I wouldn't have
+told now if my poor boy had been alive. Oh! he broke his mother's
+heart!"
+
+"This is a most extraordinary story," said Dr. Tremayne. "If it's true
+have you anything to prove your words? Where are these papers you speak
+of?"
+
+"Those that hide can find! May I trouble you to shift your chair,
+Doctor?"
+
+Mrs. Jarvis moved away several pieces of furniture, and lifted first the
+hearthrug, and then part of the oilcloth that covered the floor. There
+was a loose board underneath; she raised it, reached down into some dark
+receptacle, and drew up a brown-paper parcel. She unwrapped this and
+revealed a small case made of linen, with tapes attached to it. Inside
+were a number of papers which she handed to Dr. Tremayne.
+
+"They're all as she said, Doctor. There's her wedding certificate and
+the birth certificate, and letters from her husband too. You'll find
+them all right. She'd everything in order, poor thing. They'd have made
+a stir at the inquest, wouldn't they, if I could only 'a told about
+them?"
+
+Dr. Tremayne was looking rapidly through the contents of the old linen
+case.
+
+"These are indeed most valuable papers," he remarked. "I shall take
+them to the lawyers who manage the Talland estate, and they'll no doubt
+prepare a statement which you will be required to sign to show how they
+came into your possession. Oh, Mrs. Jarvis! how _could_ you keep them
+back for all these years, when you knew how much was involved?"
+
+"Better late than never, Doctor. I was in two minds whether to burn them
+and have done with it. Oh, my poor boy Jerry! It's ill raking up matters
+against them that's gone. If he'd been alive, I'd have kept my mouth
+shut, and never have said a word."
+
+Mrs. Jarvis was rocking herself to and fro in a state of great
+excitement. She was sane enough where a recollection of the events at
+the King's Arms was concerned, but her clouded brain revolved round the
+pivot of her son's death. She moaned, and twitched her mouth with
+nervous jerks.
+
+"I'll make her up a bottle of bromide mixture when I get back to the
+surgery," said Dr. Tremayne to the neighbour. "Can you send one of your
+boys down for it about six o'clock? She oughtn't to be left alone."
+
+"No, Doctor. I'll do what I can. She's in a bad way, poor soul. There's
+a lot of trouble in the world, isn't there?"
+
+"There is indeed! Now I must hurry off, for I'm due at the Sanatorium,
+and I'm very late. Give her the mixture, and I'll call and see her again
+next week."
+
+Dr. Tremayne put the linen case inside his safest inner pocket, and
+took his departure. As they drove down the hill towards the ravine all
+the little town and its neighbouring cliffs and woods lay stretched out
+before them.
+
+"Uncle David," asked Mavis, "if those papers are proved does it mean
+that The Warren and the whole of Chagmouth will belong to Bevis? Is he
+the grandson of General Talland?"
+
+"There seems very little doubt about it. It was evidence that ought to
+have been given at the inquest fourteen years ago. Poor lad! Poor lad!
+If we'd only known sooner."
+
+"But why did his mother call herself Mrs. Hunter?"
+
+"Probably she wouldn't care to give her true name at the hotel until she
+had been to see General Talland. The marriage had been kept secret, and
+nobody in Chagmouth knew about it. No doubt she had intended to go to
+The Warren and show her child to its grandfather. But General Talland
+had started for the West Indies. It was perhaps the news of his absence,
+and the consequent failure of her errand, that brought on the heart
+attack that caused her sudden collapse."
+
+"So Chagmouth belongs to Bevis," repeated Merle wonderingly. "The house,
+and the grounds, and the woods, and the shooting, and the farms, and the
+town are Bevis's. It's like a fairy tale!"
+
+But the heir to all the Talland Estate lay between life and death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+The Floral Festival
+
+
+Bevis pulled round after all. As Dr. Tremayne had said, he had youth
+and a strong constitution on his side. The new method of treatment
+seemed a miracle, and perhaps also the interview with Tudor, by settling
+the disturbance in his mind, allowed the medicines to have a fair
+chance. Nature reasserted herself, drove out baneful microbes, and set
+that wonderful instrument of hers, the human body, once more in working
+order. As soon as the fever left him Bevis picked up very fast. There
+was so much to get well for. The papers, hidden away so long in Mrs.
+Jarvis's cottage, established without a doubt his claim to the Talland
+property, and when the necessary formalities could be gone through he
+would become its legal owner. Naturally the affair was the talk of
+Chagmouth, and Bevis would have been overwhelmed with visitors and
+congratulations had not Mrs. Penruddock acted dragon, and kept away all
+callers except those who had a special permit from the Doctor. Under her
+excellent nursing he gained strength rapidly, and by the time St.
+Gervan's Day came round he looked almost his old self again. The floral
+festival held every year in honour of the patron saint of Chagmouth was
+an extremely ancient custom dating back probably to dim ages before the
+dawn of history. The antiquarians of the neighbourhood said it was
+either a survival from the Romans, or more likely still a relic of
+Druidism and sun worship. Christianity, finding pagan rites had always
+heralded the beginning of the summer, had adopted the feast and
+dedicated it to St. Gervan, an obscure Cornish missionary whose very
+legend was forgotten. Nothing is so persistent, however, as the survival
+of an old village fęte, and for hundreds of years Chagmouth people, when
+the anniversary occurred, had decked their boats with flowers, and rowed
+across the harbour, and round the point to the little old church on the
+rock. Ages ago Druids had no doubt invoked the heavens to send
+favourable harvests, in medićval times the parish priest had probably
+blessed the fishing boats according to the custom which still obtains at
+a few places in Brittany, but these points in the old ceremony were now
+lost, and it had simply become a village holiday. It is likely enough
+that in these modern times, when few are given to sentiment, the whole
+thing would have fallen into disuse, had not the Vicar had the happy
+idea of combining with it a memorial service for those who had "passed
+on" in the Great War. Chagmouth people might smile at saints' days, and
+ask who St. Gervan had been, but they remembered their own boys, and
+would take wreaths to lay round the Celtic cross that had been erected
+in the little churchyard.
+
+Mavis and Merle were very anxious to see the floral festival, and
+though the Easter vacation was over, and school had begun again at The
+Moorings, they were allowed a special holiday for the purpose. That was
+Mother's doing. She had come to Durracombe with Father for Easter, and
+had stayed on for some weeks because Aunt Nellie was not very well, and
+needed extra care. On St. Gervan's day she hired a car from the hotel,
+and drove over to Chagmouth with the girls in order that they might all
+see the interesting ceremony. It was years since Mrs. Ramsay had been in
+the little town, and she was delighted to renew her acquaintance with
+it. To-day it was entirely _en fęte_. Everybody was down by the quay
+side, where rowing boats of every description were ready in the harbour.
+The veriest old cockleshells had been patched up for the occasion, and
+there were also some motor-launches, and a small pleasure steamer which
+had made the trip from Port Sennen. All local boats were beautifully
+decorated with flags and with boughs of lilac or branches of pink
+hawthorn, and garlands of all kinds of gay cottage blossoms, May tulips,
+wallflowers, pansies, forget-me-nots, double daisies, pinks, or
+campanulas. There was great competition in the decorations. The school
+children had special boats to themselves, and proudly held up banners
+and little staves upon which were tied round bunches of flowers and
+flying ribbons. The Provident Societies also had their boats and their
+banners, and their members wore nosegays in their button-holes.
+
+The Ramsays had been offered places in Mr. Penruddock's boat, and they
+walked along the quay side to where she was moored. It was really a
+beautiful and very quaint scene, the harbour with its green, lapping
+water looking for once like a field of flowers, and the flocks of
+seagulls wheeling overhead and screaming at the unwonted sight. _The
+Dinah_, an old tub that belonged to Grimbal's Farm, had been made
+unwontedly smart for the occasion with a coat of fresh paint. Boughs of
+white lilac, wreaths of early roses, forget-me-nots, globe flowers, and
+starry clematis had fashioned it into quite a bower, the Union Jack
+fluttered in the stern, and rugs were spread over the seats.
+
+The bell in the little church of St. Gervan's was clanging loudly, and
+people were beginning to get into their various craft, and push away
+across the harbour. Merle was carrying her camera, and was busy taking
+snap-shots of the interesting scene. Mavis, who had leanings towards
+art, had brought her sketch-book and jotted down impressions in
+black-lead pencil. For the sake of everybody it was a mercy that the
+weather, which had been behaving badly of late, held up and gave bursts
+of brilliant sunshine. It was only a short row from the quay to the old
+church. The congregation disembarked at a jetty, moored their boats, and
+climbed the eighty-seven stone steps that led steeply upward. To-day the
+usually neglected place had been made to look wonderfully spick and
+span. The grass had been mown between the graves and round the soldiers'
+monument, where people were already piling up wreaths, floral crosses,
+and bunches of blossoms. The tower still lacked its coping, and the
+doorway had sunk yet more, but the windows had been cleaned, and all
+cobwebs were swept away. Inside the church was decked with beautiful
+flowers, arum lilies, and roses, and pale-pink peonies and bush lupins,
+and many lovely half-exotic plants from the gardens of The Warren and
+the Vicarage. People were taking their places on the old oak benches.
+The Ramsays went into a seat half-way down the nave, exactly behind the
+Glyn Williamses, who had arrived in a body, governess and all. Bevis was
+about to follow when the Vicar came up to him, and after a short
+whispered conversation motioned him into the Talland family pew. It was
+Bevis's first visit to church since his illness, and to the whole
+congregation the Vicar's act seemed a public acknowledgment of the boy's
+new position in Chagmouth. He flushed scarlet, hesitated a moment, then
+stepped forward and took his place with a quiet dignity which became
+both himself and the occasion.
+
+The short service was very simple, partly a thanksgiving, and partly a
+memorial to those who had given their lives for their country.
+
+Through the open door came the sound of the lap of waves and the
+screaming of gulls.
+
+"They that go down to the sea in ships," ran the Vicar's text, "that do
+business in great waters: these see the works of the Lord and His
+wonders in the deep."
+
+To Mavis the sunlight and the scent of the flowers and the prayers all
+seemed blended together into one beautiful picturesque whole, that
+joined ancient and modern and the living and the dead, and united those
+who worshipped with their rough forefathers who had carved those quaint
+bench ends, or those figures of the saints with the colourings of red,
+and blue, and gold.
+
+As Bevis left the cool, flower-decked church, and stepped through the
+doorway into the sunshine, the very first person to greet him was Tudor
+Williams. The two boys gripped hands heartily, and without a trace of
+any former resentment.
+
+"I believe they'll be friends now," said Mavis, as she talked the matter
+over with Merle afterwards. "I was afraid the Glyn Williamses would be
+bitterly disappointed at the prospect of having to give up The Warren
+some day to Bevis, but Tudor never cared much for Chagmouth, and what do
+you think Gwen told me just as we were starting back in our boat? Why,
+that her father had the offer of Godoran Hall, and all the property and
+shooting, and he means to buy it, and go and live there. It will be more
+convenient for them close to Port Sennen, and it's a lovely place."
+
+"Oh, hooray! Perhaps they'll ask us to go and see them there sometimes.
+I hated them at one time, but I'd be sorry now if I never saw them
+again. Funny how one turns round, isn't it?"
+
+"I never believe much in your violent hatreds," laughed Mavis. "You
+generally like people in the end."
+
+"Well, I liked Bevis in the beginning."
+
+"So did I. I've always felt what Jessop said about him was true, he's a
+'gentleman-born'! I don't mean that he's better than other people just
+because he's a Talland and owns the estate, but always, when he was
+quite poor and people jeered at him and called him a nobody, he behaved
+like a true gentleman. He stuck to Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock and helped
+them, though he hated the work on the farm, and he never spoke roughly
+and rudely like some of the boys about Chagmouth. He loves books and
+natural history and all those nice kinds of things, and he wanted to go
+on studying, and yet he didn't shirk a scrap at ploughing, and cutting
+hedges, and feeding the poultry. I'm sure if any one in this world
+deserves his good luck it's Bevis."
+
+The girls had been uncertain whether they were to go home with Father
+and Mother to Whinburn after Easter or stay in Devon, but Dr. Ramsay had
+declared that the improvement in Mavis's health was so marvellous that
+the experiment was worth continuing.
+
+"You look a different child," he said. "We'll leave you at Durracombe
+for another term at any rate."
+
+"And what about the next term after that?" asked Mavis. "It will be
+autumn then, and very cold at Whinburn."
+
+"That's a problem that needs carefully thinking out," answered Dr.
+Ramsay diplomatically.
+
+He would say nothing further at the time, but later on, before she
+returned north, Mrs. Ramsay had a secret to tell to Mavis and Merle.
+
+"How would you like to live always at Durracombe?" she asked them.
+
+"Always? Oh, Mummie! I'd adore it, if only it weren't for you and
+Daddy."
+
+"We've missed you loads, Muvvie darling!"
+
+"But suppose we were here, too?"
+
+"Here! All the time?"
+
+Then Mother, very proudly, revealed her great piece of news.
+
+"Father is going to help with the practice. Uncle David has too much
+work, and wants somebody to take part of it off his hands. He and Father
+will go into partnership as soon as we can sell the practice at
+Whinburn. We shall all live here at Bridge House. It's a splendid
+arrangement, because then I can take care of Aunt Nellie. She's such an
+invalid now that she needs constant nursing. Jessop wants to leave and
+keep house for a brother, who is a widower, and Aunt Nellie would be
+lost without Jessop, unless she had me to look after her instead. Don't
+you think it's a lovely plan?"
+
+"Lovely! It's absolutely splendiferous!"
+
+"And if Daddy brings the Ford car down here I can drive it for him,"
+sparkled Merle.
+
+"We'll see about that; you wouldn't have had that wild motoring
+expedition if I had been on the spot, you young madcap!"
+
+"But I fetched Mrs. Jarvis, and if I hadn't she might never have known
+it was her own son at the hospital, and then she wouldn't have told
+about the papers, and Bevis would never have got the Talland property.
+It's like the story of the old woman and her pig: the fire began to burn
+the stick, and the stick began to beat the dog, and the dog began to
+bite the pig, and the pig jumped over the stile, and she got home at
+last. We did Bevis a good turn when we tore over to Chagmouth that
+evening, didn't we, Mavis?"
+
+"Rather! Though we didn't guess it at the time."
+
+"So 'Whinburn High' will know us no more. Well, we've settled down quite
+comfortably at The Moorings. It's rather a decent school now Opal has
+gone."
+
+"I hope it will improve very much," said Mrs. Ramsay. "Miss Pollard
+tells me that in September she's going to have a first-class English
+teacher, a B.A. with plenty of experience, who will run the school on
+new lines. Funnily enough, it happens to be Eve Mitchell, who was
+educated at St. Cyprian's College, Cousin Sheila's old school. I've
+often heard her talk about Eve. _She_'ll soon reorganize The Moorings.
+They have such a splendid record at St. Cyprian's for games and musical
+societies, and literary clubs, and nature-study unions, and all the rest
+of it. It was a school in a thousand, according to Sheila. Miss Pollard
+has the promise of ever so many fresh boarders, elder girls, not little
+ones. The climate of Durracombe is getting quite a reputation, I hear,
+and specially suits anyone who has been born in India. If the numbers
+increase so much, particularly in the upper forms, it will give the
+school a far better opportunity in every way, especially in games."
+
+"Hooray," exulted Merle joyfully. "That's the one thing where The
+Moorings has been really slack. We could do nothing with only that crowd
+of kids. But with girls of our own age, and a mistress from St.
+Cyprian's, we ought to forge ahead now, and have topping times. I'm
+looking forward to the September term."
+
+"And yet I loved the last one," said Mavis. "I feel nothing will ever
+quite come up to my first peep at Devonshire, and those Saturdays at
+Chagmouth. It was like seeing a new world. It's been a first impression,
+a fresh experience, a gorgeous spring, an idyllic few months--what else
+can I call it?"
+
+"Call it a very fortunate term," finished Merle.
+
+
+    PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
+    _By Blackie & Son, Limited, Glasgow_
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+    Punctuation has been made consistent.
+
+    The use of "The Glyn Williams" and "The Glyn Williamses", and
+    spelling and hyphenation have been retained as they appear in
+    the original publication except as follows:
+
+    Page 168 to take you a walk _changed to_
+             to take you for a walk
+
+    Page 199 had brought a thermos flash _changed to_
+             had brought a thermos flask
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FORTUNATE TERM***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 36080-8.txt or 36080-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/6/0/8/36080
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/36080-8.zip b/36080-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b0c2a05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36080-8.zip
diff --git a/36080-h.zip b/36080-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..647a139
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36080-h.zip
diff --git a/36080-h/36080-h.htm b/36080-h/36080-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f11d39
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36080-h/36080-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,8842 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Fortunate Term, by Angela Brazil</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+
+body {
+    margin-left: 10%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+}
+
+h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+    text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+p {
+    margin-top: .75em;
+    text-align: justify;
+    margin-bottom: .75em;
+    text-indent: 1em;
+}
+
+p.small {
+    font-size: .8em;
+}
+ins {
+    text-decoration: none;
+    border-bottom: 1px dotted #dcdcdc;
+}
+
+em {font-style: italic;}
+
+strong {font-weight: bold;}
+
+hr { margin: 5em auto 3em auto;
+     height: 0px;
+     border-width: 1px 0 0 0;
+     border-style: solid;
+     border-color: #4d6737;
+     width: 500px;
+     clear: both;
+}
+hr.hr2  {width: 100px; margin: 0em auto 0em auto;}
+hr.hr2a {width: 200px; margin: 0em auto 0em auto;}
+hr.hr3  {width: 200px; margin: 3em auto 3em auto;}
+
+ul li {
+    list-style-type: none;
+}
+
+table {
+    margin-left: auto;
+    margin-right: auto;
+    border-collapse: collapse;
+}
+
+th {font-size: .8em;}
+th.thr1 {text-align: right;}
+th.thr2 {text-align: right;}
+
+td {vertical-align: bottom; padding-bottom: .5em;}
+td.tdl {text-align: left; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 2em;
+          text-indent: -2em; padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;}
+td.tdl2 {text-align: left; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 4em;
+          text-indent: -2em; padding-right: 1em; vertical-align: top;}
+td.tdr1 {text-align: right; padding-right: 1em;}
+td.tdr2 {text-align: right; padding-left: 1em;}
+
+.pagenum {/* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+           /*visibility: hidden;*/
+            position: absolute;
+            right: 1%;
+            font-size: 10px;
+            font-weight: normal;
+            font-variant: normal;
+            font-style: normal;
+            letter-spacing: normal;
+            text-indent: 0em;
+            text-align: right;
+            color: #999999;
+            background-color: #ffffff;
+} /* page numbers */
+
+blockquote {
+    margin: 2em 4em;
+}
+
+.center   {text-align: center;}
+
+.right {
+    text-align: right;
+}
+.right1 {text-align: right; margin-bottom: 0em; padding-right: 15em;}
+.right2 {text-align: right; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; padding-right: 10em;}
+.right3 {text-align: right; margin-top: 0em; padding-right: 5em;}
+
+.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+.caption  {
+    font-weight: bold;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+img {border: 1px solid #dcdcdc;}
+
+/* Images */
+.figcenter   {
+    margin: 5em auto 3em auto;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+.figcenter2   {
+    margin: 5em auto 1em auto;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+.figleft     {
+    float: left; clear: left;
+    margin: 5em 1em 5em 0em;
+    padding: 0; text-align: center;}
+
+.figright    {
+    float: right; clear: right;
+    margin: 5em 0em 5em 1em;
+    padding: 0; text-align: center;}
+
+/* Poetry */
+.block {margin: auto; width: 24em;}
+.poem {
+    margin-left:10%;
+    margin-right:10%;
+    text-align: left;
+}
+
+.poem br {display: none;}
+
+.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+
+.poem span.io {
+    display: block;
+    margin-left: 0em;
+    padding-left: 3em;
+    text-indent: -3.5em;
+}
+
+.poem span.i0 {
+    display: block;
+    margin-left: 0em;
+    padding-left: 3em;
+    text-indent: -3em;
+}
+
+.poem span.i2 {
+    display: block;
+    margin-left: 2em;
+    padding-left: 3em;
+    text-indent: -3em;
+}
+
+.poem span.i4 {
+    display: block;
+    margin-left: 4em;
+    padding-left: 3em;
+    text-indent: -3em;
+}
+
+.poem span.i1     {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+.poem span.i3     {display: block; margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+
+.booklist {
+    font-size: 1.1em;
+    font-variant: small-caps;
+}
+
+.noi {
+    text-indent: 0em;
+}
+
+.centreblock {
+    text-align: left;
+    margin: auto;
+    width: 20em;
+}
+
+.sub {
+    font-size: 1.3em;
+    line-height: 1.8em;
+}
+
+.tp     {margin: 5em auto 5em auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;}
+.title  {font-size: 2.8em;}
+.author {font-size: 1.6em;}
+.books  {font-size: .8em;}
+.illus  {font-size: 1.3em;}
+.pub1   {font-size: 1.5em;}
+.pub2   {font-size: 1.1em;}
+.block  {margin: auto; width: 24em;}
+
+.indent3em {text-indent: 3em;}
+
+#box1   {margin: auto; width: 450px; border: 1px solid #4d6737; clear: left;
+    padding: .5em 1em .5em 1em;}
+#box2   {margin: 5em auto 5em auto; width: 600px; border: 1px solid #4d6737; clear: left;
+    padding: .5em 1em .5em 1em;}
+#box5   {margin: auto; width: 600px;}
+
+    hr.full { width: 100%;
+              margin-top: 3em;
+              margin-bottom: 0em;
+              margin-left: auto;
+              margin-right: auto;
+              height: 4px;
+              border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */
+              border-style: solid;
+              border-color: #000000;
+              clear: both; }
+    pre      {font-size: 85%;}
+    </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Fortunate Term, by Angela Brazil,
+Illustrated by Treyer Evans</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: A Fortunate Term</p>
+<p>Author: Angela Brazil</p>
+<p>Release Date: May 10, 2011  [eBook #36080]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FORTUNATE TERM***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell<br />
+    and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>A FORTUNATE TERM</h1>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<div id="box5">
+<div class="figright" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="585" alt="Cover" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 129px;">
+<img src="images/spine.jpg" width="129" height="585" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<div id="box1">
+
+<p class="booklist center">By ANGELA BRAZIL</p>
+
+<p class="noi">"Angela Brazil has proved her undoubted talent for writing a story of
+schoolgirls for other schoolgirls to read."&mdash;<b>Bookman</b>.</p>
+
+<div class="centreblock">
+<ul>
+<li>Loyal to the School.</li>
+<li>A Fortunate Term.</li>
+<li>A Popular Schoolgirl.</li>
+<li>The Princess of the School.</li>
+<li>A Harum-Scarum Schoolgirl.</li>
+<li>The Head Girl at the Gables.</li>
+<li>A Patriotic Schoolgirl.</li>
+<li>For the School Colours.</li>
+<li>The Madcap of the School.</li>
+<li>The Luckiest Girl in the School.</li>
+<li>The Jolliest Term on Record.</li>
+<li>The Girls of St. Cyprian's.</li>
+<li>The Youngest Girl in the Fifth.</li>
+<li>The New Girl at St. Chad's.</li>
+<li>For the Sake of the School.</li>
+<li>The School by the Sea.</li>
+<li>The Leader of the Lower School.</li>
+<li>A Pair of Schoolgirls.</li>
+<li>A Fourth Form Friendship.</li>
+<li>The Manor House School.</li>
+<li>The Nicest Girl in the School.</li>
+<li>The Third Class at Miss Kaye's.</li>
+<li>The Fortunes of Philippa.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+<p class="smcap center">LONDON: BLACKIE &amp; SON, Ltd., 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a>
+<img src="images/gs01.jpg" width="400" height="627" alt="SHE FOUND TOM IN THE GREENHOUSE" title="Page 44" />
+<p class="caption">SHE FOUND TOM IN THE GREENHOUSE</p>
+<p class="right"><a href="#front"><i>Page 44</i></a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<p class="center"><span class="title">A</span><br />
+<span class="title">FORTUNATE TERM</span><br />
+<br />
+BY<br />
+<br />
+<span class="author">ANGELA BRAZIL</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="illus"><em>Illustrated by Treyer Evans</em></span><br />
+<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class="pub1">BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED</span><br />
+<span class="pub2">LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY</span></p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+<a name="contents" id="contents"></a>Contents</h2>
+
+
+
+<table summary="Contents">
+<tr>
+<th class="thr1"><span class="smcap">Chap.</span></th>
+<th class="thr2" colspan="2">Page</th>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">I.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Mavis and Merle</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#i">      9</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">II.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">"The Moorings"</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#ii">      22</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">III.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The School Favourite</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#iii">      34</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">IV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Red Devon by the Sea</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#iv">      48</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">V.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Fair Maids of February</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#v">      61</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">VI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">A Child of Misfortune</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#vi">      75</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">VII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Innovators</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#vii">      86</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">VIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Warren</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#viii">      103</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">IX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">A Question of Honour</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#ix">      117</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">X.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Among the Boarders</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#x">      127</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Round the Fire</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xi">      141</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Pixie-led</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xii">      152</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Blackthorn Bower</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xiii">      167</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XIV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Nicky Nan Night</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xiv">      181</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Squatters</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xv">      193</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XVI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Trotman's Circus</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xvi">      209</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XVII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Sick Clown</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xvii">      223</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XVIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Greek meets Greek</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xviii">      240</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XIX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">At Half-mast</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xix">      255</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">A Confession</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xx">      266</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XXI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Floral Festival</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xxi">      278</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2>Illustrations</h2>
+
+
+<table summary="Illustrations">
+<tr>
+<th class="thr2" colspan="2">Facing<br />
+Page</th>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">She found Tom in the Greenhouse</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#frontis"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Both Mavis and Merle let themselves go</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#both">88</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">It certainly was a most alarming spectacle</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#it">136</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">"Here we are at cross number two"</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#here">160</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">"You know Chagmouth?" he whispered</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#you">232</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">She reached down into some dark receptacle
+and drew up a brown-paper parcel</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#she">272</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>A FORTUNATE TERM</h2>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
+<a name="i" id="i"></a>CHAPTER I<br />
+
+<span class="sub">Mavis and Merle</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>There had never been a week of worse weather, even for Whinburn, and
+that was saying something! Mavis, sitting up in bed with a
+dressing-jacket and two shawls round her and three comfortable pillows
+tucked at her back, could just see out of the window if she craned her
+neck a little. The prospect which greeted her was anything but
+pleasing&mdash;a wilderness of roofs covered with dirty snow, and a row of
+factory chimneys belching forth grimy smoke against a leaden sky. From
+the street came the noise of tram-cars and tramping feet; a motor-lorry,
+thundering by, shook the house like an earthquake. Mavis, in the blessed
+lull between two storms of coughing, turned her eyes resolutely from the
+forlorn view of the outside world to the cheery interior of the bedroom,
+with its glowing fire, its bookcase full of attractive volumes, and its
+walls so covered with framed prints, photos, and picture postcards that
+there hardly seemed a vacant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+inch of space left. Directly facing her,
+and in the place of honour, was a water-colour representing a landscape
+with a peep of the sea beyond. The trees in the painting were bare, but
+the undergrowth was green, and a patch of gorse blazed in the
+foreground, a rift of light from the sky gleamed on the waters of a
+stream, and the figure of a little girl was stooping to gather ferns.
+Mavis gazed at the picture for some time in silent contemplation, then:</p>
+
+<p>"Muvvie, dear," she said suddenly, "I think you must have made a mistake
+when you told me you painted that in December."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Ramsay, sitting with the mending-basket near the fire, snicked a
+piece of wool and put down the scissors.</p>
+
+<p>"It's perfectly true, Madam Doubtful. Your mother doesn't tell fiblets.
+I sketched that in Devonshire the year before I was married. It was a
+milder winter even than usual, and I remember the gorse was in blossom
+at Christmas, and the laurustinus coming out in the gardens. I painted
+exactly what I saw, and no more. Can't you believe me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ye-e-s! But it's wonderful all the same. We don't get winters like that
+here in the north. When I look at the snow and the chimneys, and then at
+the picture, it's like peeping through another window into a different
+world. I only wish&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But a severe gust of coughing interrupted Mavis's reflections, and when
+it was over she lay back, very quiet and white and exhausted, upon her
+three pillows.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+Mrs. Ramsay, mixing a poultice by the fire, sighed as she stirred
+linseed meal into boiling water.</p>
+
+<p>"It's most unlucky you've started with one of your bad attacks of
+bronchitis before Christmas. How am I going to get you through the
+winter, child, if you've begun to take cold already? I'd like to wrap
+you in cotton-wool and pack you away in a box to sleep like a dormouse
+till the warm weather woke you up! Whinburn certainly doesn't suit you.
+It may be bracing, but people with delicate chests can be too much
+'braced' sometimes. Is the poultice too hot? Be a brave girl! Remember,
+Father said 'the hotter the better!' Bear it as long as you can. Why,
+there's the bell! Is it Merle home already? Surely she's early to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>Mavis, protesting against the poultice, looked up eagerly as stamping
+feet resounded on the stairs, and her sister, with coat and hat lightly
+powdered with new-fallen snow, burst into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Mavis! You've got the best place, in bed! It's detestable out
+to-day. The wind's like a knife, and it's beginning to snow again. Oh,
+it was cold at school! My fingers were simply frozen. The end of Miss
+Donald's nose was quite blue, and her temper was bluer. She snapped my
+head off when I asked her a question. We played tig in the gym at
+'break', though, and got warm, but Gertie upset the coal-box and made
+such a mess, and Miss Greene scolded ever so, and said we were trampling
+coal-dust into the floor, and it would have to be washed again before
+dancing lesson. It wasn't really Gertie's fault; Joan pushed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+her. I met
+the postman outside, Mumsie. He gave me this parcel. It's for you.
+You're always the lucker! I wish it was mine."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll all share it together," said Mrs. Ramsay, taking the package to
+Mavis's bed and snipping the string with her scissors. "It has the
+Durracombe postmark, and it's Aunt Nellie's writing, and I think I
+shan't be very far wrong if I guess flowers."</p>
+
+<p>The contents of the box were soon spread forth on the invalid's
+counterpane. They were an amazing display, for it seemed as if the
+seasons had overlapped, and late autumn had joined hands with early
+spring. There were yellow rosebuds, and passion flowers, and a few
+montbretias, and some Michaelmas daisies, a big bunch of purple violets,
+some primroses, polyanthuses, a pansy or two, blossoming ivy, little
+pink double daisies, and beautiful sprays of the yellow jessamine. Mavis
+fingered them delicately as if they were priceless treasures. The colour
+had flooded into her cheeks and her eyes shone like stars.</p>
+
+<p>"Muvvie! Surely they come from a greenhouse?" she asked. "They <em>can't</em>
+be growing out-of-doors <em>now</em>."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed they can! You don't know Durracombe. The flowers go blooming
+along all the winter&mdash;if you can call it winter down there. I told you
+it was a different climate from Whinburn. Oh, how sweet they smell! I
+remember just the exact spot in the dear old garden where these violets
+grow."</p>
+
+<p>Mavis looked out of the window, where the now fast-whirling snow was
+hiding the smoke of the factory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+chimneys, then looked back to the pure,
+clean, delicate blossoms that lay on her lap.</p>
+
+<p>"It's like a fairy tale!" she murmured. "Think of picking them in
+December! Muvvie, if I could go and stay at the place where these
+flowers grow I should get well."</p>
+
+<p>"I verily believe you would," said Mrs. Ramsay thoughtfully, as she
+fetched vases and began to place the drooping violets in warm water.</p>
+
+<p>Mavis, at the time our story begins, was fifteen and a half, and exactly
+fourteen months older than Merle. It is necessary to state her age,
+because people always forgot it, and set her down as the younger of the
+two. Everybody, friends and strangers alike, gave precedence to Merle,
+the taller, stronger, more confident, and more dominating individuality.
+Mavis was an ethereal little person, who might be described as a spirit
+very lightly embodied in flesh. With Merle soul and body were balanced,
+with a bias towards the latter&mdash;on the whole she was of the earth,
+earthy. There was a sufficient likeness between the sisters to suggest
+that nature had reproduced an identical type in different mediums. She
+had painted the first delicately in water-colours, then had copied the
+same model more strongly in oils. Which picture you preferred was a
+matter of taste.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately there was a complete understanding between the girls. Their
+particular faults and virtues seemed to dovetail into one another
+without friction, and they were excellent chums, a useful factor at
+school, where Mavis often needed a defender, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+Merle was constantly
+requiring the services of someone to help to pull her out of her
+numerous scrapes.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Ramsay lived at the north-country manufacturing town of Whinburn, a
+prosperous but bleak corner of the kingdom, where smoke had stunted the
+trees and soiled the herbage, where flowers were scarce and bloomed
+late, and winter stretched its icy fingers well into autumn and spring.
+The house, like most doctors' houses, was on the main high road, and
+part of the garden behind had been turned into a garage, so there was
+very little room for the bed of bulbs and the perennial border upon
+which Mavis concentrated most of her outdoor energies. She toiled hard
+to have a floral display in the summer months, but it was disheartening
+work, for the frost always killed her wallflowers, and only the hardiest
+of plants would consent to make a sulky struggle against the smoky
+atmosphere that seemed to blight the very heart of vegetation and turn
+the choicest bedding varieties into sickly specimens. Merle, less deeply
+wedded to nature, had long given up gardening as a bad job, and had
+handed over her patch of unkindly northern soil to her sister. She was
+more interested in the car: she liked to watch the chauffeur clean it,
+and the high-water mark of her bliss came on the days when, on a quiet
+road and with no policeman within sight, her father would allow her for
+a brief space to assume command of the driving-wheel.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be your chauffeur, Dad, when I'm old enough to leave school," she
+would assure him airily. "I <em>do</em> think you might get me a driving
+licence now!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+Too young? What nonsense! We've no need to tell the
+Government I'm only fourteen. I'd soon drive as well as Greenhalgh if
+you'd let me try. I'm not afraid of anything."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say not, but think of <em>my</em> feelings with a harum-scarum like you
+at the helm!" her father would reply. "You'd soon collide with a lorry,
+or land us in the ditch. I'll stick to Greenhalgh, thank you. He doesn't
+want to run at forty miles an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take proper motoring lessons when I've left school," Merle would
+declare, "then I'll be ready to drive any car in the United
+Kingdom&mdash;that's to say, if I haven't made up my mind to be a lady
+detective."</p>
+
+<p>Mavis, who was in bed when our story begins, weathered her December
+attack of bronchitis and came downstairs in time for Christmas Day, but
+with such white roses in her cheeks that her father looked at her
+anxiously, and called Mother into the consulting-room for a private
+confabulation, the result of which was a long private letter addressed
+Dr. Tremayne, Durracombe, Devonshire, which was posted without the
+girls' knowledge. Several other letters followed, and the brisk
+correspondence had just reached a satisfactory conclusion on a certain
+January day when Mavis, with a shawl round her shoulders, was peering
+out of the window at the flying snowflakes.</p>
+
+<p>"Watching the feathers from Mother Carey's chickens, bairns?" said Mrs.
+Ramsay. "I'm afraid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+it's going to be a wild night. The wind's rising. I
+like the snow when it's newly fallen, but it gets dirty directly in
+Whinburn."</p>
+
+<p>"And I don't like snow at all, Muvvie," replied Mavis. "We were building
+castles in the air just now, and mine was to live in a lovely wood where
+it was never really winter."</p>
+
+<p>"My castle was to be a chauffeur or a lady detective!" laughed Merle.
+"Perhaps both! It would be great sport to go dashing about the country
+in a car, unravelling mysteries and catching jewel thieves. Will you
+come with me, Mavis?"</p>
+
+<p>Mavis shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I've told you I'm going to live in a house with an enormous garden, and
+a wood where I can watch the birds. I'd rather track tomtits than jewel
+thieves. You shall come and stay with me when you're tired of chasing
+your burglars. It will be fine and warm in my wood, with no slushy snow
+<em>ever</em>, or yellow fog, only lovely flowers and ferns the whole year
+round, and I shall go out without being eternally wrapped up. That's my
+castle in the air!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you wish you may get it, that's all! It sounds like El Dorado.
+Oh, I'll come and stay with you right enough when you find such a
+fairyland. Woods like that don't grow near Whinburn. Look at the sky
+now! It's actually trying to snow again!"</p>
+
+<p>"It won't snow in my <em>wood</em>!"</p>
+
+<p>"And I say such woods don't exist except in your imagination," declared
+Merle emphatically.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+"Not quite the fairy land Mavis pictures, but there's a very good
+approach to them in Devonshire," said Mrs. Ramsay. "I've something I
+want to tell you chicks. How would you like to go to Durracombe and stay
+with Uncle David and Aunt Nellie? Don't look so incredulous! It's really
+true. We've arranged to send you for three months, and I'm to take you
+down there next week."</p>
+
+<p>This was news indeed, such news that at first the girls were hardly
+able to believe it. They had never been in Devonshire, and had not seen
+their mother's uncle, Dr. Tremayne. Their father, Dr. Ramsay, busy with
+his own professional work, had little time to spare for visiting, and
+when he snatched a holiday the family had generally gone to Scotland, or
+to some east-coast seaside resort. He was fond of the north, which has a
+charm all its own, but his wife was a Devon woman, who could not forget
+the county of her birth. She had told her children stories of its
+beauties, its mild air, its early flowers, its legends of pixies, its
+smugglers' coves and blue stretches of sea, its moors and dancing
+brooks, till they had come to look upon it as a sort of Elfland, a
+fairy-tale country that had no more real existence than the kingdom at
+the top of Jack's beanstalk. Uncle David and Aunt Nellie, too, though
+familiar household names, were entities as unsubstantial as characters
+in a book. To go and stay with them at Durracombe seemed as amazing as a
+visit to Robinson Crusoe's island or a sojourn with Robert Louis
+Stevenson in the South<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+ Seas. When their minds were adjusted to the new
+idea they demanded details.</p>
+
+<p>"Three months! We shall miss school for a whole term. Oh, Mummie, what
+fun! Shall we find cowslips in the fields? And can we go paddling in the
+brook? It sounds gorgeous!"</p>
+
+<p>"You certainly won't find cowslips in January. Don't expect
+impossibilities. And as for paddling, I forbid anything of the sort
+before Easter. Don't congratulate yourselves that you're going to have a
+term's holiday. There's a very nice little day school in Durracombe,
+kept by the late vicar's daughters, only ten minutes' walk from Uncle
+David's house. Don't pull faces! Of course you must go to school, and
+you'll probably like it. How long can I stay? About a week. I shall take
+you there and see you settled, then I must fly back to Father, for he's
+not accustomed to doing without the whole of his family. I wish he could
+have come with us, but it's quite impossible for him to leave his
+patients at present. If you catch another cold, Mavis, before we go
+away, I shall be really cross with you. We hope Devonshire air will work
+a cure and stop these perpetual bouts of bronchitis. As for you, Merle,
+there's really no reason for sending <em>you</em>, except&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Except that my little sister couldn't and wouldn't and shouldn't go
+without me. We're practically twins, and we're no more use apart than
+the two blades of a pair of scissors. Oh yes, Mummie darling, we'll be
+patterns of virtue. Don't worry about us. We'll<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+cheer up Aunt Nellie and
+amuse Uncle David, and wake the new school up too, I dare say. Don't
+look horrified, sweetest, I'm half joking. Mavis is such an angel-girl
+she needs me to drag her down a little or she'd just go floating off to
+heaven like a balloon, and never find her way back. I act earthly
+ballast for her, and keep her anchored to this world. She'd never
+remember her tonic if I didn't remind her. I'll keep an eye on her down
+in Devon, and see that she doesn't sit in draughts or get her feet damp.
+Trust her twin to look after her. Whenever she wants to do silly things
+I'll scold till I'm hoarse. You don't know how I can croak when I like!"</p>
+
+<p>"As if I were going to do silly things!" interrupted Mavis indignantly.
+"Really, to hear you talk, anybody'd think you were my grannie instead
+of fourteen months younger than I am! I hope this new school will be
+decent. We shall miss Janie and Edna."</p>
+
+<p>"But think of getting rid of Miss Donald for a whole term, and not
+having Miss Hanson to teach us algebra. Oh, what a jubilee! Our desks
+will be empty in <span class="smcap">IVa</span>. Sounds quite pathetic, doesn't it? Sort of twin
+tombstone business."</p>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"They grew in beauty side by side;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They filled one school with glee,"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p class="noi">laughed Mavis.</p>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"And now they're going to have some larks<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In Devon by the sea!"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p class="noi">finished Merle.</p>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+"Durracombe&mdash;Durracombe&mdash;Durracombe," repeated Mavis. "Yes, I like the
+name. It grips me somehow. I feel I can be happy at Durracombe. I
+shouldn't want to go to a place called Porkville or Mudbury. There's a
+great deal in a name. Mumsie, dear, I wish we were starting to-morrow. I
+can't wait. I want to see Durracombe at once."</p>
+
+<p>"You silly child! And I, who have all your clothes to get ready, am
+thankful to have at least a week to turn round in. I don't say I'm not
+looking forward to seeing Devon again, though. We shall be ever such a
+jolly trio when we set off in the train, shan't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"And where do I come in?" asked a mock-lugubrious voice, as Dr. Ramsay
+joined the party. "My family appear very anxious to run away from me. It
+seems to me I'm to be left out in the cold. Poor Papa! Sitting alone by
+his desolate hearth with only the cat for company. My heart bleeds for
+him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Daddy! You naughty boy! You ought to come with us," cried the girls,
+forcing their father into an elbow chair and seating themselves on the
+two arms, so as to be in position to administer smacking kisses on both
+his cheeks. "You know very well Devon won't be <em>quite</em> Devon without
+you. We hate to leave you behind. Now, promise us something! Oh, it's
+perfectly easy and possible, and we know you can do it. Say yes! You'll
+be kissed to death by wild daughters if you don't. It's your only chance
+of life! Now or never! There! You've promised to come down to Durracombe
+at Easter to fetch us home."</p>
+
+<p>"Have I indeed? Oh, I dare say!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+"I'll keep him to his bargain," laughed Mother; "but I expect when the
+time comes he'll be fussing to start. We're not a family who can bear to
+be divided for long, are we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rather not!" said Merle, slipping from the arm-chair to pull Mother
+into the charmed circle. "You shall come in the car, darlings, and motor
+us back, and I'll drive whenever there's a smooth bit of road ahead.
+It's a topping idea."</p>
+
+<p>"Only your driving doesn't happen to be included in the bargain, you
+young puss! We've some respect for our limbs, and prefer to reach home
+with bones unbroken," declared Father, escaping from his tempestuous
+daughters to answer the insistent telephone-bell that was ringing loud
+peals of agitated warning in the hall.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+<a name="ii" id="ii"></a>CHAPTER II<br />
+
+<span class="sub">"The Moorings"</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The tiny town of Durracombe consisted mainly of one very long and
+enormously wide street. Everything that was of any importance was
+situated in this High Street&mdash;the church, the bank, the public hall, the
+reading-room, the free library, the best shops, and the Swan Hotel. Each
+Friday it was turned into a species of market, with stalls, and barrows,
+and butter-baskets, and shouting men driving frightened cattle, but on
+great festivals, such as Empire Day, it became a gay caf&eacute;, for tables
+and forms were placed on the pavements and the school children were
+entertained to tea in the open air, while the town band played patriotic
+music. Being such a small and compact place, it had the advantage of
+beginning and ending quite suddenly. The river marked the boundary. On
+one side of it you were in civilization, with a mayor and police and a
+town crier, and the privileges of gas and the telephone, but directly
+you crossed the bridge you were in the happy fields that owned no
+sovereign but Dame Nature, and in quite a few minutes you seemed to have
+left the world behind you.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Tremayne's house was the very first when you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+entered Durracombe by
+the road from the south. Its green front door with the brass plate stood
+in the High Street, but its garden wall overtopped the river, and its
+side windows looked out over the fields to the open country. People
+coming to fetch the doctor on a black night could see his red surgery
+lamp from the top of the hill a whole mile away. It seemed to hold out
+promise of help like a kind hand stretched across the darkness of the
+river. For the last forty years Durracombe and district had depended
+upon Dr. Tremayne. Time had, of course, brought changes, and the
+dark-haired man who drove a high gig in the 'eighties was now grey and
+elderly, and did his rounds in a two-seater car. Quite apart from
+medicines the mere sight of him seemed to do his patients good. His very
+atmosphere was electric, and he had that true gift of healing that helps
+people to get well of their own accord. Certainly no one within a radius
+of thirty miles was a greater favourite than "the dear old doctor", and
+his small biscuit-coloured motor was a familiar feature on the country
+roads. His three children were married and settled down in various parts
+of the globe. None had followed their father's profession; so, though he
+might be proud of a son who was a judge in India, a barrister in London,
+or a successful civil engineer in Canada, he could claim no help in his
+practice from his own family. His wife, grey-haired and elderly too, was
+somewhat of an invalid, and most of the housekeeping was done by Jessop,
+an invaluable old servant who attended to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+surgery, took patients'
+messages, sterilized instruments, washed medicine bottles, could give
+first aid in an emergency, and was generally almost as great a feature
+of the practice as the doctor himself.</p>
+
+<p>It was to this rather old-fashioned household that Mavis and Merle,
+sworn to the most exemplary behaviour, were sent for three months in the
+hope that in the soft Devonshire air Mavis would catch no more bad
+bronchial colds, and would have a chance of setting up her health and
+growing the two extra inches which she still needed to set her head on
+the same level with Merle's.</p>
+
+<p>To the two girls everything in Durracombe seemed delightful. The
+mildness of the climate amazed them. After the nip of Whinburn's
+perpetual east wind, lifeless hedgerows, and desolate winter fields, it
+felt like a sudden jump into spring to find campion, herb robert, and
+dead-nettle blooming by the road-sides, catkins waving on the hazel
+bushes, clumps of snowdrops and Christmas roses under the apple trees,
+violets beneath the sheltered wall, primroses peeping through last
+year's dead leaves, and the missel thrush chanting a triumphant song in
+the yew tree that overhung the river.</p>
+
+<p>Mother, as happy as if she were a girl again, took them round to her
+favourite haunts: the beacon-top, where you could catch the first view
+of the sea, eight miles away; the moor with its rushes and soft, short
+green grass; the fields where cowslips would be found later on; the fir
+wood that seemed like a wilderness of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+Christmas trees; the marshy flats
+where you could see the wild ducks flying; the little quarry where the
+sand-martens had burrowed holes for their nests&mdash;all the dear delightful
+spots that she had known as a child, and had described to them so often
+that they recognized them the moment they saw them.</p>
+
+<p>"It's gorgeous! Muvvie, if only you weren't going away I'd think myself
+in Paradise," declared Mavis, with pink cheeks, and standing on tiptoe
+as if she were growing already. "Uncle David's a dear, and so's Aunt
+Nellie, and as for Jessop, she's just a sport&mdash;that's what I call her.
+Bridge House is simply A1, and if school anything like comes up to it,
+well&mdash;I shall say it's the time of my life. It's going to be the nicest
+term I've ever had."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't congratulate yourself too soon," croaked Merle. "School's school
+all the world over, and there's sure to be something to put up with.
+<em>I'm</em> not looking forward to sums and exercises. When do we start?
+To-morrow! Ugh! Enter it as a black day in the calendar of Merle Ramsay,
+and probably of the school too, for they won't find me soft wax in their
+hands. I've got ideas of my own, and when people begin to try to mould
+me I'm apt to turn katawampus. Mumsie, darling, don't shoot up your
+eyebrows! There! I'll promise and vow to be a perfect seraph. They'll
+call me St. Merle before they've done with me. Honest, Mumsie, I will
+<em>really</em> try! You know how I flare out, but I'll make a bouncing start
+at this new school and think of you every time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+I get into a pixie mood.
+If I don't, the Devonshire pixies had best steal me away and have done
+with it. I'd be a good riddance to everybody, I dare say."</p>
+
+<p>Merle spoke half in jest and half in earnest. There was laughter in her
+voice, but her eyelashes were suddenly wet. Mrs. Ramsay laid a tender
+hand on her younger daughter's shoulder. She was not laughing at all.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope both my girls are going to grow this term," she said quietly,
+"in character as well as in inches. There's room for improvement in both
+of you. Mavis must stir about instead of always dreaming and reading,
+and Merle must curb that little demon that sometimes gets possession of
+her. I expect to find two very sweet girls when I come to fetch them at
+Easter. We want this term to be in every sense a fortunate term."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll do our level best, Muvvie! Can't you trust us?" whispered Mavis,
+linking her arm in her mother's, as they turned from the wood and began
+to walk down the hill-side towards the little town where the next
+eventful months of their lives were to be spent.</p>
+
+<p>But Merle, who always hid her deepest feelings under a joke, chirruped
+out an impromptu ode to the future:</p>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"School! School! School!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They'll probably call me a mule!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And stick me to stand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With a book in my hand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And a dunce's cap, on a stool!"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p class="noi">So it ended in the three of them laughing after all.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+There was no large college or high school for girls in Durracombe, only
+a very small private establishment kept by Miss Mary Pollard and her
+sister Fanny, daughters of the late Rev. Horatio Pollard, formerly vicar
+of the parish. They educated about twenty-four children, half of them
+from the immediate neighbourhood: Opal Earnshaw, the bank-manager's
+daughter; Edith and Maude Carey, from the Vicarage; Christabel Oakley,
+who rode over on her bicycle from St. Gilda's Rectory; the three little
+Andrews, from Fir Tree House; Major Leach's small grand-children; Betty
+and Stella Marshall, who lived with their aunt, Miss Johnson, while
+their parents were in Buenos Ayres; and twelve resident boarders, most
+of whose parents were stationed in India, and who, born under burning
+skies, had been sent to Durracombe for the sake of its soft air and mild
+winter record, until they should be sufficiently acclimatized to stand
+their chance as hardy specimens in bigger schools.</p>
+
+<p>"The Moorings" was a large, pleasant, white house with green shutters
+and a veranda, and it stood at the bottom of a short road that led from
+the High Street. It was what is commonly known as "a dear little
+school", that is to say it was rather old-fashioned and out-of-date but
+very comfortable and "homey", and the classes were more like lessons
+with a private governess than working with a form. Miss Pollard, whose
+hair was as silver as spun moonlight, had dropped behind the more modern
+methods of education, and, feeling rather diffident in the schoolroom,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+concentrated her attention on the housekeeping, cossetted
+up the delicate children, aired the linen, superintended the
+dormitories, and acted nurse to anybody who was lucky enough to be kept
+in bed. The bulk of the teaching rested in the hands of Miss Fanny, who
+was thorough, if old-fashioned, and whose original methods, by a curious
+coincidence, actually anticipated those of some of our most advanced
+educationists, and so placed her ahead of as well as behind the times.</p>
+
+<p>It was into this small community, more like a big family than a school,
+that Mavis and Merle were introduced one January morning, causing
+visible thrills to the occupants of other desks as they took their
+seats. To plunge suddenly from the work of one school into that of
+another is a rather bewildering experience, and by the time the
+half-past twelve bell sounded, the Ramsay girls felt as if their
+standards had been turned upside down. Mavis, shaky in general over
+history, had reeled off the dates of the principal battles in the Civil
+War, the only period of which she happened to have any special
+knowledge, and Merle, by an equal fluke, worked correctly all her
+problems in mathematics, a lesson which she usually abhorred. They were
+so astonished at scoring on these subjects that they naturally hoped to
+do better still in the French class, for languages had been their one
+strong point at Whinburn High School. But alack for their self esteem!
+The girls at The Moorings had concentrated on French, and not only
+translated easily from a book which was much too stiff for the Ramsays,
+but chattered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+quite fluently with Mademoiselle Chavasse, whose
+encouraging remarks and questions were palpably not understood by her
+new pupils. It is humiliating not to be able to express yourself in a
+foreign tongue when others are talking it all round you. Merle, who
+never liked anybody to "go one better" than herself, was particularly
+aggravated by a fair-haired girl who sat near her, and who, as she
+conversed with the teacher, kept the corner of her eye on the new-comers
+as if judging the impression she was making on them.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like her! I shan't <em>ever</em> like her!" thought Merle irately.
+"She's conceited, and those eyes are sneaky. It's nothing so much to
+talk French. I suppose they're used to it. She needn't think I'm
+admiring her cleverness, for I'm not. I'll pluck up courage myself to
+say something next time Mademoiselle looks at me."</p>
+
+<p>But Merle's powers were not equal to her courage, and when Mademoiselle
+gave her another chance she turned scarlet and stuttered, and generally
+made rather a goose of herself, to her own infinite indignation and
+evidently to the amusement of the rest of the class, especially of the
+fair-haired girl, who tittered openly till she met the teacher's
+outraged gaze, when she suddenly straightened her face and tried to
+appear quite unconscious. Mavis, profiting by her sister's example, did
+not commit herself to speech. Mademoiselle Chavasse's accent was
+unfamiliar and difficult to understand, and most of her remarks might as
+easily have been in Greek as French, to judge by the standards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+of Whinburn High School. Both the Ramsays were particularly relieved when
+the lesson came to an end.</p>
+
+<p>At 12.30 Mavis, who had been sent to the school with a special
+recommendation that her health should be looked after, was carried off
+by Miss Pollard to be weighed and measured and otherwise inspected,
+while Merle, with boots and hat and coat on, and all impatience to be
+off, waited for her in the cloak-room. The other day-girls had scurried
+away with hardly more than a glance in her direction, and she sat alone,
+kicking her heels and not in the sweetest of tempers, till one of the
+boarders, passing the door, peeped in, saw her, and entered. The
+new-comer was a nice-looking girl, with grey eyes and a plait of very
+dark hair. She smiled in quite friendly fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello!" she began. "Sitting here all by your lonesome? Why don't you go
+home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can't. I'm waiting for Mavis."</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mavis the other? She's rather sweet! I like her fluffy hair and that
+blue velvet band. Somebody said she was older than you, but she doesn't
+look it."</p>
+
+<p>"People often take us for twins," conceded Merle.</p>
+
+<p>Iva Westwood shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"No one with eyes, surely! You're alike in a way, but not very. Opal
+Earnshaw was fearfully angry that you beat her in maths. She's been cock
+of the walk till now."</p>
+
+<p>"Which is Opal Earnshaw?"</p>
+
+<p>"That fair girl who sat near you."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+Merle's face darkened.</p>
+
+<p>"That was why she tried to take it out of me in the French class, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Opal tries to take it out of everybody. She won't be very pleased
+you two have come, I expect. You're too old to stand her bossing."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do other people stand it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you see, she's head of the school, and Miss Pollard and Miss
+Fanny are her godmothers."</p>
+
+<p>"What difference does that make?"</p>
+
+<p>"A great deal of difference, as you'll soon find out. Everything their
+darling god-child does <em>must</em> be right, that's the long and short of it.
+They favour her fearfully."</p>
+
+<p>"What a blazing shame."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, some of us get rather fed up I can tell you. We mutiny every now
+and then."</p>
+
+<p>"Count on me, then, next time you have squalls."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks!"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me about some of the other girls. Who's that one in the green
+jersey who sat by the window and dropped her pencil-box? Is she nice?"</p>
+
+<p>"Edith Carey! Ye-e-s, she's nice enough in a way." (Iva's tone was
+unconvincing). "She's the kind of girl who drags on your arm when she's
+tired, and insists on kissing you when she's got a bad cold."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand&mdash;exactly. I suppose the other green jersey is her sister?"</p>
+
+<p>"Maude? Oh, she's not a bad sort either. Rather a slacker though,
+always late for everything. We say<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+she'd be late for her own funeral.
+She made us miss the train once when we were going an excursion. What
+are the others like? Well, we call Aubrey Simpson the jackdaw, because
+she's always talking. Muriel Burnitt makes fun of everybody. You should
+hear her take off Mademoiselle! Nesta Pitman may be a little nasty to
+you at first, but don't mind her, because it's only her way with new
+people. She'll soon come round. She's rather off-hand, but a real
+sport!"</p>
+
+<p>"So are you, I should guess!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know. I'm Cornish, and Cornish people are supposed to be
+queer. At least Devon people say they are."</p>
+
+<p>"Mother is Devon."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I expect you'll think me queer. Are you living with your uncle,
+Dr. Tremayne? <em>He's</em> a sport if you like! He used to come and see me
+when I had scarlet fever, and he brought me strawberries long before our
+own were ripe. I wish I weren't a boarder. We live fifteen miles away,
+at Langoran Rectory. It's too far to come every day, or I'd bike, like
+Christabel Oakley. We used to have a governess at home until my brother
+went to school and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Iva's reminiscences were broken by the appearance of Mavis, rather
+hot and injured after her health examination, and very anxious that they
+should not be late for one o'clock lunch. Iva, hearing a bell,
+disappeared without further remark, and the Ramsays hurried back through
+the town to Bridge House, where Aunt Nellie, who admired punctuality as
+a cardinal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+virtue, was looking out of the window for them. They compared
+notes while they washed their hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to like it?" asked Mavis eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Um&mdash;I don't know! I certainly shan't like Opal Earnshaw, and she
+needn't think because she's head girl and all the rest of it that <em>I'm</em>
+going to truckle to her. They must be a poor-spirited set to let her
+lord it over everybody. Who said she did? Why, Iva Westwood. She was
+talking to me in the cloakroom. I could be chums with that girl! There's
+something about her I rather take to. She's Cornish, and they say Devon
+and Cornish people never can agree, but perhaps we'll hit it in spite of
+that. She said you were rather sweet! Don't screw up your mouth! She
+meant it as a compliment really. Do you think teachers ought to have
+their own godchildren for pupils? No, I've not suddenly gone mad, but
+Iva told me Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny are Opal's godmothers, and think
+everything she does is absolutely perfect. 'The Queen can do no wrong'
+sort of idea! I think it's horrid to have favourites. There goes the
+gong. Help! Give me the towel, quick! We mustn't be late for lunch on
+our first day without Mother, or Aunt Nellie'll think us horrible
+slackers."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+<a name="iii" id="iii"></a>CHAPTER III<br />
+
+<span class="sub">The School Favourite</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle walked into the dining-room just in the nick of time to
+satisfy Mrs. Tremayne's sense of propriety. She was a dear, nervous, old
+lady, who had never had any daughters of her own, and had rather a hazy
+notion of girls in general, and was indeed a little frightened of
+schoolgirls; but she tried to be very kind to her great-nieces, and had
+told Jessop to be sure and look after them. Jessop did not need any
+telling. It was she who had arranged their bedroom, and had put the
+little table in the window, and the two basket-chairs, and the bookcase
+full of tales of adventure and bound volumes of <em>The Boys' Own Paper</em>.
+The iced soda-cake was of her making, and so was the plateful of
+delicious treacle toffee.</p>
+
+<p>"It's twenty years since the boys used to come home from boarding-school
+for their holidays, but I haven't forgotten what young folks like," she
+explained to Mavis and Merle, as she helped them to unpack. "It's more
+like a boys' bedroom than a girls' perhaps, but I just collected
+anything of Master Richard's and Master Cyril's that I could find about
+the house. If you don't care about them we'll take them out."</p>
+
+<p>"But we <em>love</em> boys' things," declared Merle, admiring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+the pictures of
+dogs and horses on the walls, opening the drawers of the cabinet of
+birds' eggs, and touching the whip and the cricket bat with friendly
+fingers. Mavis was already deep in <i>Coral Island</i>, and temporarily deaf
+to the outside world, but she had just sufficient sense of manners left
+to grunt "It's a gorgeous bookcase!" before she lost herself in the
+South Seas among the palm trees.</p>
+
+<p>"Two very nice young ladies, and to have them here is like old times,"
+Jessop had confided to Tom, the factotum. "The house has always seemed
+dull since Master Cyril went away. Miss Mavis reminds me of him, with
+her blue eyes and that gentle little voice of hers. Now, Miss Merle is
+like Master Percy. He'd a way with him! I never knew what was going to
+happen next when he was at home. 'Jessop' he'd say, 'you're a wonderful
+woman!' Then I knew he meant to coax me to let him keep his rabbits in
+his bedroom, or do something of that sort. Girls are quieter than boys,
+but these two will cheer us up a little, I dare say. We all seem to have
+grown old here lately."</p>
+
+<p>And Tom, the factotum, polishing boots by the back door, agreed with
+her. Twenty years ago he had been the coachman, and, immaculate in his
+grey livery and silver buttons and top hat with the cockade at the side,
+had driven the high gig about the country lanes. It had nearly broken
+his heart when his master decided to give up the horses and take to
+motoring instead. There were tears in his eyes when he groomed Czar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+and Ruby for the last time. But, though Dr. Tremayne might march with the
+century, and visit his patients more quickly in his new automobile, he
+had no intention of parting with his old coachman, and determined to
+turn him into a chauffeur instead. So Tom learnt to drive the car,
+learnt almost too well, indeed, for, determined not to show the white
+feather, he waxed foolhardy, and would career round corners with one
+wheel off the ground, or dash down hills at such breakneck speed that
+the doctor, not usually a nervous subject, would gasp with relief to
+find himself alive at the bottom. Something plainly had to be done, or
+Tom would soon have broken the family's bones, and the question was how
+to shelve him without giving him offence. The riddle, fortunately,
+solved itself by the retirement of Dalton, the factotum-gardener. Dr.
+Tremayne decided to retrench and to keep only one man-servant. In future
+he drove his own car, and Tom was installed in Dalton's place, to weed
+the walks, clip the grass, polish the knives, and carry the coals. He
+made friends at once with Mavis and Merle, or rather he merely
+transferred to them the friendship he had given to their mother
+twenty-five years ago, when she used to spend her holidays at Bridge
+House, and rode Cobs, the white pony, whose grave lay at the bottom of
+the paddock. To Tom, motoring was the sign of a degenerate age, and he
+would descant to the girls about the good old days, when people were not
+in such a frantic hurry and could wait for the doctor until he drove up
+behind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
+a well-groomed horse, and made such a case for the past times
+that Merle, in spite of her ambition to drive a car, began to wish Czar
+and Ruby and Cobs were still in the stable, and she herself could be
+clad in Mother's old riding-habit and flourish Cousin Percy's discarded
+whip as she ambled along the lanes on pony-back.</p>
+
+<p>That, however, was before she had had a run in the little, yellow
+Deemster car. After the first trip to Chagmouth she completely changed
+her mind.</p>
+
+<p>For a week life went on with the greatest regularity at Durracombe.
+Every morning the girls were called by Jessop promptly at half-past
+seven. They started for school at twenty minutes to nine, returned home
+for lunch, rushed back to The Moorings by 2.30, did their preparation
+and practising in the evenings, and went to bed at nine o'clock. Uncle
+David was nearly always out, or busy in the surgery, and Aunt Nellie sat
+by the fire, knitting or taking little naps. She would ask very kindly
+about their lessons, then, hardly giving them time to answer, would
+plunge into reminiscences of her boys' schooldays. Life, for her, still
+centred round Percy, Richard, and Cyril. When the girls wanted to talk
+they went to Jessop. It was to her they poured out their experiences of
+their new school, and she listened with the flattering interest of one
+who really enjoys hearing. She never read any books, so perhaps the
+little adventures described humorously by Mavis or Merle took the place
+of chapters in a serial story. She was familiar directly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+with the names
+of all the girls and teachers at The Moorings, and most delightfully
+ready to "take sides", and like those whom they liked and agree about
+the iniquities of those who offended them.</p>
+
+<p>For this first week had not been all plain sailing. It is often really
+easier to get on in a big school than a little one. There is more
+elbow-room among two hundred girls than among two dozen. Nobody except
+Iva Westwood had seemed particularly pleased to welcome them. Opal
+Earnshaw palpably resented their presence.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Pollard is only supposed to take twenty pupils," she remarked, on
+the day after their arrival. "I know she refused two other girls, so I
+can't think why she should have broken her rule."</p>
+
+<p>"But those girls would have been boarders," objected Iva.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, where's the difference?"</p>
+
+<p>"A great deal when it means two extra beds in a dormitory."</p>
+
+<p>"It means two extra seats in a room that's already overcrowded,"
+declared Opal loftily. "If the school is going to take any more new
+girls it had better build an annexe and let them have classes there."</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry to be on the earth!" said Merle sarcastically. "Perhaps you'd
+like us to sit inside the cupboard? We shouldn't crowd you out there."</p>
+
+<p>Opal looked her up and down, from her velvet hair-band to the tips of
+her shoes, then she gave a kind of snort.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+"I suppose you think yourself ever so clever," she retorted. "Girls from
+big schools generally give themselves airs."</p>
+
+<p>"Other people can give themselves airs," snapped Merle, warming to the
+battle. "Big schools teach manners at any rate!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we don't mean anything against <em>this</em> school," hurriedly put in
+Mavis, who generally tried to take the edge off her sister's cutting
+speeches. "We think it's going to be quite jolly. I'm sorry if we've
+taken the desks where you've had your museum, but where <em>are</em> we to keep
+our books and things?"</p>
+
+<p>Opal, who was grudgingly removing the contents of two desks, which for a
+whole term had been devoted to a collection of natural history objects,
+had the grace to look rather ashamed of herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's all right," she temporized, "but what I'm to do with all our
+birds' eggs and butterflies goodness only knows! I daren't keep them in
+any of the other classrooms or those juniors would be fingering them and
+they'd be smashed to bits. I suppose I must pack them in boxes and get
+Miss Fanny to stow them away somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't I help?" said Mavis, coming to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>Iva had just arrived on the scene bearing some large cardboard boxes,
+into which the three girls transferred the little collection. It seemed
+quite a pity to have to move it, for it had been so carefully set out.
+There were certainly grounds for Opal's ill humour, though even the most
+unreasonable of head girls can hardly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+expect a mistress to reserve desks
+for a museum when she can give them to two extra pupils. The fact was
+that Opal had been "first favourite" at The Moorings for too long. It
+would have done her all the good in the world to be sent to a large
+boarding-school and find there were people more important than herself.
+Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny, devoted friends of her mother, undoubtedly
+spoilt her, lent a ready ear to her complaints, but listened coldly to
+anybody who made accusations against her. The knowledge that she will
+receive support at all costs from head-quarters is a dangerous weapon
+for a girl in a position of authority. During the whole of last term
+Opal had done pretty much what she liked, and when others grumbled would
+declare: "Well, go and tell Miss Pollard and see which she'll believe,
+you or me!" an argument which was so unfortunately well founded that the
+luckless objectors preferred to suffer in silence.</p>
+
+<p>It was not in the nature of things that a disposition such as Merle
+Ramsay's could be in the same school with Opal Earnshaw without a clash.
+Merle loved fair play, and was always ready and willing to stand up for
+anybody's rights, including Mavis's and her own. Her first instinct had
+been to clear their new desks by tipping the unfortunate museum on to
+the floor. That was Merle all over. She preferred forcible methods to
+diplomacy. It generally needed all Mavis's tact to smooth over the
+difficulties roused by Merle's ardent partisanship and freedom of
+speech. Many were the squalls from which she had rescued<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+her sister at the Whinburn High School, and apparently she would be required to
+perform the same office for her at The Moorings.</p>
+
+<p>Opal calmed down and was fairly civil during the morning, but on that
+very afternoon arose another unfortunate occasion of dispute. The
+Ramsays had finished lunch early, and hurried back to school in order to
+have a little fun with the boarders before lessons began at 2.30. They
+liked Iva and Nesta, and also some of the younger ones, and meant to
+enjoy half an hour with them in the playroom. Merle was by nature a
+public entertainer. She could not spend ten minutes in the company of
+other girls without wanting to start games or organize a sing-song or in
+some way get up amusement. During the Christmas holidays she had been
+poring over an article on palmistry which she found in a magazine. As
+the result of her studies in that direction she offered to tell the
+fortune of anybody who liked to consult her. She was instantly besieged
+by an excited crowd, all thrusting forward their hands at once for
+inspection and trying to push one another aside.</p>
+
+<p>"Cheerio! This won't do!" decreed Merle. "One at a time, my hearties!
+Take your places in an orderly queue and come up in your turns to the
+witch, or she'll fly away on her broomstick and tell you nothing! Iva
+first, then Nesta, then you others, and no squabbling. Anybody who tries
+to push in front will be turned to the end of the queue. That's kismet!"</p>
+
+<p>Merle could always keep order among juniors. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+small fry giggled, but
+formed into line and kept their places while Iva and Nesta consulted the
+oracle. The prophecies were rather startling but sufficiently exciting
+to make eight young heads bob up and down with eagerness to secure their
+turns before the bell rang for afternoon school. Iva had been sent away
+a little dubious between the attractions of "foreign travel" and a
+warning of "danger by sea", while Nesta was openly rejoicing over a
+prospect of "wealth and honours" in spite of the "accidents" scattered
+over her future path. It was now the turn of Mamie Drew, and that
+short-skirted damsel was just advancing with rather awed eyes and a
+nervous chuckle, when the door opened and Opal Earnshaw strolled into
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello! What are you all doing here?" she exclaimed. "Fortunes! Oh, I
+say! I <em>must</em> have mine told. What can you make out of my hand?"</p>
+
+<p>And, thrusting Mamie aside, she spread out her palm for Merle's
+inspection.</p>
+
+<p>Now it was partly Merle's love of fair play and partly her antipathy to
+Opal, and partly a little bit of "katawampus", but the three feelings
+combined made her thrust away the hand in a very peremptory fashion, and
+brought an extremely tart note into her voice as she said:</p>
+
+<p>"No pushing in front! Go to the end of the queue and take your turn with
+the others. It's Mamie next."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mind," volunteered Mamie, making way for Opal.</p>
+
+<p>"But <em>I</em> mind!" snapped Merle. "It's I who's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+telling the fortunes and
+I'll do it as I like, and take you in order. If you don't want to come
+next, Mamie, get out of the way can't you, and let Joyce have her
+innings! Opal must wait like other people."</p>
+
+<p>Opal, however, as head girl, considered herself highly insulted.</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't think I'm going to wait at the end of a queue of kids," she
+retorted angrily. "I don't care about your old fortune-telling, thanks!"
+and she flounced out of the room.</p>
+
+<p>She was very glum indeed all afternoon, and would not look at either of
+the Ramsays, though Mavis, to make amends, offered the loan of a new
+penknife, and even tendered a surreptitious chocolate.</p>
+
+<p>"I took her down, didn't I?" smirked Merle, as the sisters walked home
+up the High Street, and watched the retreating figure of Opal, who had
+scuttled past them with averted eyes, hurrying towards her own front
+door.</p>
+
+<p>Mavis sighed. Her naturally kind and peaceful disposition and her
+loyalty to Merle were always pulling her in opposite directions.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid Opal just detests us. Perhaps you might have let her take
+Mamie's turn as Mamie actually offered."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not." (Merle's voice was firm.) "If you begin to let a girl
+like that butt in whenever she wants, you never know where you are. I
+think she's the limit. She'd no need to look so annoyed when we arrived
+at school. What does it matter to her?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+The Moorings isn't run for her private convenience!"</p>
+
+<p>"She couldn't forgive us for taking those spare desks and turning out
+the museum."</p>
+
+<p>"Bother her museum!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's rather a nice one anyway. It seems a pity it has to be put by in
+cardboard boxes."</p>
+
+<p>Mavis was really concerned about the little collection of curiosities
+that had been so neatly spread forth in the unoccupied desks. She
+cogitated for a long time as to how the difficulty could possibly be
+overcome. Finally she sought Tom, with whom she was already on terms of
+great friendship. <a name="front" id="front"></a>She found him in the greenhouse, repotting some ferns.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Tom!" she burst out eagerly. "Do you think there's anything about
+the place I might take to make a museum?"</p>
+
+<p>Tom stroked the grey stubble on his chin reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>"A museum?" he repeated. "That's a big order, Miss, isn't it? I went
+through the museum in the castle grounds at Taunton once. It must be ten
+years ago. Or will it be twelve now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course, I don't mean a museum like that," explained Mavis, "only
+a kind of box arrangement with some glass over it, to put butterflies
+and birds' eggs in, very like&mdash;" (her eyes wandered round the
+greenhouse) "very like what you grow seeds in."</p>
+
+<p>The nice part about Tom was the alacrity with which he caught up
+suggestions. At his age it was really amazing.</p>
+
+<p>"A very good idee, Miss," he agreed. "I know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+what you want. Master Cyril used to keep his butterflies in boxes like that. I'll hunt about
+and see what I can find for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Smart-looking boxes and some pieces of glass to fit over them?" pleaded
+Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>"You leave it to me," was all Tom would promise, but there was a twinkle
+in his eye as he stooped over his ferns again.</p>
+
+<p>Every morning Mavis asked him for the boxes, and each time he either
+pretended to have forgotten or was ready with some excuse. At the end of
+four days, however, he took her into the old harness-room, where he had
+a joiner's bench and a variety of tools, for he acted handy man to the
+establishment.</p>
+
+<p>"How will these suit you, Miss?" he enquired, in a would-be nonchalant
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>Mavis gave an absolute bounce of surprise. There on the bench lay two
+most beautiful cases. Tom had planed the boxes and made lids for them,
+into which he had fitted the pieces of glass. They were stained brown
+and varnished, and were lined neatly with dark-blue cloth. The old man
+was evidently bursting with pride at his handiwork, though he affected
+an attitude of indifference.</p>
+
+<p>Mavis made haste to congratulate him.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the cleverest thing I've ever seen done in my life," she purred.
+"Oh, they're just too lovely for words&mdash;absolutely topping! Thanks, a
+thousand times over. You must have simply <em>slaved</em> to finish them so
+quickly."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+"Oh, I just worked at them in odds and ends of my time," said Tom
+casually, looking very pleased all the same. "That varnish is a bit
+sticky yet, but I dare say it'll be dry by the morning. If you want the
+boxes at school I'll carry them round for you to-morrow some time."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thanks! Could you bring them at eleven o'clock 'break'? That would
+be scrumptious. I must fetch Merle to look at them at once, and Jessop
+too. You don't mind?"</p>
+
+<p>Tom delivered the cases next day with admirable punctuality; indeed he
+was standing on the school doorstep exactly as Miss Fanny rang the big
+bell for break. The girls, pouring into the hall, saw him deliver the
+treasures into the safe custody of Bella, the housemaid. Naturally they
+crowded round to look.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello! What are these for?" asked Opal. "What stunning cases!"</p>
+
+<p>"They're for Miss Ramsay," proclaimed Bella.</p>
+
+<p>Mavis, with rather a red face, stepped forward.</p>
+
+<p>"If you think they'll do to keep the birds' eggs and butterflies and
+things in will you please have them as a museum for the school," she
+said quickly. "Tom, my uncle's coachman, made them on purpose."</p>
+
+<p>"Jolly decent of him. They're A1," approved Opal. "Better than the
+desks really, because of the glass lids. I say, I'm going to bolt my
+lunch in two secs, and get down those boxes and spread out the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+collection again. The things will look no end on that dark cloth."</p>
+
+<p>"Spiffing," agreed Iva, who was also inspecting the new acquisitions.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurry up with your lunch then, and help me to arrange them. No, I
+can't have a dozen people's fingers interfering! I'm curator of the
+museum and I won't have it smashed. Three are quite enough. Iva and
+Mavis and I are going to do it, and we don't want anyone else, thank
+you! You can come and look at it when it's finished. I'll put the cases
+on the window-sill in the big schoolroom. Mavis Ramsay" (this last
+communication was whispered) "I don't mind telling you I didn't care for
+you before&mdash;it was mostly the fault of that sister of yours!&mdash;but I
+think now you're an absolute sport. You and Merle aren't a scrap alike.
+Nobody would ever take you for sisters."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+<a name="iv" id="iv"></a>CHAPTER IV<br />
+
+<span class="sub">Red Devon by the Sea</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Mavis now found herself placed in a somewhat embarrassing situation. The
+school favourite had taken rather a fancy to her and extended overtures
+of friendship. Had she been at The Moorings by herself she might have
+responded, but it was impossible to be chums with a girl who displayed
+such open hostility to Merle. The two were "diamond cut diamond". Each
+was a strong character, and neither would give way an inch. They
+squabbled and heckled one another continually. If Opal had had even a
+term's experience of a big school, and if Merle had possessed a little
+tact and forbearance, they might have rubbed along together. As it was
+they went about like two thunderclouds. Mavis found her best safety lay
+in neutrality. She was quite nice to Opal, but not expansive, and
+whenever opportunity offered she patched up a truce, though the task of
+peacemaker was often a thankless business, for Opal would say: "Oh, of
+course, you side with that sister of yours!" and Merle would indignantly
+accuse her of not taking her part with sufficient vehemence.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+Merle had found an ally in Iva Westwood. Iva was a rather
+out-of-the-way girl, proud and reserved. She did not often care to wage
+battle with Opal herself, but she keenly enjoyed hearing somebody else
+do it, and was ready to act "backer-up" within limits. She appreciated
+both the Ramsays, though her particular temperament was more attracted
+by Merle. In a certain off-hand, abrupt fashion she might be considered
+a chum.</p>
+
+<p>On the second Friday afternoon after their arrival at Durracombe, Mavis
+and Merle went to The Moorings as usual. To their immense surprise, when
+they arrived there, they found the whole school arrayed in light frocks,
+silk stockings, and sandalled slippers.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello! What's the meaning of this? Is there going to be a party?" they
+asked quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Party? No! Don't you know it's dancing afternoon?" replied Nesta,
+re-tying her pale-blue hair-ribbon, which was coming off. "Surely Miss
+Pollard told you?"</p>
+
+<p>"She never said a word about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, she told Opal to tell you at any rate. Just when you'd gone home
+this morning I heard her say to Opal: 'Run after those two and remind
+them it's dancing afternoon.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Opal never came near us. What a shame!" blazed Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"We didn't have dancing last Friday," objected Mavis.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+"No, because Miss Crompton hadn't come back. We shall have it every
+Friday now."</p>
+
+<p>"Where? In the playroom?"</p>
+
+<p>Nesta laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no! We don't have it at school. There's no room big enough. We go to
+Miss Crompton's class in the public hall."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, look here! What are we to do?" asked Mavis. "We can't turn up as
+we are? Shall we run home and change into 'war paint'?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. You'd better ask Miss Pollard. Oh, here she is! Miss
+Pollard, please! Mavis and Merle didn't know it was dancing afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"How very annoying! I told Opal to remind you," said the mistress,
+turning to the aggrieved pair almost as if it were their own fault. "Go
+home to change? Oh no! There isn't time now. You must all come along at
+once or we shall be late. It's a tiresome mistake but it can't be helped
+and you mustn't miss the lesson. You'll know better next week."</p>
+
+<p>"Might we <em>tear</em> home and change, and run on to the public hall?" begged
+Mavis desperately.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! You must all come together. Never mind. I'll explain to Miss
+Crompton, and it will be quite all right."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+It was all very well for Miss Pollard to say "Never mind" in so easy a
+fashion. Mavis and Merle were furious. They possessed dainty dresses,
+thin stockings, and dancing slippers in their wardrobe at Bridge House,
+and when the whole school was arrayed <i lang="fr">en f&ecirc;te</i> it was most humiliating
+to be marched off in their brown knitted jerseys, ribbed stockings, and
+ordinary serviceable shoes. They both looked daggers at Opal, who just
+then put in an appearance very prettily got up in a white <i lang="fr">cr&ecirc;pe de
+Chine</i> dress and a big, pale-pink hair-ribbon. She started guiltily when
+she saw them.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I forgot to tell you two about the dancing. It simply went out of
+my head," she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"Then your head's as empty as a brass nob," exploded Merle. "It was just
+<em>criminal</em> of you to forget. I believe you did it on purpose."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+Even Mavis did not attempt to palliate Merle's home truths, for she was
+bubbling over with injury, and sharper words still might have followed
+had not Miss Fanny arrived and swept her whole flock from the house for
+a "crocodile" walk to the public hall. The big room here, engaged by
+Miss Crompton, was certainly a very good one for the purpose, with a
+polished floor and nice decorations, so that it looked quite festive and
+"Christmasy", as the girls, having left their coats
+and hats and over-shoes in the cloakroom, marched in and took their
+places. The class was not confined to the pupils at The Moorings; girls
+from various country houses in the neighbourhood, and a sprinkling of
+little boys were also there. The array of light dresses and thin shoes
+made the Ramsays more indignant than ever. And there would have been
+plenty of time to go home and change. Miss Crompton and her assistants
+were so long in getting the children arranged, that Mavis and Merle
+might easily have been back from Bridge House, robed in their best,
+before the first dance began.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Crompton ascertained that her two new pupils were no novices, then
+placed them in the senior class. In revolt against what some parents
+termed "stage posturing" she had revived some of the old Victorian
+square dances, and was teaching the first figures of the quadrille.
+Merle happened to be <i lang="fr">vis-&agrave;-vis</i> with a girl of about her own age, a
+tall athletic girl with fair hair, who looked as if she would be more at
+home on horseback than in a ballroom, but who, nevertheless, gaped at
+the Ramsays' morning costumes with unconcealed scorn, and arranged the
+skirt of her own pretty dress rather ostentatiously, as if calling
+attention to the difference. When she met Merle in "the ladies' chain",
+instead of joining hands as the figure required, she deliberately
+refused the outstretched fingers and swept past without touching them.</p>
+
+<p>To Merle it was an open insult. She looked at Miss Crompton to see
+whether the teacher had noticed, but Miss Crompton's attention was
+concentrated on two special bunglers, and though the incident happened
+again as the girls crossed back to their own places, it drew down no
+reproof.</p>
+
+<p>"Slack teaching here," thought Merle, fuming with wrath. "Such a thing
+would never have been allowed in our class at Whinburn. I don't know who
+that girl is, but she's an out-and-out blighter. This is one of the most
+grizzly afternoons I've ever had in my life."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+The Ramsays were indeed glad when half-past four arrived, and they were
+able to go home and pour out their woes to Aunt Nellie and Jessop, both
+of whom were most sympathetic and indignant about the whole business.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd have brought your dresses to the town hall for you if I'd only
+known," declared Jessop.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a great mistake of Miss Pollard's; she ought to have sent you
+home to change, even if you missed part of the lesson." (Gentle Aunt
+Nellie sounded quite wrathful). "How could you dance properly without
+your thin shoes? Never mind, dears! You'll know better next week, and
+we'll take care you go really nice. I wouldn't worry any more about it
+if I were you. Do your preparation this evening, and if it's fine
+to-morrow perhaps Uncle David will take you with him to Chagmouth. That
+will give you something else to think about, won't it?"</p>
+
+<p>The girls cheered up at this suggestion. They were very anxious indeed
+to go out with Dr. Tremayne in his little Deemster car. He had a branch
+surgery at Chagmouth, a village ten miles away, and every Saturday he
+spent most of the day there, seeing patients and visiting a sanatorium
+to which he was consulting medical officer. He would have taken the
+girls on the previous Saturday, but there had been a strong gale, and he
+was afraid of Mavis running any risks just at first.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+"When you're acclimatized we shan't fear a puff of wind or a few drops
+of rain," he said, "but we'll harden you gradually, like Tom does with
+his bedding-out geraniums."</p>
+
+<p>"Devon wind and rain are so soft they don't hurt me," urged Mavis. "The
+whole air has a different feel from the north. It's nearly as mild as
+our summer. Uncle David, I just want to forget I ever had a sore chest!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's the best way; still we must go slow and sure. I don't want to
+have to order you to bed with a bronchitis kettle."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope I've said good-bye to that wretched old kettle for evermore. I
+didn't want Mother to pack it, but she put it in. I'll give it away
+willingly to the first person who needs it."</p>
+
+<p>Saturday morning fortunately proved fine and mild enough to dispel all
+fears on Mavis's behalf, and the girls were ready and anxious to start
+long before Dr. Tremayne had finished his work in the surgery. They
+fumed round the waiting-room door, casting indignant glances at the
+patients seated within, and hoping their cases were not serious, and
+would not require much of the doctor's time and attention; then, finding
+such hanging about rather dispiriting, they went to the garage and
+helped Tom to polish the brasses of the car&mdash;a praiseworthy occupation
+that kept them busy until the last patient had been dismissed from the
+surgery.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+"Just a few bottles of medicine to make up, and then we're off," said
+Uncle David, giving some instruments to Jessop to sterilize. "Have you
+each got a warm scarf, girls? And where's the rug? Tell Tom to put my
+bag inside the dicky, there won't be room for it in front to-day. You
+two will have to sit close, but we'll squeeze in somehow."</p>
+
+<p>The little yellow car was only a two-seater, but it held three at a
+pinch. Mavis, in the middle, sat as far back as possible, so as not to
+incommode Uncle David's left arm as he drove, while Merle sat a little
+forward, to give extra room. Jessop tucked the rug over their knees, Tom
+started the engine, Aunt Nellie waved good-bye out of the open window,
+and at last they were off, over the bridge and along the road that led
+to the south. It was a lovely sunny morning, with great fleecy clouds on
+the horizon, and a blue sky overhead. Small birds were flitting about in
+the hedges, and large flocks of rooks and starlings were feeding in the
+ploughed fields. The banks were green with masses of beautiful
+hart's-tongue ferns, and all nature seemed alive and stirring and
+thinking of spring. The car whizzed along at a good pace, and they were
+soon scaling the hill and crossing the portion of the moor that lay
+between Durracombe and Chagmouth. The glistening drops from yesterday's
+showers still shone on the brown heather, sheep were feeding on the
+patches of fine grass, and wild little ponies stampeded away at the
+approach of the car, as if they were running a race with motor power.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+It was so beautiful on the uplands that the girls were quite sorry when
+the open, hedgeless road dipped between banks into a valley and turned
+into the orthodox deep Devonshire lane. Down and down they went, so
+steeply that Uncle David seemed to be hanging on to the brakes, and for
+at least two miles there was no occasion to use the engine, then quite
+suddenly they whisked round a bend of the road and caught a glimpse of
+the village lying below them. Chagmouth came afterwards to mean so much
+to Mavis and Merle that they never forgot their first sight of it. It
+burst upon them, a compact mass of picturesque houses lying huddled
+between two magnificent headlands crowned with gorse and brown bracken.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+A rushing stream ran through the valley, flowed under several bridges,
+and poured itself into the harbour, where gulls were flapping and
+screaming, and the rising tide was rocking the fishing-boats gently to
+and fro. Out beyond the jetty white sea-foam was flying round jagged
+rocks, and a motor-launch was making its way cautiously among chopping
+waves. Though it was only the first of February, the village, owing to
+the large number of its half-exotic shrubs, was framed in a setting of
+green, among which the little colour-washed houses shone like flowers.
+Seen as a bird's-eye view from the road above, Chagmouth indeed looked
+like a gigantic flower border with the emerald sea for a lawn. As they
+dipped downward into the ravine there rose up towards them certain
+scents and sounds intimately connected with the place, and afterwards
+indissolubly associated with it in the minds of the two girls&mdash;the
+murmur of running water, the cries of sea-gulls, the twitter of small
+birds, the salt smell of the sea, the pungent smoke of burning
+driftwood, and the faint, aromatic odour of moist evergreen shrubs
+steaming in the sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Tremayne halted at a house at the top of the village, and took his
+car round into the stable-yard. The house was a farm, and he rented
+rooms there for the purpose of his profession. A brass plate upon the
+door set forth his surgery hours. People in Chagmouth, unless they were
+seriously ill, kept their aches and pains until Saturdays, for it was a
+long way to fetch the doctor from Durracombe to pay a special visit. The
+waiting-room at Grimbal's Farm was generally full when he arrived, and
+there were enough messages from patients requiring his attendance to
+keep him busy for the whole of the day.</p>
+
+<p>When the car had been put safely under cover, Uncle David took Mavis and
+Merle beneath the great arch of fuchsias that framed the doorway and
+into the wide, old-fashioned hall, where the farmer's wife, who had been
+watching for the car, was standing to greet them.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mrs. Penruddock, how are you? Anybody waiting for me this
+morning?" began Uncle David. "You see I've brought my nieces with me
+to-day. They'll take a look round the place while I'm busy. Can you
+manage to find any lunch for them, do you think?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+"Of course I can, Doctor," smiled Mrs. Penruddock. "It's a nice day for
+them to see Chagmouth. It's really quite warm down by the harbour. There
+are ten people in the waiting-room, and I have the messages here. Mrs.
+Glyn Williams said there was no hurry, any time would suit her."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go up in the afternoon then, when I take the Sanatorium. I'll see
+the people who are waiting now, and then have lunch, please, before I
+begin my round. Have you a watch, Mavis? That's right! Then run down and
+look at the sea, you two girls, and be back by one o'clock. Don't forget
+the time, because I shall have a long round to-day, and must make an
+early start."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+Dr. Tremayne disappeared into his surgery, and Mavis and Merle, after a
+few directions as to their route from Mrs. Penruddock, turned down the
+street that led towards the sea. Chagmouth was nothing more than a
+village, though its natives liked to call it a town. To enter it was
+like exploring a new world. The road to Chagmouth was happily too steep
+and narrow for charabancs, so that, even in summer, trippers, with their
+terrible train of sandwich-papers and cigarette-ends, had not yet
+discovered it and defiled its beauty. It was the most picturesque jumble
+of fishermen's cottages that could possibly be imagined; its narrow
+alleys, its archways, its flights of steps, its green half-doorways, its
+tiny windows and chimneys set at every quaint angle, its cobble stones
+and deep gutters, seemed a survival from old days of wrecking and
+smuggling, and transported one's charmed imagination back to the
+eighteenth century. Every corner was an artist's subject, the roofs were
+yellow with lichen, and many of them were covered with masses of ferns;
+fishing-nets hung out to dry over palings, and clumps of valerian and
+stocks and snapdragon grew in the crevices of the walls. Sea-gulls were
+everywhere, as tame as chickens. They sat in rows on the roof ridges,
+they perched on the chimneys, and flapped down into the streets to catch
+the bread the children threw for them, they swam with the ducks in the
+wide pool where the stream emptied itself into the harbour, and circled
+with loud cries round the jetty and the arcade where the fish was
+packed. Nobody in Chagmouth ever molested the gulls; they were the
+mascots of the village, and, according to all traditions handed down
+from time immemorial, to injure one of them would be to court instant
+bad luck and risk at sea. Even the naughtiest boys did not throw stones
+at them, and they were indeed considered almost as sacred as are the
+storks in some countries.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+Mavis and Merle, much thrilled with their surroundings, plunged down
+the narrow little street and along flights of steps and under a deep
+archway, till they found themselves by the harbour, where red-sailed
+fishing-boats were at anchor, and blue-jerseyed, bronze-faced men were
+sitting on casks or on coils of rope, smoking, and talking about
+prospects of future catches. It was such a picturesque sight that Mavis
+wanted to linger, but Merle, who could catch a glimpse of the spray
+beyond the breakwater, pulled her on towards the sea. So they climbed
+one flight of steps, and went down another on the far side of the jetty,
+finding themselves on a strip of sand and shingle with high rocks and a
+headland behind, and the stretch of green open channel in front.</p>
+
+<p>The midday February sunshine made gleaming, dancing lights on the
+water. Each wave as it rolled in showed a transparent window of amber,
+then fell in foaming white on the beach, carrying back with it a mass of
+grinding pebbles. The south wind was fresh, but not at all cold. Mavis
+drank in great gasping breaths of it, as if it were something for which
+she had craved and pined. A fortnight of Devon had already brought a
+pink tinge to her cheeks, and the sea air to-day was turning them rosy.
+The girls walked about on the shore, picking up shells, examining the
+great tangled pieces of seaweed, and peeping into the pools among the
+rocks. They would have liked to go round the point, but Mavis's
+wristwatch warned her that time was galloping, and that if they meant to
+climb back up the hill to Grimbal's Farm they must turn at once and
+hurry their steps; so, very reluctantly, they said a temporary good-bye
+to the beach, promising themselves many further visits there on future
+Saturdays, and each taking a cockleshell to carry in her pocket as a
+charm to lure her again to the domain of the sea-nymphs.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+<a name="v" id="v"></a>CHAPTER V<br />
+
+<span class="sub">Fair Maids of February</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle had lunch with Uncle David in the parlour at Grimbal's
+Farm. It was a quaint, old-fashioned house-place, with a horsehair sofa,
+a cabinet full of best china, some enlarged family photographs in gilt
+frames, a very ancient piano, and a round table. It had the faint,
+musty, shut-up scent that clings to a room which is used only once a
+week, but a blazing fire of logs, and a bunch of snowdrops on the table,
+helped to give it a more occupied air. To the girls it was all part of
+their delightful new experience at Chagmouth. Everything was different
+from home, and therefore interesting, and when Mrs. Penruddock brought
+in a bowl of Devonshire cream with the roasted apples they felt they
+were indeed in a land of plenty. When the meal was over, Dr. Tremayne
+retired into his dispensary to make up medicines, telling the girls to
+wait about for him and not go too far away, as he would soon be starting
+on his round, and would take them in the car.</p>
+
+<p>Of course they did not want to stay in the house, so, accepting Mrs.
+Penruddock's invitation "Go just<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+wherever you like", they started to
+explore the farm premises. Clumps of snowdrops were growing among the
+grass in the orchard under old apple trees, some of whose branches held
+boughs of mistletoe. Bulbs were pushing up in the garden, and the daphne
+mezereon was out already in the warm corner near the bee-hives. Through
+the stackyard flowed the stream which was such a feature of Chagmouth,
+and here its glittering, tumbling waters had been harnessed to turn a
+waterwheel that worked a churn, a turnip-cutter, and other farm
+implements. The wheel at present was still, and the girls could go quite
+close and examine it. It was a picturesque affair, yellow with lichen
+and moss, and with green ferns growing on the wall against which the
+water dripped. It was so utterly different from the unlovely, whirling,
+modern machinery to which they were accustomed in Whinburn that they
+climbed down the steep, narrow steps to get a nearer view. Birds were
+flitting hither and thither like dainty water nixies, great sprays of
+periwinkle trailed down the banks, and the stream danced by with a
+gurgling murmur as if it were trying to put some story into words.
+Mavis, standing on the lowest of the steps, and leaning against a blade
+of the waterwheel, threw sticks on to its bosom and watched them as they
+bobbed along on their way towards the sea.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello!" called a voice from above. "If you don't want to get knocked
+into the water you'd better come up. The wheel will be turning in
+another moment. We didn't know you were down there."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+The girls made a hurried ascent of the steps, and came scrambling up
+into the stackyard. The stream might have its attractions, but they had
+no wish to try a February bath in it. At the top, by the door of the
+churning-shed, stood a boy of perhaps sixteen, a dark, good-looking boy,
+with clear brown eyes that sparkled and twinkled like the dancing water
+below. He held out a strong hand and helped them up the last of the
+awkward steps.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Tremayne sent me to look for you," he volunteered, "and a hunt I've
+had. I thought you must have gone down the town. I wouldn't have found
+you, only I heard your voices. He's ready to start, and in two minds
+whether to set off without you or not."</p>
+
+<p>"Is he waiting? Oh, I'm so sorry! Where's the car? On the road by the
+front door? Can we cut across the orchard here? Oh, thanks! We won't be
+two seconds," and Mavis, scrambling over a fence, made a bee-line for
+the house in hot haste.</p>
+
+<p>"We'd no idea it was so late," added Merle, scurrying after her with
+only half a glance at the knight who had come to their rescue.</p>
+
+<p>The boy stood watching their race across the orchard with an amused look
+in his dark eyes, then he picked up a piece of rope and went away down
+the stackyard to the stables, whistling softly to himself as he walked.</p>
+
+<p>The girls arrived at the front door of the farm at the very eleventh
+hour, for Dr. Tremayne had started the engine, and was on the point of
+setting forth for his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+visits. They scrambled into the car, pouring out
+breathless apologies.</p>
+
+<p>"You were nearly left behind," he commented. "I've a long round and
+couldn't wait, but I thought you'd like to come with me to the
+Sanatorium; there's such a glorious view up there. It would have been a
+pity to miss it. Yes, put that scarf round your neck, Mavis, certainly!"
+as a scrimmage went on between the two girls, Merle trying to force
+wraps upon her sister, which the latter fiercely resisted.</p>
+
+<p>"I hate to be eternally coddled," protested Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>"You know what Mother said. You must put on extra things in the car,
+especially when you're so hot with running. She told me to make you."</p>
+
+<p>"Right-o! only don't quite smother me, please," agreed Mavis, giving up
+the struggle and submitting to the warm scarf. "Anything for a quiet
+life. Do keep still, and sit more forward, can't you? Uncle David hasn't
+room to drive. Are you going straight to the Sanatorium now, Uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must call at The Warren first to see Mrs. Glyn Williams. That's the
+house, the white one among the trees. They've a beautiful sheltered
+garden there. I wish I could grow early vegetables like they do. They
+seem to escape all the frosts. It's the most forward bit of land in the
+countryside."</p>
+
+<p>In another minute they had passed the great gates and were motoring up
+the laurel-bordered drive to the house. Dr. Tremayne stopped his car on
+the carriage sweep opposite the glass front door, drew off his thick<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+gauntlet gloves, took his case of instruments, and rang the bell.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd rather stay with the car than come inside?" he asked the girls.
+"I shall probably be perhaps twenty minutes&mdash;not longer, I hope! Walk
+about, Mavis, if you feel chilly. I'm sure Mrs.&mdash;&mdash;" but at that moment
+the butler opened the door, and the rest of the doctor's sentence went
+unspoken.</p>
+
+<p>For a space of five minutes the Ramsays stayed quietly in the car, then
+Merle began to grow restless. She amused herself by inspecting the
+various levers.</p>
+
+<p>"I could start as easily as anything," she announced airily.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Merle, <em>don't</em>! Uncle David will be so angry if you play any of
+your pranks with the car. Let us get out and walk about till he comes
+back. I'm tired of sitting still."</p>
+
+<p>Anxious to keep her sister away from temptation, Mavis hustled her out
+of the car on to the drive, and began to pace up and down the carriage
+sweep. But this did not content lively Merle. She wanted to sample the
+garden.</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle David was just going to tell us to go when he went indoors," she
+contended, and there seemed so much truth in her argument that Mavis
+yielded, though slightly against her better judgment.</p>
+
+<p>It was so warm that they took off their coats and left them inside the
+car, then they selected an interesting-looking path among the bushes,
+and started to explore. Certainly it was a delightful garden; it had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+lawns and shrubberies and flower-borders, and a brook with a rustic
+bridge over it, and a glade that looked a veritable fairies'
+dancing-place. Mavis and Merle were thoroughly enjoying themselves. They
+were in no particular hurry, because they thought when Uncle David came
+out of the house and missed them he would sound his motor-horn as a
+signal for them to return. They walked on, therefore, some considerable
+way along the course of the little brook. Quite suddenly they heard
+voices, and from a path slightly ahead two girls turned into the glade.
+The Ramsays remembered them instantly. They had been present at the
+dancing-class yesterday, and it was indeed the elder of them who had
+behaved with such extreme rudeness to Merle in the ladies' chain. The
+recognition seemed to be mutual. They came forward briskly towards Mavis
+and Merle, who stood still, feeling decidedly caught, but determined to
+hold their own.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello! What are you doing here in our garden?" began the elder girl
+inhospitably.</p>
+
+<p>"Looking at your flowers," answered Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I must say that's rather cool. Don't you know you're
+trespassing?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you are at any rate. These are private grounds."</p>
+
+<p>"So I suppose, but we're not doing them any harm by walking round them."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Merle, <em>do</em> let us explain properly," put in Mavis, trying to stop
+this unseemly fencing. "We<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+came with our uncle, Dr. Tremayne, and we got
+tired of sitting in the car waiting for him, so we took a walk. We
+didn't think anyone would mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Is Dr. Tremayne your uncle? Why didn't you say so before?"</p>
+
+<p>"You never gave us a chance!" snapped Merle. "Of course he's our uncle.
+There goes his hooter. We must scoot back, because he'll be in a hurry
+to start."</p>
+
+<p>"I can show you a short cut," volunteered the younger girl, speaking for
+the first time, and running in front she led the way, between bushes and
+through a vegetable garden, back to the carriage sweep opposite the
+front door.</p>
+
+<p>Here Dr. Tremayne was hooting loudly to recall his wandering nieces, and
+looked not a little relieved at their appearance.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I'd lost you again," he said, as they came up. "So you've
+been making friends with Babbie? Where's Gwen? Is her wrist better? I
+wanted to look at it. Yes, fetch her, please, Babbie! I may as well see
+her while I'm here."</p>
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle, with eyes fixed on the distant landscape, sat in the
+car while Dr. Tremayne made a hurried examination of Gwen Williams's
+wrist. They did not look in her direction as they drove away, though
+they nodded a stately good-bye to Babbie.</p>
+
+<p>"Think of meeting <em>that</em> girl here," whispered Merle to Mavis. "Isn't
+she odious?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish we'd never gone into their garden," Mavis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+whispered back. "If
+there's anything in the world I hate it's being caught."</p>
+
+<p>The brief episode had upset them both. They did not care to explain it
+to Uncle David, and sat rather silent and glum as he drove up the road
+to the Sanatorium. It was not flattering to have been taken for
+trespassing trippers, which was evidently what Gwen had supposed them to
+be. Her reception had certainly been most impolite, and was calculated
+to hurt anybody's feelings. They cheered up a little when they reached
+the top of the hill, and began to forget about it, for in front lay such
+a view of cliff and sea and sky as to send all cobwebs flying away to
+the region where dismal things belong. The Sanatorium had been built in
+a glorious situation, and surely no place in Devon had a more beautiful
+prospect from its open windows. Dr. Tremayne halted outside the gate for
+a few moments, and pointed out to his nieces certain distant features of
+interest, such as the lighthouse, and Port Sennen harbour. He was
+expatiating upon the clearness of the afternoon, when a voice called him
+by name, and, turning round, the girls saw, hurrying along the road
+after them, the boy who had helped them up the steps from the waterwheel
+at Grimbal's Farm. His dark face looked hot. He had evidently been
+running fast.</p>
+
+<p>"I hoped I'd just catch you, Doctor," he exclaimed breathlessly. "You
+left this in the surgery, and I was sure you'd want it."</p>
+
+<p>"My stethoscope! Great Scott! I thought it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+in my pocket. Thanks,
+Bevis! I should have had to go back for it. I suppose you came by the
+cliff path?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it saves half a mile at least."</p>
+
+<p>"You're going home that way? I wonder if my nieces would care to go with
+you for the sake of the walk. Girls, would you rather wait in the car
+outside the Sanatorium or try the path along the cliffs to Chagmouth?
+Bevis would act guide."</p>
+
+<p>After their previous experience of waiting for Uncle David, Mavis and
+Merle did not hesitate a moment, and accepted their escort with
+alacrity. A ramble would be far more fun than sitting still in the car,
+or wandering surreptitiously round a strange garden. Dr. Tremayne was in
+a hurry, so the moment they had scrambled out he pulled his
+starting-lever and set off again.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll meet at the farm. Mrs. Penruddock will give you some tea. I shall
+be back by five, so be ready for me then," he called, as he drove away
+along the road through the Sanatorium grounds.</p>
+
+<p>Left behind, Mavis and Merle felt their first and most obvious duty was
+to make friends with the boy who was to act as their guide back to
+Chagmouth. Beyond the fact that his name was Bevis they knew absolutely
+nothing about him. They wondered whether he belonged to Grimbal's Farm,
+or was merely a visitor there. His dark, alert face and his speech and
+general bearing marked him as utterly different from homely Mr. and Mrs.
+Penruddock. Merle, calling up a mental vision of the stout, ruddy-haired
+woman who had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+charge of the surgery, and the slow, heavy-featured farmer
+whom she had seen in the stackyard, decided hastily, "They can't be his
+father and mother!" Whoever he might be he was a handsome boy, with a
+look of natural distinction about him, that "stamp of the gods", which
+is the hall-mark of a noble mind, quite irrespective of the accident of
+birth. His dark hair had a crisp curl in it, and his mouth held
+beautiful curves when he smiled. Merle, who had lately taken several
+violent prejudices, in this instance decided hotly in his favour. Merle
+never liked people by halves. All her world consisted of foes or chums.</p>
+
+<p>Bevis, who had readily accepted the office of guide, seemed doing his
+best to make himself agreeable. He led the way along a path across some
+fields and on to the headland that skirted the sea. There was a track
+here among the gorse and dead bracken, so faint indeed that the girls
+would not have found it for themselves, though Bevis walked along
+confidently. Below them lay the sea, and great jagged rocks, round which
+crowds of gulls were whirling and calling, and here and there flew a
+cormorant, like a black sheep among the white flock, diving occasionally
+under the waves in quest of fish. There could hardly be a pleasanter
+companion than Bevis. He knew the names of all the birds, and could tell
+where he had found their nests. He pointed out two distant black specks,
+that to the girls might have been anything, but which he assured them
+represented a pair of choughs that built every year on the cliffs.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+"We tried to get some eggs," he explained, "but the nest was in such an
+awkward place, we couldn't reach it even with a rope."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to tell me you'd let yourself dangle over the edge there to
+collect eggs?" asked Mavis. "Don't you turn dizzy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit. As long as I know the rope isn't frayed, I'm all right.
+There's something rather jolly about hanging in mid-air. I feel like a
+bird myself. I once got a hooded crow's egg from that cliff over there.
+I gave it to our school museum."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you go to school near here?" asked Merle, hoping to draw some
+information. But Bevis shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I've left now," he said briefly, and changed the subject.</p>
+
+<p>As they neared Chagmouth the track they had followed led them down the
+side of the cliff to where some allotment gardens lay under the shelter
+of the headland. Many of these were neglected and uncultivated, but a
+few showed signs of recent digging. Bevis, pausing by a small wooden
+gate, pointed downwards.</p>
+
+<p>"That's ours," he explained, "and if you don't mind I want to fetch my
+knife. I believe I left it there yesterday when I was working. I won't
+be a minute if you can wait."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do let us come too, please!" urged the girls.</p>
+
+<p>So they all went down, scrambling along a kind of sheep track till they
+reached the level patch of rich<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+soil below. The little plot of land was
+mostly devoted to vegetables, but it also held a few fruit-trees and
+some flowers. There was a fallen stump in its midst, which made a
+capital seat, and here the girls settled themselves to rest while Bevis
+looked for his knife. Snowdrops grew in profusion around them, lifting
+tall stalks and pure white heads above the herbage through which they
+had pushed. The late afternoon sun just touched the roofs of the little
+fishing-town below, though the beach lay in shadow. Up among the woods
+some glass windows gleamed like gold.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that The Warren, where we went with Uncle David?" asked Merle, as
+Bevis came back, pocketing his knife. "Whose place is it? It has lovely
+grounds."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's The Warren sure enough. Whose place is it? Why, it belongs
+to General Talland. He's the landlord of most of Chagmouth."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought some people named Williams lived there?"</p>
+
+<p>"So they do, but they don't own the village, however much they may think
+it. They only <em>rent</em> the house&mdash;it's not theirs. We Chagmouth folks
+don't want one of your fine society squires thrust down our throats.
+We'll manage our own affairs."</p>
+
+<p>Bevis spoke bitterly, with a look towards the house on the wooded hill
+that sent no goodwill towards its occupants. Merle, burning to relate
+her experiences at The Warren, was about to ask more, but Bevis turned
+abruptly away. He was friendly, but so plainly reserved that nobody with
+an ounce of tact would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+tried to force his confidence. Even Merle,
+not usually over-discreet, had the sense to keep back the dozen
+questions that rose to her lips. Their companion was bending among the
+grass and brambles picking snowdrops. He gathered the finest ones, with
+the longest stalks, arranged them into two exactly equal bunches, then
+offered them shyly to the girls.</p>
+
+<p>"We call them 'Fair Maids of February' about here," he said. "It's the
+first of February to-day, and you're the 'fair maids', so you ought to
+have some of your own flowers if you care to take them."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thanks!" (Mavis and Merle were flattered by the compliment). "We'll
+love to have them. We'll take them home in the car. What beauties they
+are! I never saw such big ones before. Did you plant them here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I put a few bulbs down years ago, and they've spread. They will if you
+never touch them. Shall we go on now? Mother'll have some tea ready for
+you, I expect. The Doctor generally gets his at the Sanatorium. I
+promised to make up some medicines for him, so I must hurry back."</p>
+
+<p>The girls followed, considerably mystified. Bevis's connection with
+Grimbal's Farm was a puzzle. He left them in the stackyard and plunged
+into one of the barns, and later on they caught a glimpse of his dark,
+curly head through the door of the dispensary. They did not see him
+again before they left. Mrs. Penruddock, kind but too busy for
+conversation, brought the tray into the parlour and left them to have
+their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+tea, and they had scarcely finished eating saffron-cake and
+hard-bake when Dr. Tremayne arrived, in a violent hurry to get back to
+Durracombe. So they scrambled into their coats and wraps, picked up
+their bunches of snowdrops, and took their seats in the car, and next
+moment they were off up the steep hill that led out of the ravine.
+Before they whirled round the corner they turned their heads for one
+last peep at Chagmouth. The little town lay huddled in twilight, and the
+sea behind was dim as the sky, but the brook purred joyously on its
+pebbly course among the gardens, and the faint scent of burning
+driftwood was wafted up from below.</p>
+
+<p>"This day's going to be specially marked in my diary," murmured Merle.
+"It's been a day of days."</p>
+
+<p>"I feel somehow as if it were the beginning of something else," answered
+Mavis. "Uncle David, you'll bring us here again, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Any Saturday that's fine."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall simply live for fine Saturdays and Chagmouth. It's the
+loveliest place I've ever seen. I don't believe there's anything else
+like it in the whole of the wide world, or anywhere else out of
+Paradise. That's how I feel about it!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+<a name="vi" id="vi"></a>CHAPTER VI<br />
+
+<span class="sub">A Child of Misfortune</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle were brimming over with curiosity about Bevis and about
+several other affairs in Chagmouth, but they had to keep their questions
+to themselves, for Dr. Tremayne considered that narrow Devon roads in
+the gathering darkness required his whole attention, and that
+conversation might mean an accident.</p>
+
+<p>"You're requested not to speak to the man at the wheel," he replied, in
+answer to Merle's first eager inquiry; "it takes me all my time to
+drive."</p>
+
+<p>So the girls subsided into quiet, and did not even speak to one another,
+but sat watching the glare of the headlights on the road and the dark
+outlines of the high hedges and banks above. They made up for their
+silence, though, after supper, for they found Jessop in the pantry, and,
+offering to wipe the silver for her as an excuse for their presence,
+they began a brisk catechism.</p>
+
+<p>Jessop was a kindly old gossip, a native of Chagmouth, and had all the
+affairs of the little town at her fingers' ends. She was nothing loath
+to discuss its inhabitants while she washed up the supper things.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+"To begin with, who is Bevis?" asked Mavis eagerly. "We can't make him
+out at all. He speaks and looks like a gentleman, and yet he talked
+about working in the fields. Does he live at Grimbal's Farm? What
+relation is he to Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock?"</p>
+
+<p>"He called Mrs. Penruddock 'Mother'," added Merle, "but he doesn't look
+the least bit like her son. Is he or not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes and no," said Jessop, wielding her dish-cloth as she talked. "Mrs.
+Penruddock has been a good mother to him for a matter of over fourteen
+years now, but his own mother lies in Chagmouth churchyard. She must
+have been a handsome woman from all accounts, though I never saw her
+myself. It was my cousin, Mary, who was barmaid at the 'King's Arms' at
+the time, who told me. It's a long story. There are many in Chagmouth
+besides you who've asked themselves if Bevis isn't a gentleman born. But
+nobody has ever been able to answer the question."</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Oh, do tell us!"</p>
+
+<p>"We want so immensely to know."</p>
+
+<p>Jessop wrung out her dish-cloth with rather irritating slowness, then
+hung it to dry on a nail. She seemed turning matters over in her mind,
+and her mental processes were apparently no swifter than her actions.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why I shouldn't. There's nothing you oughtn't to hear,"
+she replied at last, as if coming to a conclusion. "Everybody in
+Chagmouth knows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+about Bevis, and if I don't tell you somebody else will.
+It's nothing to the lad's discredit, I'm sure. I always say I've a soft
+corner for Bevis. Such a fine boy he always was, and he'll make a fine
+man yet&mdash;he's worth two of young Williams at The Warren in my opinion.
+But some folks are born with silver spoons in their mouths and others
+aren't. Bevis isn't one of the lucky ones, poor lad! Providence always
+seems to be taking him up and throwing him down again. What'll be the
+end of him goodness only knows!"</p>
+
+<p>The story which Jessop told to the girls, while she polished the silver
+in the pantry, was lengthy and interspersed with many comments and
+reflections of her own, and many quotations from what other people had
+said, but the main facts of the case, as related to Mavis and Merle,
+were briefly as follows.</p>
+
+<p>Rather more than fourteen years ago, on a stormy afternoon in late
+autumn, such inhabitants of Chagmouth as happened to be standing on
+their doorsteps, or looking out of their windows, noticed a closed
+conveyance from Kilvan station drive along the main street. The
+occurrence was sufficiently unusual to arouse comment. Except in the
+summer season tourists rarely came to Chagmouth, and if any stranger
+made his appearance during the quiet months of the year the villagers
+were naturally inquisitive as to his errand. In a small place every item
+of news is of interest, and those who saw the conveyance pass at once
+began to speculate whether the Rector's sister had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+come to pay him a
+visit, or whether old Mrs. Greaves's sailor son had returned home on
+leave. The bystanders near the market square had the opportunity of
+satisfying their curiosity, for the carriage stopped at the King's Arms
+Hotel, and from it stepped a lady, young, handsome, and well-dressed,
+and carrying a little child in her arms. She interrogated the landlord,
+who had come to the door at the sound of wheels, paid and dismissed the
+driver, gave one hasty glance round the square, then entered the hotel.</p>
+
+<p>Those inhabitants of Chagmouth who witnessed her arrival agreed
+afterwards that she was "a dark-eyed, smart-looking sort of person, with
+an air of London fashions about her", but their glimpse was a brief one,
+for next moment she and her child and her travelling-bag had disappeared
+inside the doorway of the little hotel, and the conveyance was toiling
+up the hill on its way back to Kilvan station.</p>
+
+<p>Inside the "King's Arms" the lady gave her name as Mrs. Hunter, and
+engaged a private sitting-room and a bedroom, explaining that she had
+heard of the mild climate of Chagmouth and wished to try the benefit of
+its sea air. With the help of the chambermaid she bathed her little boy
+and put him to bed. Later she was served with dinner. At about nine
+o'clock she rang the bell violently, and the servant, who came in
+response to her summons, found her huddled in an armchair, half fainting
+and fighting for breath.</p>
+
+<p>"My heart," she panted. "It's one of my heart<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+attacks. Can you fetch a
+doctor? Oh, I am dying!"</p>
+
+<p>The terrified girl ran for the landlord, who hurried in with brandy. In
+the midst of the general panic someone was dispatched for the village
+nurse, and the ostler mounted a bicycle and rode away to Durracombe to
+summon Dr. Tremayne. The people at the "King's Arms" did their ignorant
+best. They laid the patient on the sofa, rubbed her hands, bathed her
+head, and tried to force brandy between her blue lips; but long before
+any medical aid could reach her, she gave one last shuddering gasp, and
+passed away beyond reach of human help. Dr. Tremayne had been paying a
+night visit to a farm on the moors. It was not possible for him to
+arrive at Chagmouth until the following morning. He found the place all
+agog about the tragic event that had happened. Mrs. Jarvis, the village
+nurse, had performed the last offices. Mr. Tingcomb, the landlord, had
+solemnly collected the poor lady's possessions and had locked them up in
+his safe, and his wife and the barmaid between them were trying to still
+the wails of the little, dark-eyed boy, who did not take readily to
+strangers and refused all their well-meant offers of comfort.</p>
+
+<p>Such a case had never been known in the neighbourhood, for not only had
+the stranger succumbed within a few hours of her arrival at Chagmouth,
+but the news soon leaked out that it was impossible to identify her.
+There were no papers of any kind either in her pockets or in her
+travelling-bag. Her purse contained six pounds in gold and a little
+silver, but no card or address<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+to mark its owner. The police, called in
+to investigate matters, could obtain no clue. On hearing all the
+evidence they ventured the opinion that the lady had probably given a
+false name. London newspapers published an account of the romantic
+happening, and for perhaps a week the public wondered over it, then
+other and more important matters cropped up and it was forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, in the absence of any information as to who she was or whence
+she had come, the stranger had been laid to rest in the little
+churchyard on the hill, and the rector, in charity, presuming her to be
+one of his flock, read Christian burial-service over her. Whatever her
+errand in Chagmouth her earthly body found its last home there, and most
+of the villagers, some in kindly sympathy and some in mere curiosity,
+attended the funeral and left flowers upon her grave.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, amid the whole of the sad and perplexing business, the great
+centre of interest was the dark-eyed baby who was toddling about the
+passages of the "King's Arms". He had made friends with Mrs. Tingcomb
+and the barmaid, but resented being kissed by the dozens of women who
+came to see him and gossip over him. He was a bonny, sturdy, little
+fellow, possibly about two years old, who could walk, but beyond a few
+words had not mastered even the elements of speech. The chambermaid, who
+helped at his first bath, remembered that his mother had called him
+Bevis. The possession of his Christian name was felt to be something,
+though all other information<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+about him was painfully lacking. For
+several weeks the police did their best to trace his relations, and Mr.
+Tingcomb lived in hourly expectation that somebody would arrive suddenly
+in a station conveyance to claim him and take him away. But nobody came.
+The excitement died down, and presently even the local newspapers ceased
+to refer to the case. People began to shake their heads and say it was
+plain the poor lamb wasn't wanted, or his friends would have turned up
+from somewhere to find him. Mrs. Tingcomb, very much occupied with her
+house and the bar, began to complain to her neighbours of the burden of
+her charge. It was nobody's business at the "King's Arms" to look after
+a lively boy whose toddling feet led him into every mischief. She even
+hinted that she considered the time had arrived when she could
+conscientiously hand him over to the Poor Law Guardians at the "Union",
+whose obvious duty it was to provide for him.</p>
+
+<p>At this point of the proceedings Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock had stepped
+into the breach. Eight years before they had lost their only child, a
+boy of three, and they now proposed to adopt little Bevis to fill up the
+empty gap in their household. They were kind, homely people, without
+much education, but thoroughly respected in the village, and everybody
+at once agreed that their offer solved the difficult problem. To save
+the child from the stigma of being brought up at the Union was
+everything. Even the poorest fisherman's home would have been preferable
+to that. So little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+Bevis, with the approval of the whole of Chagmouth,
+was formally adopted and transferred to Grimbal's Farm, where he grew
+apace and learnt to call Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock Father and Mother. If
+gossiping tongues could only have kept silent he might have continued to
+believe they were his parents, but one day, when he was about seven
+years old, he came back from school crying as if his heart was broken.
+Some of the boys had teased him and told him the story, with several
+exaggerations, of how he had been left at the "King's Arms" and never
+claimed. Mrs. Penruddock comforted him as best she could, but she
+acknowledged to her neighbours that he was never the same child
+afterwards. The knowledge had shattered his Paradise. He was a very
+proud, sensitive boy, and the taunts of his schoolfellows rankled.
+Henceforward he felt a sense of difference between himself and other
+children. He was quick to catch any allusions to his position, and a
+word or a glance was enough to bring the colour flooding into his
+cheeks. He fought many battles at school on this score, for he was hot
+tempered as well as proud, and for a year or two he was somewhat of an
+Ishmael, shunning his companions and hurrying home to the haven of
+Grimbal's Farm directly lessons were over.</p>
+
+<p>Then the fates, who seemed to use the boy as a shuttlecock, brought him
+an unexpected turn of good fortune. A lady, who was a summer visitor at
+the farm, took an interest in him, and was much touched by the romance
+of his story. She was well off, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+she offered to pay for his education
+at a high-class school. So Bevis went as a boarder to Shelton College,
+where nobody knew anything about his antecedents, and he held his own
+among other boys, and only came back to Grimbal's Farm for holidays, and
+grew up so different from the fisher children of Chagmouth that he was
+less inclined than ever to make friends with them, and was a source of
+much gratification to Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock, who marvelled at his
+learning and his manners, and were as proud of him as a pair of robins
+who have hatched a young cuckoo.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Martin, the lady who had provided for Bevis's education, threw out
+hints of Cambridge, and of training him for one of the professions, a
+goal which had spurred his ambition and caused him to work his hardest.
+He was making most satisfactory progress at Shelton College, and was
+already beginning to look forward to choosing a career, when fickle fate
+again interfered, and toppled over all his castles in the air. Mrs.
+Martin died suddenly and left no will. Her heirs-at-law took over her
+estate, and paid any outstanding debts, but they saw no necessity for
+continuing her charities. Bevis's schooldays, therefore, came to a brief
+end, and he returned to Grimbal's Farm with no prospect of ever
+realizing the hopes that tantalizing Fortune had dangled before his
+longing eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I do say it's hard on him," finished Jessop, as she told the tale to
+Mavis and Merle in the pantry. "He's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+been educated a gentleman as much
+as young Williams at The Warren&mdash;and my cousin, Mary, who saw her,
+sticks to it his mother was a lady born!&mdash;yet there he is, working on
+the farm like any labourer, and it's not his job. A head-piece like his
+was meant for book learning and college."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock send him back to school?" asked Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>"No; the farm's not been doing over well lately. They want his help on
+the land, too, and, fair play to the lad, he's giving them of his best.
+It's a poor look-out for him, though, just to carry on at the farm. The
+doctor has been teaching him to dispense, but that's only a step towards
+medicine, and won't do much for him in the long run, I'm afraid. Some
+say it was foolish kindness of Mrs. Martin, and his schooling will have
+done him more harm than good, but you know how folks talk. They're all a
+bit jealous of him really, down Chagmouth way, if the truth be told.
+He's a fine lad, and he sticks to his foster-parents right loyally, but
+you've only to look at him to see he was made for something different
+from farm life, and if ever he gets the chance he'll be off and away, or
+I'm greatly mistaken. There, I've told you all about Bevis, and a little
+too much perhaps, though there's no harm in your knowing, that I can
+see."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you!" said Mavis. "We're so glad to know. It explains so very
+much that we thought queer about him. I understand it all now. Poor
+Bevis!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+"Yes, poor Bevis, indeed!" echoed Merle. "We'd no idea he had all that
+romantic story behind him when we walked down the cliffs with him this
+afternoon. What you say is just right&mdash;he's different altogether from
+other people, and you wonder how it is until you really know the reason
+why."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+<a name="vii" id="vii"></a>CHAPTER VII<br />
+
+<span class="sub">The Innovators</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle had been so tremendously interested in the romantic
+story of Bevis, as related by Jessop, that it had almost wiped from
+their minds the meeting with Gwen Williams and the rather unpleasant
+episode in the garden at The Warren. On the two occasions that they had
+encountered her she had made a very unfavourable impression upon them,
+so they were more surprised than pleased when on Tuesday morning she
+turned up at the French class. She walked into the room as if her
+presence were a favour, nodded to Opal Earnshaw, gave a half recognition
+to Edith and Maude Carey, but took no notice of anybody else, indeed she
+conspicuously turned her back on Aubrey Simpson and Muriel Burnitt.</p>
+
+<p>"What's Miss Conceit doing here?" Merle whispered to Iva. "I hope she's
+not going to come every day."</p>
+
+<p>"Gwen? Oh no! She and Babbie only come for French twice a week, and on
+dancing afternoons. They have a governess at home, and motor over here
+for special lessons. You don't like her? I don't<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+think any of us do
+much, except Opal, who toadies to her most fearfully. She's always
+fishing for invitations to The Warren."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a matter of taste," replied Merle. "I'm sure I wouldn't want to go
+to The Warren if I was asked."</p>
+
+<p>But at that moment Mademoiselle, who had entered the room and taken her
+seat, glared at Iva and Merle for silence, and the lesson commenced. The
+class lasted from 2.30 to 3.30, after which the Williams's car was
+supposed to be in waiting to bear them back to Chagmouth, and the girls
+at The Moorings were due at a hockey practice. To-day, however, fate
+interfered with both of these events. The chauffeur sent a message to
+Gwen and Babbie that the car was undergoing some necessary repairs at
+the garage in Durracombe and would not be ready for at least an hour,
+and pouring rain put a stop to all plans of hockey.</p>
+
+<p>Boarders and day-girls alike collected disconsolately in the playroom.
+Miss Pollard had given orders that nobody was to go home until the heavy
+shower was over, so the whole school were temporary prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>Mavis, sitting on one of the lockers, and listening to the general
+grousing going on around her, shook herself impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"What a set of stupids they are," she whispered to Merle. "Always down
+in the dumps about everything. Can't we wake them up somehow? I vote we
+get up an impromptu stunt. It would be more fun than sitting grumbling.
+Why shouldn't we do that scene we had at the Whinburn High last term?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+You remember? <em>Aunt Laetitia</em>, I mean. You take the aunt, and I'll take
+Adelaide, and Iva and Nesta could be Dora and Marjorie. We'd explain
+their parts to them directly, there isn't much for them to do except
+back up Adelaide."</p>
+
+<p>"Topping!" agreed Merle. "There'll be heaps of time. Here come Iva and
+Nesta. I'll take them into the cloakroom and coach them while you
+suggest the idea. It ought to catch on surely. I'll leave you to
+explain."</p>
+
+<p>Merle secured Iva and Nesta and bore them off to give them a hasty
+outline of the sketch which they were to produce. Mavis meantime mounted
+a chair, and, clapping her hands to secure attention, made her proposal.</p>
+
+<p>"Ladies and gentlemen," she started humorously. "I always begin 'Ladies
+and Gentlemen', even if there aren't any gentlemen present, because it's
+the proper thing to say and sounds nice. If you don't mind listening to
+me for a moment there's something I want to suggest to you. This rain is
+the absolute limit, and it's rather grizzly we can't go out to hockey.
+As we're all boxed up here, how would you like a ten minutes' stunt?
+Merle and I and two others can give you a short sketch if you care to
+listen. Anybody who wants to act audience, please squat on the floor."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="both" id="both"></a>
+<img src="images/gs02.jpg" width="400" height="639"
+alt="BOTH MAVIS AND MERLE LET THEMSELVES GO" title="Page 89" />
+<p class="caption">BOTH MAVIS AND MERLE LET THEMSELVES GO</p>
+<p class="right"><a href="#both2"><i>Page 89</i></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The girls looked considerably astonished, but nevertheless seemed to
+welcome Mavis's proposal. They sat down as requested, most of them on
+the floor, but a few on chairs or lockers, seemingly prepared to listen
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+to anything that was provided for them. They had not to wait long. Mavis
+and Merle were adepts in arranging lightning changes of costume, and
+could assume a character in a moment by the addition of a hat, a coat,
+or a handkerchief. Acting came naturally to them, and they loved nothing
+better than impromptu performances. They walked in now, attired, the one
+as a straight-laced, elderly lady, and the other as her
+ultra-fashionable niece, and supported by Iva and Nesta, whose speeches
+consisted mostly of "Yes" and "No", commenced a brisk and most amusing
+dialogue, in which the aunt deplored the attitude of the modern girl,
+and contrasted her with the maiden of mid-Victorian days, while the
+niece held a brief for present-day damsels, and gave a lively defence of
+their doings.</p>
+
+<p><a name="both2" id="both2"></a>Both Mavis and Merle thoroughly let themselves go. They threw themselves
+entirely into their parts, and by speech, manner, and action reproduced
+the characters they represented, quite carrying the audience with them.
+When they stopped at the end of their little sketch they were greeted by
+a storm of clapping. The girls at The Moorings had never seen acting
+like that before and were most enthusiastic over it.</p>
+
+<p>"It was ripping!" approved Opal. "I say, we must have some more of this
+sort of thing. I call it A1."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know however you did it!" exclaimed Babbie Williams. (She had
+been standing open-eyed during the performance and was now gazing at
+Mavis and Merle as if she considered them geniuses in disguise.)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+"I'm so glad our car wasn't ready. I wouldn't have missed this for anything,
+would you, Gwen?" (turning impulsively to her sister).</p>
+
+<p>Gwen, who had clapped with the rest, did not answer. She too was staring
+at Mavis and Merle, looking at them as if they were some strange new
+creatures whom she could not yet comprehend. Apparently they did not fit
+in with any of her preconceived standards. Meeting Merle's eyes, she
+turned hastily away. A boarder brought a message that their car was at
+the door, so, summoning Babbie, she made a hasty exit without bidding
+good-bye to anybody, even to Opal.</p>
+
+<p>On the strength of the very favourable reception accorded to their first
+venture in the line of drama, Mavis and Merle held a long private
+confabulation, and decided to try and start a society to stir up the
+school.</p>
+
+<p>"They've nothing," said Mavis, "absolutely nothing! And I see
+possibilities of <em>such</em> fun! We ought to get up sing-songs and plays,
+and ten dozen other things. I call it an opportunity."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if Opal doesn't butt in and turn everything upside down. We shall
+have her to reckon with I expect."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, bother Opal! She's not the only girl in the school."</p>
+
+<p>"No, but she thinks she is."</p>
+
+<p>"Give her a decent part and she'll like it as much as anybody."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+"She's not going to be top-dog all along the line, though."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we can't leave her out of it. I suppose she'll have her turn just
+the same as other people, and we'll leave it at that."</p>
+
+<p>Next day, therefore, the Ramsays went to school bristling with ideas,
+and, calling a mass meeting in the playroom, made their proposals. The
+girls, who were ready for anything in the way of variety, accepted the
+innovations with alacrity, and in the course of the quarter of an hour
+allotted to lunch they formed a society, the object of which was, as
+Mavis expressed it, "to stir things up a little and have acting and
+sing-songs and any other fun that comes along". They fixed Wednesday
+afternoon from 4 o'clock to 4.30 for their first meeting.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Pollard won't mind our staying half an hour after school when she
+knows what it's for," declared Opal. "We'll have our&mdash;what did you call
+it?&mdash;symposium, then, and I dare say she'll give us other times too if
+we want to rehearse for a play. It would be prime to get up something
+big for the end of the term, wouldn't it? Who's going to read papers on
+Wednesday? Hands up those who'll volunteer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not much time to write anything before then," grumbled Nesta.</p>
+
+<p>"It needn't be original unless you like," put in Mavis. "For this first
+time you may recite some poetry if you want. It's just to get us all
+together and make a start."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+"Are those kids going to be in it?" objected Muriel, with a baneful eye
+on the juniors.</p>
+
+<p>"There's no harm in their coming to listen. It's really more fun if
+there's an audience. In a thing like this it's a case of 'the more the
+merrier'. I vote the whole school turns up on Wednesday at four."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes! Don't leave us out of it!" squeaked the small fry, in much
+terror lest they should be excluded from the delightful ceremony.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you promise to sit as mum as mice and not interrupt?"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll be absolute mascots!"</p>
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle, as originators of the innovations, felt a little
+anxious when Wednesday afternoon arrived. It is one thing to carry on
+old-established societies, where you can quote the traditions of years
+and the opinions of many past head-girls, and quite another to float
+them in a school where nothing of the sort has ever been formulated
+before. Opal's high-handed ways would probably be the main obstacle, but
+Mavis thought that with tact even Opal might be managed. As soon as ever
+afternoon classes were over every girl at The Moorings crowded into the
+playroom. There was a considerable amount of giggling and chattering,
+especially among the younger ones, but Merle, who was accustomed to
+public meetings, called out "Sh-sh!" in loud tones, and, mounting a
+locker, took advantage of the gap of silence to make an announcement.</p>
+
+<p>"The first business of the meeting is to elect a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+chairwoman. Will one of you please nominate somebody and we'll put it to the vote?"</p>
+
+<p>The girls looked at one another, and out of sheer force of habit began
+to murmur "Opal", but Iva Westwood stood up, and, turning rather pink,
+proclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to nominate Mavis for the chair. She knows more about it
+than any of the rest of us; and she'll show us what we ought to do, and
+put us in the way of running the society properly."</p>
+
+<p>"And I've much pleasure in seconding her," said Nesta eagerly. "Hands up
+all in favour of Mavis!"</p>
+
+<p>The vote was unanimous. Even Opal held up her hand quite readily. She
+would yield place to Mavis, though she would not have transferred an
+ounce of authority to Merle. Mavis was hustled forward into the seat of
+honour and took her place amid applause.</p>
+
+<p>She made a winsome little president, with her blue eyes and her
+dull-gold hair, and everybody looked at her in expectation.</p>
+
+<p>"As this is our first symposium," she began, "I want to explain that
+it's a meeting partly to have fun and enjoy ourselves and partly to give
+all members an opportunity of showing what they can do. Did I hear
+somebody say 'showing-off?' That's a nasty way of putting it! We want
+everybody to do something to entertain the meeting. Of course there
+isn't time in one afternoon for you all to have turns, so I shall only
+call upon a few, and the rest must wait for another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+time. I'll now ask Opal Earnshaw to read us her contribution."</p>
+
+<p>It was tactful of Mavis to give Opal the first innings. She stood up at
+once, looking quite pleased. She had spent more than an hour the evening
+before writing a story, and was rather proud of her first-born literary
+bantling. Her tastes inclined towards melodrama, so she had chosen a
+scene allowing full scope for romance. She unrolled her manuscript,
+cleared her throat a trifle nervously, and began:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="center">COUNT BERTINO'S BRIDE</p>
+
+<p>It was a glorious moonlight night in the fair Island of Corsica.
+Outside in the garden the air was heavy with the scent of
+southern flowers, and nightingales warbled in a concert of joy.
+The lovely Lady Elvira, only daughter and heiress of the Duke of
+Alezzo, leaned over the marble balustrade of the piazza,
+pensively gazing at the beauty of the scene before her. A
+scarlet camellia adorned her dark tresses, and round her
+swan-like neck was wreathed a rope of priceless pearls. She
+sighed as she gazed at the calm and peaceful landscape, for red
+riot raged within her heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Francesca!" she called to one of her maidens, "has Bernardo not
+yet returned? I pray you send a page in search of news. 'Tis
+seldom he tarries so late."</p>
+
+<p>"I go, my lady!" and Francesca sped on her errand.</p>
+
+<p>Left alone, Elvira paced the piazza with impatient footsteps. A
+dark figure moving among the flowers below was suddenly seen in
+the pale moonlight. The lady sprang to the balustrade.</p>
+
+<p>"Bernardo! Bernardo! Is it thou?" she whispered in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+tones tremulous with agitation. But her cheeks blanched, as instead of
+the longed-for features of her lover appeared the hated visage
+of her arch enemy Count Bertino.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, ha, lovely lady, at last I have found thee alone! Time
+allows me not to beat about the bush, and, rough warrior as I
+am, my suit must be brief. Too long hast thou trifled with me.
+Redeem thy promise and wed me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Never!" moaned Elvira. "My heart is given to another!"</p>
+
+<p>"And that other," triumphed the Count, "is now in my power. He
+lies in my darkest dungeon loaded with chains. Wed me, and he
+will be restored to liberty. Refuse, and by the tombs of my
+ancestors he dies the death!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wretch!" panted Elvira, "you have trapped me! But have a care!
+I may yet escape from your toils. Swear, by all you hold sacred,
+that at the hour of our nuptials Bernardo will be released and
+sent with a safe convoy to Rome."</p>
+
+<p>"I swear! Yet thou shalt not escape!"</p>
+
+<p>Great were the preparations for the wedding of the powerful
+Count Bertino and the heiress Elvira, yet of all the gifts
+showered upon her the one treasured most by the bride was an
+emerald ring sent by Albaro, the Moorish alchemist. As she
+turned it upon her finger she murmured, "'Tis my gate to
+freedom".</p>
+
+<p>Beautiful in her bridal jewels, but pale as a lily, she
+approached the altar, and uttered the fateful words which bound
+her to the Count, but as he turned to lift her veil and claim
+her as his wife&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is enough!" she cried, "I have freed him and I pass onward
+to my rest," and, falling backward to the ground, she expired.
+Her emerald ring was a poisoned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+one, and by pressing its points
+into her fair white hand she had placed herself for ever beyond
+the power of the cruel and revengeful Count Bertino.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Opal sat down, out of breath but covered with glory. Quite a thrill
+passed round the room at so romantic a story.</p>
+
+<p>"O-o-h! It ought to be put on the cinema," suggested Maude Carey. "I can
+see it all&mdash;the balustrade and the moonlight and the count coming, and
+then the wedding scene. How <em>did</em> you think of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it just came somehow," admitted Opal modestly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's ripping anyway."</p>
+
+<p>"Only very sad," objected Muriel.</p>
+
+<p>"Tales like that nearly always are sad," put in Mavis; "it wouldn't be
+so romantic somehow if it turned out happily."</p>
+
+<p>"Couldn't the lovers have run away?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not," said Opal sharply. "Bernardo wasn't to be released
+until the wedding was over."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he get off after all, or did Bertino break his word?"</p>
+
+<p>"Look here! you mustn't ask so many questions," interrupted Mavis. "If
+we don't hurry on we shall never finish our programme. Perhaps we'd
+better take a comic turn next. Merle, will you give us 'The Dandy
+Musician'?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a piano in the playroom, and Merle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+moved forwards towards it.
+Her contribution was in the nature of a humorous entertainment.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to show you," she explained, "how Professor Vladimir
+Limpidimpidumpski gave a recital in the Town Hall of Gapeford before an
+audience of the most distinguished people in the neighbourhood."</p>
+
+<p>Merle was a capital little actress, and she took off the ways of a
+conceited pianist in a most amusing fashion. She twirled the music-stool
+energetically, sat down with great pomp, threw back her hair, flung her
+hands in the air, touched the keys with much affectation, thumped a
+growling bass, and ran a finger up and down the treble, gazing meanwhile
+at the ceiling with an air of intense sentiment. Then she hunched up her
+shoulders and made a violent and wild onslaught on the instrument,
+banging chords furiously with the weight of her whole arms, and rolling
+her head as if in frenzy; a sudden pause was followed by a faint tinkle
+in the treble, then up went the arms again, her head went down in the
+middle, and she finished by a tremendous thump at either end of the
+piano, while her nose played the central C.</p>
+
+<p>The tremendous bows which she returned in answer to the applause were
+part of the performance, and provoked more clapping. The girls clamoured
+for an encore, but at that she shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Professor Vladimir Limpidimpidumpski never gives encores," she
+declared. "He says it takes it out of him, and he can only do it once."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+"Poor, frail flower," laughed Nesta. "Send him to a nursing-home for a
+rest cure."</p>
+
+<p>"Right-o! And we'll have your contribution while he goes."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes! Don't be bashful! Come along!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's your turn, Nesta, really," urged Mavis, as chairwoman of the
+proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>So Nesta, protesting but rather pleased all the same, was pushed forward
+and volunteered to give a recitation. It was quite a good one too,
+spirited and amusing, and fortunately not too long to hold the engrossed
+attention of the listeners. They clapped it warmly, and Nesta bowed,
+but, following Merle's example, declined to give an encore.</p>
+
+<p>"We'd better scoot on with the programme or we'll never get through till
+next week," she declared.</p>
+
+<p>Maude had brought a piano solo, which the girls received politely but
+coldly, evidently considering it was not the sort of contribution they
+wanted. Muriel warbled a song in a rather weak, thin voice. Edith was
+known to have a manuscript in her pocket, but blushed scarlet and
+utterly refused to produce it, giving up her turn to Iva, who tried a
+recitation but broke down in the middle. Things were getting a little
+slack, and time was running on very fast, so Merle, who knew Mavis had
+prepared a literary contribution, called for an item from "The Chair".</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes!" squealed everybody. "Go on, Mrs. Chairwoman. It's your turn
+now. We're not going<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+home without your piece. Hurry up before Miss Fanny
+comes worrying in. She said we might have half an hour, but she should
+break up the meeting if we went on any longer than that. Chair, please!"</p>
+
+<p>So Mavis, who had produced a manuscript the evening before, considerably
+at the cost of her preparation, and was secretly dying to read it,
+though she did not wish to push herself unduly, gave a hasty glance at
+her watch, reduced some giggling youngsters to silence, and commenced to
+read.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="center">THE SPOOK HUNTERS<br />
+
+<span class="small">A TALE OF YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY</span></p>
+
+<p>It had always been the ambition of Tom and Morris to see a good
+old-fashioned genuine specimen of a ghost or spectre; but though
+they had visited houses bearing a reputation of being haunted,
+and had hung about churchyards at midnight, and had even
+attended s&eacute;ances, their innocent and perfectly natural wish had
+never been gratified. They were beginning to come to the
+regretful conclusion that they were not psychic subjects, and
+therefore incapable of seeing spirits, when once more their
+hopes rose with a bound. They received an invitation to stay at
+Cawdor Castle, an ancient building which on really reliable
+evidence possessed no less than six resident family ghosts, and
+a few extra visiting spectres as well.</p>
+
+<p>After begging for the most haunted of all the haunted rooms,
+Tom and Morris retired to bed with very reasonable expectations
+of at last obtaining a peep of a real old-world spook. For some
+time they tried to keep awake and on the look-out, but in spite
+of their efforts their eyes closed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+and they slept and snored.
+The clock was striking the hour of midnight when Tom suddenly
+awoke. The moonlight, in orthodox fashion, was streaming into
+the room, and by his bedside stood a queer, half-transparent old
+gentleman in a court costume.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello! Who the dickens are you?" exclaimed Tom. "You don't mean
+to tell me you're actually one of the family ghosts?"</p>
+
+<p>"The same&mdash;at your service!" replied the old gentleman with a
+stately bow. "I am Sir Rupert, the second of that name, who
+lived in the reign of Queen Anne, of blessed memory!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pleased to meet you, I'm sure!" replied Tom heartily. "Can you
+introduce me to any more of the family?"</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure, if you don't object to accompany me into the
+picture gallery. We are celebrating an anniversary to-night, and
+you would find us all at home."</p>
+
+<p>"Right-o!" agreed Tom, jumping out of bed and following the
+ghost.</p>
+
+<p>His spectre friend led him upstairs and into the big gallery of
+the castle, where quite an assemblage of spirits of various
+periods was collected, some in armour, some in silks and satins,
+and some in shrouds. On a dais sat a magnificent individual in a
+coat of mail, holding a shield emblazoned with the royal arms.</p>
+
+<p>"King Edward I, the founder of the family!" explained Sir
+Rupert, taking Tom to be introduced. "Don't be frightened at his
+Plantagenet manners! He means no harm!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks for the hint!" returned Tom, bowing politely towards the
+dais as he approached.</p>
+
+<p>"What, Sirrah! Hast thou no knee for thy Prince?" exclaimed the
+King angrily. "Make thy obeisance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+instantly, or by the sprig of
+broom in my helmet I'll clap thee in prison and torture thee!"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, come, Edward my boy," murmured a fatherly-looking ghost
+at his elbow. "How often have I to tell you that these things
+really aren't done nowadays! You must adapt yourself and learn
+to march with the times. A court bow is really all that can be
+required from him, and if you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, please don't worry," interrupted Tom. "I'll adapt my
+manners to any period that pleases him if you'll kindly coach me
+as to exactly what he wants me to do. I take it he wishes me to
+kneel."</p>
+
+<p>And down went Tom on his knees, anxious to oblige, but, to his
+great surprise, as he touched the floor he fell completely
+through, and found himself back in bed with the sun streaming
+through the window, and Morris, whom he had quite forgotten to
+introduce to the ghosts, snoring comfortably by his side.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Some of the girls sniggered at Mavis's story, a few timorous ones
+shuddered at the bare idea of ghosts, and some of the small fry asked if
+it were true; but just as Mavis was comforting them with the assurance
+that it was absolute fiction, Miss Fanny opened the door of the playroom
+and brought the symposium to an end.</p>
+
+<p>"You day girls must go home at once," she decreed. "I gave you half an
+hour, but I can't have you lingering here any longer. Iva, you ought to
+be practising. You little ones must go and wash your hands!" and,
+separating her flock like sheep and goats, she swept the boarders away
+to their various duties or occupations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+and sent the rest to their several homes.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think Miss Fanny altogether likes our society," ventured Merle,
+as the Ramsays walked down the High Street.</p>
+
+<p>"She's afraid of anything new, that's evident," said Mavis. "She's lived
+in an out-of-the-way corner of the world and doesn't know what goes on
+in other schools. Well, we've made a beginning and had our symposium!"</p>
+
+<p>"And a jolly good one too! The girls said it was topping, and they're
+just clamouring to have another."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
+<a name="viii" id="viii"></a>CHAPTER VIII<br />
+
+<span class="sub">The Warren</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle went to Miss Crompton's class on Friday afternoon in
+their dainty best dresses, silk stockings, and dancing sandals. Their
+appearance was certainly very different from what it had been last week
+in their brown jerseys and school shoes. They noticed Gwen Williams look
+them up and down, but she did not speak to them or give them any sign of
+recognition. Beyond an occasional word with Opal, Iva, or the Careys,
+she would not be expansive with any of the girls at The Moorings,
+holding aloof in a rather obtrusive fashion, and giving them to
+understand that though she might attend their French and dancing classes
+she must not be regarded as a member of the school. Babbie, who was of a
+much more sociable disposition, would often try to linger to talk with
+companions of her own age, but Gwen invariably interfered, and would put
+a stop to the incipient friendships, giving her younger sister glances
+of very plain reproof.</p>
+
+<p>"Why are those Williams girls so dreadfully conceited?" Merle asked her
+partner, as they practised a two-step. "I can't see that they're
+different from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+other people, but Gwen behaves as if she were a princess,
+and it was hardly etiquette for the rest of us to speak to her. It's
+perfectly absurd!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you see, the Glyn Williamses think themselves 'county' and won't
+visit with anybody else. They've a beautiful place at Chagmouth, The
+Warren."</p>
+
+<p>"I know. I've seen it. But does it really belong to them? I somehow
+thought it didn't."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you're right, and I believe it's rather a sore point. The Glyn
+Williams only rent The Warren. They've plenty of
+money and they'd like to buy it, but General Talland, to whom it
+belongs, won't sell it at any price. It has been in his family for
+hundreds of years."</p>
+
+<p>"Why doesn't he live at it himself, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"He hasn't been home for years and years. He's governor of a place
+called San Benito in the West Indies. He left England after his only son
+died, and he has never been back since. I should think Chagmouth people
+have almost forgotten him. The Glyn Williams are
+everything there now, or think they are at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>"That I can very easily believe," said Merle, with a glance at Gwen,
+who, apportioned by Miss Crompton to dance with Aubrey, was circling
+round without deigning to bestow a single word upon her unwelcome
+partner.</p>
+
+<p>To Mavis and Merle, Chagmouth, where so far they had only spent a
+single day, had become the very hub of the universe. They wanted to see
+its quaint streets<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+again, and to revisit the beach and to explore the
+woods. More than anything they wished to renew their brief acquaintance
+with Bevis. His personality had attracted them, and his romantic story
+appealed to their imaginations. They ventured to say something about him
+to Uncle David.</p>
+
+<p>"Bevis? Oh, he's a fine lad!" replied Dr. Tremayne. "He's rather out of
+his element on the farm, but there seems nothing else open to him at
+present. I wish I could see him doing something better. He'd make a
+splendid doctor. The way he has picked up dispensing is simply
+wonderful. I can trust him to make up prescriptions now, and it's the
+greatest help. He loves pottering about the surgery. It's far more in
+his line than hedging or ploughing. But he doesn't spare himself on the
+land; I'll say that for the lad. By the by, are you two coming with me
+to Chagmouth to-morrow? I believe the sea air did Mavis good. She's
+losing that transparent look, and getting a tinge of colour in her
+cheeks."</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't had a cold since I came to Durracombe," boasted Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>"Touch wood or you'll be catching one to-morrow," put in Merle hastily.
+"Uncle David, we'd go to Chagmouth every day if you'd take us."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I dare say! And what would happen to your lessons, Miss Lazybones?"
+twinkled the doctor. "One holiday a week is quite enough for you."</p>
+
+<p>The girls were growing to love Uncle David. He was so kind, and genial,
+and pleasant, and had always<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+some little joke or funny story for them.
+Half of the pleasure of the day at Chagmouth would be the drive there
+and back in his company. There was a broad restfulness about him that
+was like a mental tonic. It was as if he had learnt the secret of
+outliving all unnecessary cares and worries, and could radiate his
+peaceful atmosphere into the auras of others. Perhaps it was this
+quality of unconscious healing that gave him such skill and favour as a
+physician. Certainly patients would begin to brighten up when he merely
+stepped into the sickroom. "The dear old doctor", as he was generally
+called, was a figure in the country-side, and a source of moral as well
+as physical good in his practice.</p>
+
+<p>It was with absolutely beaming faces that the girls set out with him in
+the little yellow Deemster car the following Saturday morning. They
+started earlier than the week before, for there were several visits to
+be paid at farms or cottages on the way, all of which took considerable
+time, but by exceeding the speed limit on level stretches of road the
+doctor reached Chagmouth at noon, to find the usual crowd of patients
+waiting at his rooms. Judging that he would be boxed up in the surgery
+for more than an hour, and that they would therefore have ample leisure
+for a stroll before lunch, the Ramsays decided to explore some of the
+fields that lay round Grimbal's Farm, and selected a path that seemed to
+lead in the direction of the cliffs and the sea. They looked about for
+Bevis in the stackyard, but he was nowhere to be seen. Probably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+he was working on the land, or possibly he might even be at sea, for Mr.
+Penruddock was part owner of a trawler, and as much fisherman as farmer.</p>
+
+<p>They walked across two meadows, went through a little spinney where
+hazel catkins were opening fast, and actually a few primroses were
+peeping through the carpet of dead leaves; then came to a stile which
+led down into a deep lane. Mavis went first, and was in the very act of
+stepping cautiously over, when suddenly through a hole in the opposite
+hedge dashed a fox terrier and seized her by the skirt. It was just
+enough to destroy her balance, and she fell forward on to her hands and
+knees. Merle, hurrying after her, attacked the dog with a stick she was
+carrying, and for about three moments there was a wild scrimmage, Mavis
+shrieking with fright, the fox terrier yapping and yelping, and Merle
+laying on blows. They had imagined themselves alone, but the
+country-side is more full of ears than we generally know, and at the
+same instant two people came running from opposite directions, one from
+the lane and the other from the fields. The first, a tall boy carrying a
+gun, was evidently the owner of the dog, for he called it angrily away,
+and after a final snarl it ran towards him, helped in its progress by a
+hearty kick from Bevis, who had jumped over the opposite hedge. Mavis
+picked herself up, and the four young people stood together in the deep
+lane. It was Merle, of course, who spoke first.</p>
+
+<p>"Look what your brute's done!" she said indignantly,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+turning to the dog's owner, and pointing to a rent in Mavis's skirt. "You ought to be
+ashamed of yourself to let him attack people like this. Why don't you
+muzzle him?"</p>
+
+<p>The boy regarded Mavis and the damage to her apparel rather coolly.</p>
+
+<p>"You must have done something to make him fly at you," he replied. "Of
+course he'll go for people if they throw stones at him."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't throw stones." Mavis's voice quivered with injured annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you're not much hurt anyway! If you'd keep to the roads instead
+of wandering about people's fields you wouldn't get into trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"She's a perfect right in our fields," broke in Bevis hotly. "If she
+wants to go there why shouldn't she? It's no business of yours."</p>
+
+<p>The boy lifted his eyebrows as if amazed at the outburst.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, certainly not! None at all!" he replied in supercilious tones.
+"Have anybody you like in your own fields. It doesn't concern me. What a
+fuss about nothing."</p>
+
+<p>And, shouldering his gun, he turned back up the lane with the fox
+terrier at his heels.</p>
+
+<p>"You might at least apologize," Merle shouted after him, but he took not
+the slightest notice and did not look behind. In another moment the
+hedge had hidden him from their view.</p>
+
+<p>"What an absolute bounder!" fumed Merle. "He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+ought to have said he was
+sorry instead of walking off like that. Who is he?"</p>
+
+<p>Bevis was standing staring up the lane with a frown on his dark face.</p>
+
+<p>"It's young Williams from The Warren," he replied. "He thinks himself
+cock-of-the-walk in Chagmouth, but he'd better not try on any of his
+airs with me. He might own the place by the way he behaves. If I catch
+him with that gun rabbitting in any of our fields I'll let
+him know."</p>
+
+<p>"Does he go into your fields?"</p>
+
+<p>"He goes anywhere he likes about Chagmouth, and I've heard many people
+grumble. He may take his own advice and keep to his own property.
+They've all the shooting on the moors above, and that ought to be enough
+for him! I've no patience with young sparks like he is."</p>
+
+<p>Mavis was not really hurt by her adventure, but she had been frightened,
+and was still feeling upset and disinclined to continue their walk. With
+Bevis for protection the girls turned back towards the farm, where Mrs.
+Penruddock, who was loud in her indignation and sympathy, took out her
+thread-basket and hastily caught together the rent in Mavis's skirt.</p>
+
+<p>"That'll keep for this afternoon, and Jessop can darn it properly when
+you get home," she declared. "Folks ought to pay for the damage their
+dogs do. And clothes at such a price now! It was a mercy you weren't
+bitten I'm sure. I'd have had something to say to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+young Williams if I'd been there. I wouldn't have let him walk away as if it was nothing!
+He'll have to be taught a lesson some day, if I'm not mistaken. And
+serve him right too, with all his airs and his impudence."</p>
+
+<p>In the short interval that remained before lunch the girls made a tour
+of the stackyard and farm buildings. They wanted to see the waterwheel
+again, and it was fun to climb up ladders and peep into lofts, to
+explore the dim recesses of barns, or inspect the poultry runs, where
+fussy hens, shut up inside coops, were clucking to adventurous little
+families of downy chicks or ducklings. But the crowning place of all was
+the shed where Bevis kept his carpenter's bench. The boy was very natty
+and clever at joinering, wood-carving, and mechanics. He
+had several model boats and a toy engine, which he had constructed
+himself, to show them, and he volunteered to make them a little
+grindstone upon which they could sharpen their penknives.</p>
+
+<p>"How topping! We'll come and watch you while you do it," declared Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"If you don't mind our looking on," added Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>But alack! shortly after lunch a most untoward thing happened. Dr.
+Tremayne had brought the car round from the yard into the road opposite
+the front door of the farm, preparatory to paying his usual weekly visit
+to the Sanatorium. He was pottering about inspecting various valves and
+nuts, in the manner of motorists, and Mavis and Merle, who had
+constituted themselves assistant chauffeurs, were armed with dusters and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>were trying to clean the splashboards, which had been much spattered
+with mud on the journey from Durracombe that morning. Uncle David prided
+himself upon a spick-and-span car, and liked to turn up at the
+Sanatorium with the little Deemster looking its best. Both girls were
+working away energetically, when round the corner from the village there
+suddenly appeared the whole of the Glyn Williams family, heading
+straight up the road towards Grimbal's Farm. Merle spied them first. She
+was on the side of the car nearest the house, and, with a presence of
+mind that amounted almost to instinct, she bolted inside the door like a
+rabbit into its burrow. Mavis, whose back was towards the village, was
+quite unaware that anyone was near till she heard Dr. Tremayne's
+greeting, and, turning round, found herself face to face with Gwen,
+Babbie, their mother, their brother, and the fox terrier. If she could,
+with any decency, have fled after Merle she would have done so, but
+there was no possibility of escape. She was already in their midst, and
+Uncle David&mdash;dear, tiresome man&mdash;was saying: "You know my niece?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Glyn Williams, a portly, rosy-faced lady, with a kind but rather
+patronizing manner, held out a white-gloved hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course! You go to school at The Moorings, don't you? How nice for
+you to motor over to Chagmouth with your uncle on Saturdays. Are you
+going with him to the Sanatorium? What is it, Babbie, dear?" (for her
+younger daughter was whispering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+eagerly in her ear) "Oh yes, my
+precious! Doctor, won't you leave your niece on your way, and we'll show
+her round The Warren and keep her for tea? You can pick her up as you
+drive back."</p>
+
+<p>There are some invitations which it is utterly impossible to refuse.
+Mrs. Glyn Williams had, to use a sporting term, "caught her bird
+sitting". Mavis glanced at Uncle David with mute appeal in her blue
+eyes, but he quite mistook her dismay, and instantly accepted on her
+behalf.</p>
+
+<p>"We're going straight home now, through the woods, so come as soon as
+you can," urged Babbie, following the family as they turned up the road.</p>
+
+<p>Could anything have been more utterly and entirely aggravating?</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Uncle David! How <em>could</em> you?" exclaimed Mavis reproachfully. "I'm
+not dressed to go to tea at The Warren. I only came in my school skirt
+and jersey. We meant to scramble about the farm this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Tremayne focused his eyeglasses on his niece's attire. Such an
+aspect of the visit had never occurred to his innocent masculine mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Bless my life! You look very nice, both of you," he decided.</p>
+
+<p>"Both of us? <em>I'm</em> not asked, thank goodness," declared Merle, who had
+overheard the interview and emerged from the sanctuary of the doorway
+now the coast was clear.</p>
+
+<p>"It wouldn't matter, child. I'm sure Mrs. Glyn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+Williams would be pleased to see you. It was stupid of me not to mention you were here
+too."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so <em>thankful</em> you didn't."</p>
+
+<p>"Am <em>I</em> to be the solitary victim?" asked Mavis's plaintive voice in its
+most injured tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Go with your sister, Merle," urged Dr. Tremayne, who felt rather in a
+quandary.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Uncle David, dear," replied Merle firmly. "If I wasn't invited I
+wasn't, and it wouldn't be manners to turn up. I'll go with you to the
+Sanatorium if you'll take me," and she added privately to Mavis:</p>
+
+<p>"If one of us had to be asked to tea at The Warren I'm glad it's you.
+Gwen can't bear me, and it was I who said the nasty things to that boy
+in the lane. What's his name? Tudor! He deserved them, of course, but it
+would make me shy to meet him again. You always get on much more
+pleasantly with people than I do."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall have to tell Bevis we're off in the car," said Mavis
+disconsolately.</p>
+
+<p>They found Bevis already at his bench in the tool-shed and evidently
+expecting them. His face fell at their news, and, though they both did
+their very best to explain the situation, he remained glum, and seemed
+to think they wished to avoid his company.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's quite all right!" he remarked, and that was all they could
+get out of him. He took up his mallet, and commenced to hammer so
+vigorously that they fled from the noise.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+"He says it doesn't matter, but he's fearfully huffy and offended,"
+whispered Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we can't help it. Everything has gone wrong to-day," sighed
+Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>There was no time to put things right with Bevis, for Dr. Tremayne was
+hooting for them to start at once. He set Mavis down at the great gate
+of The Warren, and took Merle on with him to the Sanatorium. Mavis
+walked very solemnly up the laurel-bordered drive. She seldom went
+anywhere without her sister, and hated paying this stately visit alone.
+She rang the bell, feeling shy and frightened, and painfully conscious
+of the conspicuously darned rent in her skirt. She wondered if Tudor
+would have explained its origin.</p>
+
+<p>The butler admitted her into a lovely conservatory, then through a large
+hall into the drawing-room. Certainly it was a beautiful house, and
+Mavis might have enjoyed herself if only Merle had been with her. Her
+greeting by the young people was far pleasanter than she had
+anticipated. Babbie was frankly cordial, Gwen unwontedly courteous, and
+Tudor went so far as to accompany his sisters when they took their guest
+for a stroll round the grounds. He walked a little behind, and made no
+attempt at conversation, but she could see him eyeing the darn in her
+skirt. Later on, while Gwen and Babbie were speaking to a gardener, and
+for the moment he was alone with Mavis, he mentioned their meeting in
+the lane.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, you know," he began, "I'd no idea you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+were Dr. Tremayne's niece when I saw you this morning. Did Jim scare you? He's rather a young
+dog!"</p>
+
+<p>It was exactly the same excuse that Gwen had urged in defence of the
+rude reception she had given them in the garden. Mavis wondered
+privately whether the Williamses only kept their good manners for their
+friends, and meted out less civil treatment to strangers. But aloud she
+answered:</p>
+
+<p>"He did rather frighten me, but I wasn't hurt."</p>
+
+<p>"He bolted out of the hedge before I'd time to stop him. I say, you
+know, I'm sorry if he scared you. He's only a young dog and means no
+harm."</p>
+
+<p>His tardy apology was evidently mainly due to the fact that she was Dr.
+Tremayne's niece, but Mavis had the grace to accept it politely, after
+which the atmosphere seemed to thaw, and Tudor exerted himself to
+entertain the visitor, offering to take her to the stables and show her
+the horses. Gwen expanded at this, being very proud of her own little
+cob, Taffy, and delighted to exhibit him to anybody who would appreciate
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you hunt?" she asked airily. "I'd live on horseback if I could. Cars
+are all very well in their way, and get you over the ground, but
+motoring's nothing to riding. Taffy nips over fences like a bird. I'd
+ride him to Durracombe when I come for the French class if it weren't
+for Babbie. It's too far for her pony, so we have to go in the car."</p>
+
+<p>Gentle Mavis invariably made friends, and before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+her visit at The Warren was over she was on quite pleasant terms with Tudor, Gwen, and
+Babbie.</p>
+
+<p>"You must come again sometime," said Gwen graciously, accompanying her
+to the door, when Dr Tremayne called for her with the car.</p>
+
+<p>Merle, who had been temporarily left at the bottom of the drive, was
+waiting for them, and took her place for the homeward journey.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" she asked eloquently.</p>
+
+<p>"Better than I expected. Babbie's really rather sweet. Gwen showed me
+her horse, and Tudor actually apologized. I don't dislike him <em>quite</em> as
+much as I did this morning. He goes to Eton, but he's at home this term
+because he has been ill. He taught me to play bagatelle after tea, and
+was wonderfully decent&mdash;but, oh no! of course not <em>nearly</em> so nice as
+Bevis."</p>
+
+<p>"And Bevis, to judge from the way he banged with that mallet, is in a
+thoroughly bad temper."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, surely he's got over it by this time?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I'm afraid he thought us a couple of utter sneaks,"
+grunted Merle.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+<a name="ix" id="ix"></a>CHAPTER IX<br />
+
+<span class="sub">A Question of Honour</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>For the last five years Mr. Glyn Williams, a prominent London financier,
+had rented The Warren from General Talland. He liked the place, and
+would gladly have bought the whole property had it not been entailed. He
+still lived in hopes that it might ultimately become his own, and
+periodically made offers to the owner and heir to effect a settlement.
+Meantime, failing absolute possession, he posed to his city friends and
+to his neighbours in the county as the squire of Chagmouth. He was a
+well-disposed man, according to his lights, and in his own way he had
+done a good deal for the place. He had built a reading room and
+institute, had helped to renovate the church, had contributed largely to
+the war memorial, and headed the list of all local subscriptions. His
+wife was on numerous committees, had organized many charities,
+entertained the Sunday School children in her garden, got up concerts or
+tea-parties, attended mothers' meetings, opened bazaars, and distributed
+prizes.</p>
+
+<p>Yet all the same Chagmouth was not as grateful as perhaps it ought to
+have been, and the family at The Warren were by no means favourites in
+the little town.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+The root of the trouble was that Mr. and Mrs. Glyn
+Williams made the common mistake of thinking that because they rented
+the Hall, and dispensed large sums in subscriptions, they had the right
+to order the affairs of their less wealthy neighbours, and to have the
+first say in everything that was to be done in connection with the
+place. Chagmouth people greatly resented being patronized. They were
+born of the good old sturdy, self-reliant stock that furnished Drake and
+Raleigh and other half-forgotten heroes, and they had been accustomed in
+their slow independent fashion to manage their own business to their own
+satisfaction. For General Talland, whose family link with the parish
+dated from the time of the Armada, they had held a respect based partly
+on his birth and partly on personal appreciation, but they saw no reason
+to offer any undue deference to his tenant at The Warren. Money alone
+cannot purchase favour, and the unfortunate attitude of superiority and
+fashionable aloofness adopted by the whole of the Williams family had
+created a considerable atmosphere of prejudice against them. To many of
+the Chagmouth people they were a sore trial, and the haughty manners of
+the young people were voted insufferable in the village.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Tremayne, however, who had been medical adviser at The Warren for
+several years, always met with a happy reception. He was a favourite
+with rich and poor alike, for he gave equal attention to all his
+patients, whether their incomes were small or great. He held those wide
+views of life which estimate people<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+at what they are and not at what
+they possess, and he always seemed to have the happy knack of bringing
+out the best in those whom he met. Mrs. Glyn Williams had perhaps taught
+her daughters many foolish and unworthy lessons, but in the presence of
+the unworldly old doctor the little snobberies melted away and the
+higher standards prevailed.</p>
+
+<p>It was for the sake of Dr. Tremayne that Gwen, when she next appeared
+at The Moorings, bestowed a grudging recognition on Merle and extended a
+rather patronizing friendship to Mavis. The latter was not specially
+attracted, though she received the advances politely. Most of the girls,
+however, seemed to think her only too lucky to be thus noticed. Opal
+worshipped openly at Gwen's shrine. She copied her frocks, her manners,
+and her style of hairdressing, and offered up much incense before the
+altar of fashion. The Ramsays, who were accustomed to the democratic
+atmosphere of a big high school, fretted at the narrowness of the
+outlook. They disliked the days when the Williamses attended the French
+class, for Opal always put on absurd airs and was particularly "high and
+mighty" and aggravating. She had not improved as the term went on.
+Indeed, a new and most unpleasant aspect of her had lately revealed
+itself. She was not altogether fair over her work. On several occasions
+Mavis and Merle suspected her of cheating. They could not absolutely
+convict her of it, but the circumstances seemed very incriminating. They
+mentioned the matter to Iva, who shrugged her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+"Of course Opal cheats when she gets a chance. We all know that. But how
+are you going to stop it? If you told Miss Fanny she wouldn't believe
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"I hate sneaking," said Mavis. "But couldn't we do something with Opal
+herself?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'd have to catch her first."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's the difficulty."</p>
+
+<p>It is not at all an easy matter to convict a girl who cheats on the sly.
+Several times Merle, who sat just behind, thought she saw Opal make
+hasty corrections as Mademoiselle revised the French dictation, but when
+she taxed her with it afterwards Opal denied flatly, and with huge
+indignation.</p>
+
+<p>"As if I should," she fumed.</p>
+
+<p>"Seeing is believing," maintained Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to accuse <em>me</em>&mdash;the head girl&mdash;of cheating! I wish you'd go
+and tell Miss Pollard or Miss Fanny. They know me too well to listen to
+a word you'd say. Why, I'm their own god-daughter!"</p>
+
+<p>"Unfortunately that doesn't make you immaculate."</p>
+
+<p>"Though it ought to, when they trust you so," added Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>Discussing the matter between themselves, the Ramsays decided that in
+this very point lay all the trouble. The Misses Pollard, in their
+foolish fondness for Opal, were making a grave mistake. They
+deliberately shut their eyes where she was concerned, and were always
+biased in her favour.</p>
+
+<p>"It's such an amateur little school," sighed Merle.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+"I don't mean the
+lessons, because those are really rather good, but the discipline is
+horribly slack."</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly exists," agreed Mavis. "Miss Fanny says easily, 'Now, get along,
+girls!', and a few try to work and the rest don't, and she never <em>makes</em>
+them. I hate a slack teacher, however clever she is."</p>
+
+<p>"Everything is so casual," groused Merle. "There's no proper order even
+in answering questions. Opal raps out the answers if she knows them, and
+gets all the credit. It's most unfair. I should like to send Miss Fanny
+for a term to Whinburn High, and let her see how things are managed at
+other schools. It would be an eye-opener for her."</p>
+
+<p>"And for Opal too, if she could go as well. It would just do her all the
+good in the world."</p>
+
+<p>Evidently the only thing to be done was to keep a careful eye upon the
+delinquent, and bring her to book at the first opportunity that offered
+sufficient private evidence without taking the affair to the teacher's
+notice.</p>
+
+<p>Now it happened that one afternoon Gwen Williams left her French
+dictionary behind her in the classroom and went home without it. It was
+found in due course by Muriel Burnitt, who flung it into the school
+"pound", a lost-property basket from which objects could be redeemed by
+the payment of a penny into the missionary box. Both Mavis and Merle
+witnessed the placing of the book in this receptacle, though they gave
+no particular thought to the matter at the time. On the next French day
+Gwen came fussing into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+classroom asking for her missing dictionary,
+and was much put out to find it was not forthcoming.</p>
+
+<p>"I <em>know</em> I left it on the desk," she maintained.</p>
+
+<p>"So you did, and I popped it into the pound," said Muriel. "Pay your
+penny and you'll get it out. It's perfectly simple."</p>
+
+<p>But when Gwen walked over to the lost-property basket, and inspected its
+contents, she found an assortment of pencils, india-rubbers, and
+pen-holders, but certainly no dictionary. She was loud in her wrath, and
+the girls immediately round her began to offer comments and advice.</p>
+
+<p>"It was there yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw it myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Opal redeemed a penknife this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better ask her if she knows where it has gone."</p>
+
+<p>"Here she comes!"</p>
+
+<p>Yet at that exact moment Mademoiselle entered also, and the girls took
+their places. In the course of the lesson she gave her pupils a piece of
+unseen translation. It was a difficult passage, and to many of them an
+almost impossible one to render into English. Each had her closed
+dictionary placed on the desk in front of her, and cast longing looks at
+its covers, but to open it was, of course, not permitted. Now Merle was
+sitting just behind Opal, and she noticed the latter glancing constantly
+down on to her knee. Merle could not see the object of this close
+attention, but her suspicions were aroused. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
+dared not speak, but she
+scribbled a little note on a piece of waste paper:</p>
+
+<p>"Keep an eye on Opal's knee, and see if she hasn't got your dictionary."</p>
+
+<p>This she addressed to Gwen and handed it surreptitiously along by Nesta
+and Iva.</p>
+
+<p>Gwen read it, and gave a nod of comprehension while Mademoiselle was
+looking the other way. The moment the lesson was finished she stood up,
+moved along the desks, and made a sudden grab on to Opal's lap.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello! What are you doing with my dictionary?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Opal turned white and then scarlet, but she was ready with a plausible
+excuse.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I found it," she stuttered. "I was going to give it back to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" Gwen's tone was scathing. "I happen to know it was put inside
+the pound. Why did you take it out? It's extremely kind of you to have
+put a brown paper cover on it. If you intended to give it back to me why
+didn't you hand it over before the class began?"</p>
+
+<p>"There&mdash;there wasn't time!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, good gracious, don't tell me any more fiblets! You meant to stick
+to it, and you were cribbing from it on your knee. Nice thing for a head
+girl to do, I must say. I've not much opinion of you here at The
+Moorings."</p>
+
+<p>Opal protested, but Gwen would not listen to a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+word she had to say,
+and, pulling the paper cover off the dictionary, stalked out of the room
+with the air of an offended queen. The girls sniggered openly.</p>
+
+<p>It was so seldom Opal met her match. To have drawn down the wrath and
+displeasure of Gwen was a particular humiliation to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather priceless, wasn't it?" chuckled Merle to Iva. "Hope it will
+teach her not to cheat in future."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't flatter yourself. She will directly she gets the chance. She's
+done for herself with Gwen though for the present."</p>
+
+<p>Iva's opinion of Opal was founded on experience. There was an
+unfortunate moral kink about the head girl that often involved her in
+very shady transactions. It was a deplorable thing for the school, as
+instead of upholding the tone she lowered it. Mavis often wondered how
+Miss Fanny could be so foolish and weak as not to see for herself that
+her favourite evaded rules. Out of sheer bravado Opal would often do
+forbidden things, and would boast that she could venture on them with
+impunity where others would surely get into trouble. One mean dishonesty
+above all others aroused the Ramsays' indignation.</p>
+
+<p>The top form took arithmetic with Miss Fanny. It was a subject which
+Opal disliked, but for the last two or three lessons she had worked all
+her problems correctly. Miss Fanny, who ought to have known better, left
+her Key to the arithmetic on the mantelpiece of the classroom, and one
+morning Mavis,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+coming in early, caught Opal in the very act of copying
+the answers to the next set of questions.</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" she exploded. "Of all mean sneaks you're the biggest I've ever
+met. No wonder you get all your sums right if you write down the answers
+beforehand. How <em>can</em> you?"</p>
+
+<p>Opal tried to laugh the matter off.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you do it yourself, my dear?" she answered. "If Miss Fanny
+<em>will</em> leave her book about, of course we look at it. That's human
+nature!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's not my way," said Mavis gravely. "And if Miss Fanny trusts us so
+much that she leaves her Key here, we ought to be worthy of her trust.
+It's shameful to deceive her."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Jonathan! Go and tell her, then."</p>
+
+<p>"You know I never tell tales."</p>
+
+<p>That day, however, Opal was unexpectedly overtaken by Nemesis. Miss
+Fanny was suffering from a severe headache, and Miss Pollard came to
+take the arithmetic class in her stead. The girls told her the number of
+the exercise they had reached, and she wrote the questions upon the
+blackboard. For some reason of her own she reversed their order. When
+she called for the answers, Opal, with great assurance, read hers out,
+and, of course, as she had copied from the book, No. 6 came instead of
+No. 1, and vice versa. Miss Pollard stared at her in much amazement, and
+told her to come and work them upon the blackboard, a process of which
+she made a conspicuous bungle. Miss Pollard made no special<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+remark, but
+possibly her suspicions may have been aroused, for she carried away the
+Key, and it was never again left in the classroom. Whether her affection
+for Opal prevented her from making a closer inquiry, or whether the
+affair was merely a coincidence, and she still preserved her faith in
+the integrity of her pet pupil, it was impossible to tell.</p>
+
+<p>"All the same I call it the limit for her to shut her eyes to things in
+the way she does," commented Mavis to Merle. "Both Miss Pollard and Miss
+Fanny are dears, but a teacher ought to know something of what goes on
+in a school, and not leave it just to luck. What are we to do? We can't
+go sneaking and telling, and yet I feel we ought to make a stand. It
+doesn't seem right to let Opal behave like this and do nothing. She
+hasn't the slightest idea of honour."</p>
+
+<p>"That's what most of them need here," snorted straightforward Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"I know. But what can you expect with such a slacker as head girl? If
+only Mother were here I'd ask her, but I'm so stupid at explaining
+properly in a letter it's no use to write."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit. She wouldn't really understand. Seems to me there's nothing
+for it but just to worry on as best we can. They're a queer set, but we
+can't help it."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
+<a name="x" id="x"></a>CHAPTER X<br />
+
+<span class="sub">Among the Boarders</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle, being day girls at The Moorings, have occupied so much
+of our attention that we have somewhat neglected the boarders. In their
+own estimation, however, they were a very important part of the
+community. There were twelve of them altogether, and though, during
+classes, they mixed with the rest of the school, they were rather proud
+of the fact that, as far as possible, they "kept themselves to
+themselves". They had all sorts of little secrets that day girls might
+not share, signs and passwords and mysterious references, which gave
+them great satisfaction, and were calculated to provoke envy, hatred,
+malice, and all uncharitableness in the breasts of those who did not
+understand the allusions, and whom they sternly refused to initiate.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the boarders were the children of parents who were out in
+India. Some of them had been born there, and could remember burning
+skies and temples and native bazaars and elephants, and many other
+un-English things. Mamie and Jessie Drew could even speak Hindustani, a
+language which all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+Indian-born children had talked in their infancy,
+though most of them had forgotten it in a very short time after landing
+in Britain. With the exception of Iva Westwood, Nesta Pitman, and Aubrey
+Simpson, the boarders were all juniors, and an uncommonly lively little
+crew, who sometimes led their seniors a dance, and were capable of a
+considerable amount of ragging among themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The two who were generally at the bottom of most of the mischief were
+Winnie Osborne and Joyce Coleman, nicknamed by Iva "the firebrands".
+Under Miss Pollard's gentle rule their escapades sometimes got rather
+out of bounds, but they had a wholesome respect for Miss Fanny, who did
+not often interfere with the management of the boarders out of school
+hours, but who dealt out discipline if she happened to catch anybody
+tripping.</p>
+
+<p>Among the silliest of the boarders was Nita Howard, a child who was a
+born gossip, and who sometimes made trouble by repeating conversations
+or remarks which she had overheard, and which she had very much better
+have kept to herself. Nita had no discretion. Miss Pollard often told
+her her tongue was too long, and certainly on many occasions it got
+herself and her chums into scrapes. One evening, just after it grew
+dark, she came running into the recreation-room in a state of much
+excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got news for you, girls?" she chirped.</p>
+
+<p>"No! What?" exclaimed Mamie and Alison, her particular friends, looking
+up with interest from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
+scrap-books that they were engaged in making.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll tell you then," said Nita, sitting down by the table and
+lowering her voice. "The ghost has been seen again in Poplar Lane!"</p>
+
+<p>"I say, shut up there, Nita," murmured Nesta, who was painting at the
+same table. "Do you want those kids in umpteen fits?"</p>
+
+<p>Nita beckoned her chums away from the vicinity of the smaller children
+in question, so that she might continue her thrilling story in private.</p>
+
+<p>"It has really!" she assured them in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"O-o-h!" came in a horror-stricken chorus. "How do you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've just heard Bella telling Cook. It's Bella's evening out, and she
+went down the back carriage drive into Poplar Lane to take a short cut
+to meet a friend, and just when she got under the shade of the trees she
+saw something all in white coming towards her. She shrieked and ran
+straight back to the house, and she says she daren't go out again, even
+though her own cousin is waiting for her at the other end of the lane."</p>
+
+<p>"Bella's rather a goose," put in Nesta, who had moved to the end of the
+table so as to overhear. "I shouldn't believe a word she says."</p>
+
+<p>"It's quite true though. She saw it with her own eyes."</p>
+
+<p>"She certainly couldn't see it with anybody else's," retorted Nesta
+scornfully. "It was probably a white cow coming down the lane."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+"No, it wasn't. It was really the ghost. Bella felt a most extraordinary
+feeling as if the blood was freezing in her veins. She says she never
+remembers anything like it since the night a dog howled under her window
+and her grandmother died. Her heart stood absolutely still for two whole
+minutes."</p>
+
+<p>"Bunkum! Bella hasn't had physiology lessons or she'd know that's
+impossible. Why she wouldn't be alive to tell the tale!" snorted Nesta.
+"How can you swallow such precious stuff, you little silly?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's not stuff."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Then don't listen."</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly shan't," and Nesta, moving her painting things along the
+table, went back to her original place.</p>
+
+<p>Her curiosity, however, got the better of her. She had sharp ears and
+she caught most of what followed, losing a few details, for Nita was
+whispering and Nesta was too proud to move nearer. The other two put
+their heads very close to Nita's in order to hear the interesting
+particulars.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't know Poplar Lane was haunted," said Mamie.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is, by a woman in white. She appears quite suddenly standing
+near our gate. But she hasn't been seen for a long time."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought only old houses had ghosts," ventured Alison. "The Moorings
+isn't so very old, is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's quite old enough to have a ghost. There's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+a story about it&mdash;an
+<em>awful</em> story! Bella told it to me."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know whether I ought to tell it to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, go on!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, a gentleman used to live here once," began Nita, in tones of
+delighted importance. "His name was Mr. Morrison. Late one night&mdash;it was
+exactly at midnight&mdash;he happened to look out of the window, and he saw a
+white carriage with a pair of white horses drive up to the door, but it
+didn't make the least sound of wheels or hoofs. And, do you know, he
+died afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course he died afterwards," was heard from Nesta's end of the table.
+"He couldn't very well die before, could he? Perhaps it was twenty years
+afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you weren't listening. No, it was quite soon afterwards.
+Wasn't it horrible?"</p>
+
+<p>"What's the white lady got to do with the carriage?" asked Alison. "Was
+she sitting inside?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm coming to that presently. Mr. Morrison had a son called Meredith,
+who did all kinds of wicked things. When his father died this son was
+worse than ever, and spent both his mother's money and his own on
+gambling. He used to ride away on his horse at night and not come back
+till very, very late, and his mother used to go and stand in Poplar Lane
+to watch for him. She told him that when she died her spirit would stand
+there still. But he didn't care in the least what she said. On the night
+after her funeral<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+he rode off on his horse just as usual, and when he
+came back, there was her ghost all in white, waiting by the gate for
+him. He gave a fearful cry, and fell from his horse&mdash;dead!"</p>
+
+<p>"O-o-o-h!" came from Mamie and Alison.</p>
+
+<p>"Rubbish!" grunted Nesta from the other end of the table.</p>
+
+<p>Nita felt she had scored a success. She could seldom get the girls to
+pay any attention to her, but they were certainly listening now. The
+four smaller ones, who were supposed not to overhear, had, of course,
+had their ears wide open as little pitchers always will. Doreen had
+turned quite white, Prue was clutching Elsbeth's hand, and Jessie, after
+a surreptitious glance at Nesta, had crept nearer and asked under her
+breath who had told Bella.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," answered Nita, "but somebody who knew all about it. The
+house was to let for a long time before Miss Pollard took it. Bella says
+she'd never have come here if she'd known there was a ghost. She means
+to give notice and get another place as soon as she can."</p>
+
+<p>"Does it ever come indoors?" gasped Elsbeth.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so," replied Nita, keenly enjoying herself, "but, of
+course, you never can tell. When a place is haunted it's haunted, and
+you must be ready for anything."</p>
+
+<p>"I shan't dare to go to bed," wailed Elsbeth.</p>
+
+<p>"No more shall I," moaned Jessie. "I don't believe I shall even dare to
+practise in a room by myself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+Suppose I saw it standing by the piano?
+What <em>should</em> I do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ask it to sit down and play you a tune," said Nesta, shutting her
+paint-box. "Nita, how can you frighten them in this silly way with your
+precious ghost tales? You oughtn't to talk to the servants if Bella only
+tells you such whoppers. Doreen's eyes are nearly dropping out of her
+head. By the by, what's become of Winnie and Joyce?"</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't seen them. I thought they were practising. Do they know?"
+asked Mamie.</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet," replied Nita mysteriously, "but, of course, we shall have to
+tell them. Oh, here they are now!"</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" cried the pair in question, seating themselves at
+the table.</p>
+
+<p>"The ghost has been seen in Poplar Lane!" exploded Jessie, before Nita
+had time to get the words out herself.</p>
+
+<p>A look of intelligence passed between Winnie and Joyce.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold me up! When?"</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-night. Just by the gate. Bella saw it herself."</p>
+
+<p>"If Bella saw it herself it must have been there!" burbled Winnie.</p>
+
+<p>"Or some other thingumbob very like it," piped Joyce, who seemed on the
+point of adding more, only Winnie trod on her toe, so she stopped short.</p>
+
+<p>"And it <em>may</em> come inside the house," volunteered Doreen with a shiver.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+"What a blossomy prospect! I should think it very probably will," said
+Winnie.</p>
+
+<p>"Ghosts generally like houses better than lanes," echoed Joyce.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it dreadful, though?" said Nita, who felt that neither was
+sufficiently impressed, and was anxious to keep up the full horror of
+the situation.</p>
+
+<p>When bedtime arrived the younger children were in a state bordering on
+panic. Mademoiselle could not understand why they insisted upon going
+upstairs so very close together, why they shot past the dark doorways of
+other dormitories, nor why Elsbeth begged her almost in tears not to
+turn the light out, and to leave the door open so that they could hear
+the elder girls come to bed. Mamie and Alison were in hardly better
+case. They had retailed all the ghost stories they had ever heard, and
+had worked themselves into a thoroughly nervous condition. At the return
+of daylight, however, they were inclined to laugh at their fears and
+agree with Nesta that it was silly nonsense.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think Winnie and Joyce minded in the least," ventured Alison.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I couldn't quite make them out," replied Mamie. "They were so queer
+over it and kept looking at each other. Didn't you notice?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+"I never thought about it," said Nita. "They're always having private
+jokes. You can hardly say anything without Joyce poking Winnie or Winnie
+nudging Joyce. I get sick to death of their precious secrets."</p>
+
+<p>Everybody seemed ready that morning to make fun of the ghost, but when
+evening came again, superstitious terrors revived in full force. Jessie
+Drew spent a miserable half-hour practising with one eye on the window,
+having an uneasy sensation that the spectre would probably be gliding
+about the garden. She had not the strength of mind to draw down the
+blind, and so shut out the chance of the vision, and in consequence made
+such a peculiar rendering of her piece that Miss Fanny came in herself,
+scolded her sharply, and sat down by her side to insist upon her playing
+it properly.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't mind the scolding in the least," Jessie told her chums
+afterwards. "I was so thankful to see anybody I'd have been glad if
+she'd boxed my ears. I was so afraid she'd go away again I played wrong
+notes on purpose. She said she'd never known me so stupid."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Pollard sent me to her bedroom to fetch a book," said Nita. "I
+was simply shaking all over. That long passage is so dreadfully dark,
+and I saw something white at the end of it. It was only Bella's apron,
+though, that she'd hung over the banisters. The moonlight was coming in
+through the landing window, and, it looked so like ghosts I daren't go
+by, so I went down the back stairs and through the kitchen. I asked
+Bella if she'd seen anything more, and she said a big bird had flown
+against the window, and that's always a bad omen. Miss Pollard asked me
+why I'd been so long fetching the book, but I didn't<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+dare tell her. I
+wonder what the bird was an omen of! I forgot to ask Bella."</p>
+
+<p>Evening preparation went on as usual, after which most of the boarders
+collected in their own recreation-room to read or paint or otherwise
+amuse themselves. Iva and Aubrey were practising, but Nesta was sitting
+with the juniors, of whom only Winnie and Joyce were missing. These two
+seemed to have mysteriously disappeared. Joyce came back after a short
+time, looking rather red and excited, but she made no remark, and taking
+a book began to read.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't find my post-card album anywhere," complained Nita, hunting
+disconsolately round the room, "and I did so want to put in those extra
+cards I got last week. I'm sure I left it on the bookcase."</p>
+
+<p>"I saw it in the cloakroom on the boot-rack," volunteered Joyce.</p>
+
+<p>"However could it get there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, but I saw it."</p>
+
+<p>"Miau! I daren't go and fetch it. I simply daren't. The cloakroom will
+be quite dark. Won't somebody go with me? Alison, be a mascot!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, thanks! You won't stir this child."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go," proclaimed Joyce, jumping up briskly. "I don't mind at all.
+Come along Nita!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you saintly girl!"</p>
+
+<p>The two went out of the room, Nita clutching tightly to Joyce's arm and
+volunteering gasping little remarks.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="it" id="it"></a>
+<img src="images/gs03.jpg" width="400" height="624"
+alt="IT CERTAINLY WAS A MOST ALARMING SPECTACLE" title="Page 137" />
+<p class="caption">IT CERTAINLY WAS A MOST ALARMING SPECTACLE</p>
+<p class="right"><a href="#it2"><i>Page 137</i></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"The others are piggy to-night!&mdash;Mother always<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+says I'm so nervous!&mdash;I'm
+really afraid of the dark, even when there are no ghosts!"</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the boarders went on with their various occupations, but in
+a few moments they were interrupted by the sudden opening of the door,
+and Nita burst in with a white face.</p>
+
+<p>"Girls! Oh, I say! I've seen the ghost! It's in the cloakroom! Oh, it's
+too awful! I'm ready to faint. Don't go, Nesta, don't!"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I'm going," said Nesta. "We've had enough of this nonsense,
+and it's time it was put a stop to. Come along, everybody. We'll take a
+look at this ghost."</p>
+
+<p>She valiantly led the way, and the juniors followed more timorously,
+Elsbeth and Doreen, in the rear, giving squeals of terror, across the
+hall and past the dusky corner where the croquet-box was kept, then down
+the steps to the cloakroom door. They peeped in fearfully. At the sight
+they saw most of them backed with shrieks. The room was in complete
+darkness, but at the far side stood a figure which seemed to be shrouded
+in white, its face and uplifted hands shining with a brilliant light
+that gave it a most unearthly and uncanny appearance. <a name="it2" id="it2"></a>It certainly was a
+most alarming spectacle, and enough to strike horror into any breast.
+Alison and Nita were almost in hysterics, and the rest would have run
+away if Nesta had not stopped them.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be a set of sillies," she commanded. "I'll soon show you who it
+is."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+She dived into the cloakroom, and, after a sharp scuffle, came back
+hauling a kicking, struggling, protesting spectre that could evidently
+use both arms and legs in a particularly human fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"Winnie!" exclaimed the girls, as, in the light of the hall, Nesta
+pulled off the sheet and disclosed the well-known blue-serge dress and
+short lank hair of the champion ragger of the school.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody burst out laughing, even Nita and Elsbeth.</p>
+
+<p>"You absolute blighter!"</p>
+
+<p>"How priceless!"</p>
+
+<p>"Win, you're the limit!"</p>
+
+<p>"How did you manage to make your face and hands shine? They looked too
+awful."</p>
+
+<p>"I wet them and rubbed them with matches. Look! If I hold up my hand in
+the dark it's all steaming and glowing with phosphorus yet."</p>
+
+<p>"What a beastly trick."</p>
+
+<p>"You did give us spasms."</p>
+
+<p>"Come along and tell us about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Joyce?"</p>
+
+<p>Joyce had been close by, enjoying the fun, and now joined with her chum
+in relating the story of their rag.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course we were the ghosts all the time," began Winnie. "Last night
+Joyce and I went to the side door. It was lovely moonlight, and we dared
+each other to run down the back drive. We'd got as far as the gate when
+we heard somebody behind us. It was Bella, so we dodged out into the
+road and a few yards up Poplar Lane. We thought Bella was going<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+the other way. She stood still a minute and waited, then she turned and came
+straight towards us. I thought if she saw us she'd report us to Miss
+Fanny, so I whispered to Joyce, 'Get behind me and I'll act ghost!' and
+then I held my dress high above my head with both hands, and began to
+bow myself up and down and moan."</p>
+
+<p>"Bella yelled," explained Joyce, taking up the tale. "She ran back up
+the drive as fast as she could, and rushed round to the kitchen door. We
+were going to tell you about it, but when we got in you were full of
+Bella's story of having seen the ghost in Poplar Lane. So we thought we
+might as well have some fun out of the thing, and play a rag on you."</p>
+
+<p>"It was ever so difficult, though," continued Winnie. "We couldn't do it
+anywhere else except in the cloakroom, and we didn't know how to get you
+there. It was Joyce's idea to take Nita's post-card album away. Oh, how
+she and Alison screamed! I haven't got over it yet."</p>
+
+<p>Winnie was still hinnying and dabbing her eyes with a rather
+phosphorousy pocket handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, now," said Nesta, "we've had enough of this. You mustn't try
+any tricks on the maids."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, just on Bella! It would be such a stunt to stand in the housemaid's
+cupboard and let her find me when she goes upstairs."</p>
+
+<p>"No!" decreed Nesta. "It's dangerous to frighten people. Bella may
+have a weak heart, and in any case she'd be certain to drop her jug of
+drinking-water.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+I'm a senior and you juniors have got to do what I say.
+No, Winnie! It's no use pulling faces and nudging Joyce. I mean it. I'm
+no tell-tale, but if I find either of you trying on this rag again I
+shall just march straight off and fetch Miss Fanny. So you know what to
+expect. There!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+<a name="xi" id="xi"></a>CHAPTER XI<br />
+
+<span class="sub">Round the Fire</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny liked to have an individual knowledge of
+each of their pupils, and as they did not yet know the Ramsays very well
+they asked them to tea one day. So after school Mavis and Merle stayed
+behind and washed their hands, and went with the boarders into the
+dining-room, and ate scones and honey and home-baked cake, and felt
+rather shy and hardly spoke at all, although they were both sitting
+close to Miss Pollard, who made most noble efforts at conversation. When
+tea was over, those girls who were due to practise departed to the
+several pianos, and began a kind of musical combat of scales and
+studies. The others collected round the fire in the recreation-room.
+Preparation had been put off on account of the visitors, and Miss
+Pollard had announced that she and Miss Fanny were coming in for half an
+hour's chat or fun.</p>
+
+<p>"You must decide what you'd like to do," she said. "Ask Mavis and Merle
+what are their favourite games. Do they know 'adverbs'? It must be
+something you can all play."</p>
+
+<p>Standing in front of the fire everybody proposed something different,
+and nobody wanted anybody else's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+suggestion. Matters seemed likely to go
+rather lamely till Mamie had a really sensible idea.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's ask Miss Pollard to tell us a Devonshire story instead of playing
+games."</p>
+
+<p>"Does she know any Devonshire stories?" said Merle quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Heaps and heaps. She says she learnt them from the old people about
+Durracombe, when she was a little girl, and her father was vicar. She's
+written most of them down. She has them in a manuscript book. We want
+her to get it published some day, because they're so topping. They're
+all about Devonshire pixies and witches and charms and things."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd love to hear one."</p>
+
+<p>"So would I," added Mavis, "I'd like it far better than playing a game,
+if you others don't mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's you visitors who are to choose."</p>
+
+<p>So when Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny entered, and inquired what was to be
+the particular form of entertainment, Mamie voted for Devonshire
+stories, and all hands were held up in favour of her proposal.</p>
+
+<p>"My little folk-tales!" exclaimed Miss Pollard, looking very pleased.
+"They're collected from the neighbourhood. The old people used to tell
+them years ago, but nowadays I don't think anybody in Durracombe cares
+about pixies. Most of them would have been forgotten if I hadn't written
+them down. I'll fetch the book. I'd rather read you one than try to
+remember it. I never can recollect the best points when I tell stories."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
+Miss Pollard returned presently with a small manuscript volume, the
+result of rather careful work on her part, for she was interested in the
+old legends of the district. She settled herself in a wicker arm-chair,
+with Doreen on her lap, and Elsbeth squatting on the floor leaning
+against her knee, while Miss Fanny, on the opposite side of the hearth,
+gave similar petting to Jessie and Prue. It was a "home-y" little
+circle, not in the least like school. Mavis could not help thinking how
+sweet Miss Pollard looked, with the firelight shining on her silver
+hair, and an unwonted pink colour in her cheeks. Miss Fanny, too, was
+picturesque in the gloaming, and Prue's red-gold head made a bright spot
+of colour against her dull-green dress.</p>
+
+<p>"They're dears, both of them," thought Mavis. "Absolute dears! Anybody
+more unlike school-mistresses I never met in my life. They ought to have
+been married. They must have been so pretty when they were young. I
+suppose they never met anybody in this out-of-the-way place. The school
+may be old-fashioned, and behind the age, and all the rest of it, but
+they give the boarders a good time at any rate. They're just mothers to
+those Indian children. I'm glad to have had a peep at them behind the
+scenes and seen this side of them. I believe I'm rather in love with
+them both."</p>
+
+<p>But Miss Pollard had opened her manuscript book and, in her pleasant
+cultured voice, was beginning to read.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+STOLEN BY THE PIXIES</p>
+
+<p>Nancy Gurney sat by the side of the driftwood fire, and her
+tears fell fast as she rocked the cradle of her sleeping child.
+The afternoon sun shone brightly through the narrow casement
+window, and lit up the earthen floor and the brown rafters with
+a warm yellow glow. From outside came the fresh smell of the
+sea, and the soft grinding of the pebbles, while the waves
+lapped gently over the beach, as if they had never lashed
+themselves into foaming breakers against the cliffs.</p>
+
+<p>The red poppies which grew on the low-thatched roof raised up
+their heads, battered by yesterday's storms, the great flat
+fish, hung up to dry in the sun by the doorway, flapped in the
+light breeze, and from the shore came the shrill eager voices of
+children, who gathered the driftwood cast up by the gale. But
+the fishing-boats! The brown-sailed fishing-boats that ought to
+have beaten back so safely into the harbour with the turn of the
+tide, alas! there was never a sign nor a sail of them to be
+seen, and there was many an aching heart in Bulvertor that day.</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe they've got safe off towards the Cornish coast," said
+Kitty Trefyre, who sat knitting in the inglenook.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay," said Nancy sadly, "they'd have been round the head by
+now. It's only the stoutest of boats that could have weathered
+such a gale as blew last night, and <i>The Dolphin</i> was hardly
+seaworthy at best. No! They're gone! They're gone! We shall
+never see the brown sails again! The sea has taken my Peter as
+it has claimed all my dearest and best, and my poor boy is a
+fatherless babe."</p>
+
+<p>She dropped her head on her hands, and sobbed till the tears
+fell into the cradle over the sleeping child.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't take it so hard!" said Kitty. "We won't give<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+them up yet! And whisht, girl, whisht! Whatever you do don't weep over
+the boy! Have you never heard that if tears fall on a sleeping
+child the pixies have power to steal it away?"</p>
+
+<p>Nancy dashed the tears from her eyes, and walked to the doorway
+to take one long wistful look over the bay. The old woman laid
+aside her knitting and followed her.</p>
+
+<p>"It's ill luck!" she muttered. "Ill luck to shed tears on
+sleeping babes, and I doubt me but evil will come of it. I'll
+gather some fern seed and drop it in the cradle. It's a
+well-known charm for keeping off pixies or witches, and 'tis
+better to be wise in time&mdash;wise in time!"</p>
+
+<p>She hobbled out across the garden to where the ferns grew under
+the hedge, while Nancy turned sadly again to the fireside. She
+stooped over the cradle to kiss her sleeping child, but started
+back with a piercing, bitter cry. <em>The cradle was empty!</em></p>
+
+<p>The sound of her grief soon brought old Kitty hurrying to the
+cottage.</p>
+
+<p>"My boy! My beautiful boy!" sobbed the despairing mother. "The
+pixies have stolen him away. Oh, that I had wept myself blind
+ere I let the tears fall over his cradle!"</p>
+
+<p>She sat rocking herself to and fro in her sorrow, while the old
+woman threw the fern seed, picked, alas! too late, into the
+driftwood fire.</p>
+
+<p>"There's one hope left," said Kitty, when the first wild burst
+of grief had worn itself away. "I am cunning and wise in the
+ways of the pixies, and I know that they dance each night in the
+moonlight on the ledge of rock where the sea-pinks bloom on the
+face of St. Morna's Cliff. If you hide yourself there, with a
+wreath of vervain round your hair, and could catch them
+unawares, my heart tells me you might force them to restore what
+they have stolen.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+But, alas! the plan is well-nigh impossible,
+for how could you tread safely over the crags where the boldest
+of our cliff climbers scarce dare to venture?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yet I will do it!" cried Nancy, as she rose up with a new light
+in her eyes. "Quick! weave me the wreath of vervain, and show me
+by what spell I may force the fairies to give me back my child."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, that I cannot tell you," said old Kitty. "Your own
+mother-wit must find out the way. Start when the twilight has
+fallen, and when seven stars are shining over the sea; tell none
+your errand, and cast three sprigs from your vervain wreath if a
+hare should cross your path. Turn your wedding ring round on
+your finger before you venture to climb down the cliff, and call
+on St. Morna to help you. Watch silently all that may happen
+till you see your opportunity arise&mdash;and may good luck and my
+blessing go with you!"</p>
+
+<p>The dusk had fallen over the village, and the stars were
+beginning to shine in the darkening sky, when Nancy, with the
+wreath of vervain twined through her dark hair, crept softly
+past the last of the cottages, and took the little briary path
+which led through the low sandhills, and over the wind-swept
+hill-side up to St. Morna's Cliff.</p>
+
+<p>Not a sound broke the silence, for the sea-gulls had vanished
+with the sunshine, and not even a fieldmouse stirred in the
+bracken. With hasty step she hurried along, for she must reach
+her post before moonrise. The path grew steeper, the bracken
+gave way to heather, and at length she found herself on the
+smooth grassy surface of St. Morna's Cliff. Down far below her
+she could see the wide rocky ledge where the sea-pinks were
+catching the last glow from the western sky. How steep the crag
+looked! The few tufts of grass and jutting-out pieces of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+rock offered her scarcely a foothold; should she make one false step
+she must be dashed to atoms upon the precipice beneath. She
+looked down and shivered; but the thought of her child sent a
+thrill of courage to her heart. Kneeling down on the short grass
+she prayed to St. Morna for help; then, turning her wedding ring
+round upon her finger, she swung herself over the edge of the
+cliff.</p>
+
+<p>Clutching at a root here, feeling with her feet for the
+slightest foothold, grasping the worn splinters of the crag, she
+let herself down the face of the rock, till with panting breath
+and bleeding fingers she fell among the sea-pinks on the ledge
+below. She lay there for a while, half-insensible, till the
+first rays of the rising moon began to shimmer over the sea.
+Then she rose hastily, and, hiding herself behind a huge
+boulder, waited for what should happen.</p>
+
+<p>When the first faint moonbeams fell all silvery white upon the
+ledge, the sea-pinks lifted their pretty heads; they grew and
+grew till each had changed into a gorgeous tropical flower,
+then, leaving their places, they ranged themselves into a wide
+circle, and cast forth such a fragrance as might have stolen out
+of the open gates of Paradise. Upon each hung a tiny silver
+bell, and as they nodded their heads the bells chimed out the
+sweetest fairy tunes. Little stars began to glitter among the
+leaves, some pink, some blue, some golden, and the short green
+grass inside the circle smoothed itself out into the most
+beautiful dancing-floor.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was a great rushing sound in the sky, and from far
+and near there flew flocks of snow-white sea-gulls. As they
+reached the ledge their wings fell from them, and they turned
+into lovely little pixies, as light and transparent as gossamer.
+Joining hands, they stepped inside<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+the circle of flowers and
+danced a graceful, intricate measure, while the fairy bells rang
+out their sweetest tunes. On and on they danced, hour after
+hour; the moon rose slowly in the sky, but the pixies' feet
+seemed never to tire as they beat time to the enchanting music.</p>
+
+<p>Hiding behind the boulder of rock Nancy had been quite
+unnoticed, but her eager eyes watched all that had been taking
+place. Stretching out her hand very gently she managed to steal
+a pair of the sea-birds' wings, and hide them away in her bosom.</p>
+
+<p>The little bells still rang out their chimes, and the pixies
+tripped lightly over the grass, till at length the moon began to
+wane, and the first glimmer of approaching dawn showed in the
+eastern sky.</p>
+
+<p>Then the tiny dancers stopped short in their merry pastime, and,
+taking their white wings again, they flew away over the sea like
+a cloud of foam flakes. The coloured stars and the silver bells
+had disappeared, the tropical flowers broke up their circle and
+changed once more into simple little sea-pinks, and the grass,
+where the pixies had danced, grew up fresher and greener than
+ever.</p>
+
+<p>But one little pixie was left behind. She wandered round
+wringing her hands and seeking vainly for the sea-bird's wings
+that should have borne her away with the others. Tripping behind
+the great boulder of rock she came face to face with Nancy, who
+still crouched in its shadow.</p>
+
+<p>"Mortal! cruel mortal!" cried the pixie, "you have stolen my
+wings! Give them back, I pray you, before the dawn breaks, for
+the first rays of sunshine will wither me up, and I shall turn
+into a little faded brown leaf."</p>
+
+<p>"Pixie! cruel pixie!" cried Nancy, "you have stolen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+my child! Bring him back to my arms, and then and not till then will I
+restore you your wings."</p>
+
+<p>"How can I find you your child?" screamed the pixie. "Oh! give
+me my wings&mdash;my pretty white wings; let me fly safely away over
+the sea ere I turn for ever into a little withered brown leaf!"
+and she stamped her tiny foot in her helpless passion.</p>
+
+<p>"You can and shall find me my child," said Nancy, "for I know
+that the pixies have stolen him away, and that only a pixie can
+bring him back to me. Look! the sky is reddening already, your
+time is short. Do my bidding speedily, and the wings are yours."</p>
+
+<p>"The dawn! the dawn!" shrieked the pixie. "Mortal, I will grant
+you what you ask! Each of the sea-pinks which bloom on this
+green turf holds the soul of a child which we have stolen away
+from its cradle. For a moment each pretty flower shall wear its
+human face, then choose out your own child swiftly and let me be
+gone."</p>
+
+<p>She clapped her hands, and each of the little sea-pinks turned
+to a smiling baby face. All the merry eyes and tiny curls were
+there that mothers had mourned for all over the country-side,
+and at her feet Nancy saw the sweet, laughing face of her stolen
+child. With a cry of joy she clasped him in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>"The dawn! the dawn!" cried the pixie. "Mortal, give me my
+wings!"</p>
+
+<p>Nancy drew them from her bosom, and gave them into the eager,
+entreating fingers. With a great rush of light the sun rose, his
+golden beams fell on the wide ledge of rock, lighting up a bed
+of simple little sea-pinks, while over the broad blue sea there
+flew a solitary sea-gull.</p>
+
+<p>Folding her shawl about her child, Nancy slung him on to her
+back, and with slow steps and painful fingers she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+climbed up the face of the cliff. The larks were rising out of the heather, the
+little blue butterflies were flitting over the yellow gorse, the
+dew-drops hung like jewels in the gossamer, and far away on the
+distant water she could see the brown sails of the missing
+fishing-boats as they beat safely over the bar into Bulvertor
+Harbour.</p></blockquote>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<p>"The story was told me in Devonshire dialect when I was a little girl,"
+said Miss Pollard, as she closed her book, "but I wrote it in ordinary
+English because the other is so hard to understand. It's funny that in
+the accounts of fairies they always seem to speak the local languages.
+Irish fairies talk Erse, and Welsh fairies sing in Welsh. Have you
+pixies in the north, Mavis?"</p>
+
+<p>"They're called 'boggarts' in our part of the world," laughed Mavis,
+"and I suppose they talk dialect. There's a north-country story about a
+boggart&mdash;a creature something like a brownie&mdash;that lived at a farm, and
+was such a bother that the people thought they'd remove to get rid of
+him. They put all their furniture on a cart, and started out. They met a
+neighbour, who said to them: 'So thee's flittin'!' and the boggart
+popped its ugly little head out of the churn and said: 'Aye, we's
+flittin'!'.</p>
+
+<p>"The people were so disgusted to find that it intended to go with them
+to new quarters that they turned back to their old farm and decided to
+put up with the nuisance."</p>
+
+<p>"Ayah used to tell us Indian fairy tales," said Mamie,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+"but they were about princes and devas and lovely ladies."</p>
+
+<p>"There are fairy tales all over the world," said Miss Pollard, "and if
+we go on telling them we shall never stop. It's time for preparation
+now. You little people must run away, and the others must fetch their
+books. Mavis and Merle must come some time to have tea with us again."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+<a name="xii" id="xii"></a>CHAPTER XII<br />
+
+<span class="sub">Pixie-led</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Next morning Merle got out of bed on the wrong side. She did it
+deliberately and with intention. It was a rather awkward business to
+achieve, too, for the beds were placed close together with only a few
+inches between them, and to make her left-handed exit she was obliged to
+scramble over the recumbent form of Mavis, who protested sleepily.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't care! Bags me first innings at the hot water," blustered Merle,
+bouncing down with a plump on to the rush mat in front of the wash-hand
+stand.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't care came to a bad end," quoted a dormouse voice among the
+blankets.</p>
+
+<p>"Right-o! I'm in for it."</p>
+
+<p>After such a shameless tempting of fate it was not to be wondered at
+that matters immediately turned in the direction of bad luck.</p>
+
+<p>Merle poured out a liberal half of the hot water which Jessop had
+brought, then seized up the toilet jug to add some cold. But either her
+hand was wet or she was careless, or some unseen imp actually
+intervened; anyhow, the handle slipped from her grasp,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+down fell the jug, breaking its spout, and the contents spread themselves over the
+floor.</p>
+
+<p>Anybody who has ever upset a bedroom jug must have been astonished at
+the enormous volume of water it contains. It seemed to Merle as if the
+bath had suddenly emptied itself. Streams and trickles were running
+everywhere, and the rush mat was a swamp. She stood staring at it in
+utter consternation.</p>
+
+<p>"Mop it up, you Judkins!" shrieked Mavis, now thoroughly awakened. "Why
+can't you mop it up? Goody, what a mess!"</p>
+
+<p>Mavis put one foot out of bed into the wet pool, and drew it back like a
+cat. She reached for her bedroom slippers, pulled them on, then set to
+work with a sponge to try and remedy the damage. For what seemed about
+five minutes the girls were mopping and dabbing, getting the bottoms of
+their nightdresses soaked in the process, and having to scramble under
+the beds to follow some of the streams. Jessop, hearing the commotion,
+came in and scolded.</p>
+
+<p>"The new toilet jug! Whatever were you doing? What will your aunt say,
+I wonder? Girls are as careless as boys it seems to me! I used to make
+Master Cyril wash in the bathroom. We shall have to buy you enamel-ware
+if you break the china. Rivet it, did you say? No one could rivet these
+bits! Besides which, the old man who used to come round riveting things
+has never turned up since the war. The jug's done for and that's the
+long and short of it. There, get on with your dressing, or you'll be
+late for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+breakfast. I'll bring you some more water in a can. I suppose
+girls will be girls, and the thing's done now, and past praying for, so
+there's an end of it."</p>
+
+<p>It might be the end of the water jug, but unfortunately it was not the
+end of Merle's ill-luck. She must have been in a particularly awkward
+and maladroit mood, for at breakfast-time she actually managed to upset
+her cup of tea.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello! What are we doing here?" asked Uncle David, peering round his
+newspaper at the puddle on the clean tablecloth.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I think the pixies nudged me. I'm fearfully sorry,"
+apologized Merle, thanking her stars privately that Jessop was not in
+the dining-room, and hoping to escape to school before that already
+offended domestic deity came to clear away and discovered the tell-tale
+evidence.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah yes! Put it all on to the pixies; they've broad shoulders," twinkled
+Uncle David, as he helped himself to more bacon.</p>
+
+<p>"It's like the Mad Hatter's tea-party," grunted Mavis, moving farther
+down the table to avoid the wet patch, which had spread in her
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>Certainly Merle seemed pixie-led, for everything went wrong. When she
+put on her boots she broke her boot-lace, and had to piece it with a big
+knot which ran into her instep and hurt her. She struggled into her
+coat, slammed on her hat, and tore out after Mavis, who had already
+started; but when she was half-way along the High Street she discovered
+that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+she had forgotten one of her books and had to run back for it. It
+was in the summer-house, at the bottom of the garden, where she had left
+it the day before, and as she scurried up the steps she stumbled and
+fell, and grazed her knee. She picked herself up, looked ruefully at the
+injured limb, seized her book, and rushed away, limping slightly on one
+leg, and grousing hard. She was late for school, though, in spite of her
+best efforts, and only slipped into the big classroom just when Miss
+Pollard was closing the register.</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you been, Merle?" inquired Miss Pollard in the most
+scholastic manner she knew how to adopt.</p>
+
+<p>"I forgot my history and went back for it&mdash;I'm very sorry," gasped
+Merle, much out of breath with running.</p>
+
+<p>Opal smiled, and counted over the books which she held on her lap with
+the air of one who is thinking to herself: "Other people don't forget
+their things!" Merle, by this time thoroughly cross, frowned at her
+darkly. There was something so aggravatingly smug about Opal; all her
+peccadilloes were well hidden, and never came under public and official
+notice. She took advantage of her position, too; for, as the girls filed
+out of the room, she stroked Miss Pollard's arm caressingly as she
+passed, a token of affection which Merle, who admired the head mistress
+after yesterday's tea-party, would have loved to bestow but did not
+dare.</p>
+
+<p>The pixies would not let Merle alone that morning.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+They jerked her pen,
+so that she made blots on her exercise, they whisked dates out of her
+memory, and put wrong figures into her sums. When it came to literature
+lesson they must have deliberately absconded with her copy of <i>Julius
+C&aelig;sar</i>. She hunted for it in vain.</p>
+
+<p>"I <em>know</em> I left it in my desk yesterday," she assured Miss Fanny, who
+was waiting to take the class and chafing at the delay.</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to have your books ready. Be quick and look again. It's
+probably underneath something else," urged the mistress impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>Merle seized a top layer of textbooks and essay paper and dumped them
+down on the floor, the more readily to burrow deeper into the rather
+mixed and miscellaneous collection in her desk.</p>
+
+<p>"Merle Ramsay! Really, you forget yourself," chided Miss Fanny. "Pick
+those things up and put them back. A more disgracefully untidy
+performance I never saw. I won't have that litter on the floor. Is your
+<i>Julius C&aelig;sar</i> there, or is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>Apparently it was not, for Merle turned over her heap of confusion in
+vain; and in her agitation let the lid of the desk fall with an awful
+slam that echoed through the room. She sat up scarlet in the face.</p>
+
+<p>"That will do!" said Miss Fanny icily. "You must look on with Mavis if
+you can't find your own."</p>
+
+<p>"Please, Miss Fanny, I saw a <i>Julius C&aelig;sar</i> in the pound this morning,"
+volunteered Opal demurely. "I don't know whose it is."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+The mistress turned to the lost-property basket, stooped down, drew out
+the missing book, and handed it reproachfully to Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"If you kept your desk in better order you wouldn't lose your things.
+See how you've delayed the whole form! You must bring a penny for the
+missionary box this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>Merle sat through the lesson with a face like thunder. She was
+absolutely certain that she had left the book inside her desk, and she
+strongly suspected Opal of having deliberately taken it out and placed
+it in the pound.</p>
+
+<p>"Just like one of her disgusting tricks. She'd do anything mean. I'll
+have something to say to her after school," she mused gloomily.</p>
+
+<p>She tackled Opal in the cloakroom when the latter was tying her
+shoe-laces.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, you blighter," she began, "what do you mean by cribbing my
+books and sticking them into the pound? It's the absolute limit."</p>
+
+<p>Opal tied an elegant bow, and put out a foot to admire the result.</p>
+
+<p>"I've never seen your books, my good girl," she yawned. "What are you
+setting on me for?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have! You took it out of my desk and put it in the pound on
+purpose. I know you did!"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't!"</p>
+
+<p>"What a whopper!"</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, just stop talking!"</p>
+
+<p>"I shan't! I'll say what I think. We used to play<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+'rags' at Whinburn High, but when one girl started that rag of hiding books we all 'booed'
+her out of our secret society as a sneak."</p>
+
+<p>"How clever of you!" sneered Opal. "What you did at your precious high
+school is nothing to me, I'm sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my <i>Julius C&aelig;sar</i> is at any rate. You took it away, and it's you
+who've got to put the penny in the missionary box for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't count on me to pay your fines for you; I'm always stony broke,"
+laughed Opal, as she put on her coat.</p>
+
+<p>"Opal Earnshaw, I <em>shan't</em> pay that penny when it's your business."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear, dear! What tempers we get ourselves into!</p>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"'Little children should not let<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Their angry passions rise!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their little hands were never made<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To scratch each other's eyes!'"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p class="noi">Opal spoke airily as she arranged her hat.</p>
+
+<p>"It'll come to scratching in another moment!" exploded Merle. "You
+<em>know</em> it's all your fault."</p>
+
+<p>"Merle, <em>darling</em>! <em>Don't!</em>" remonstrated Mavis, seizing her sister's
+arm and whispering "It's no use and it only makes Opal all the nastier.
+I've put the penny in the box for you already. I told Miss Fanny, and
+she said it was all right. It's a shame, I know, but we can't do
+anything."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to spifflicate that girl," fumed Merle,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+looking after Opal, who was walking away giggling.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Merle took life hardly. She went home still reviling Fate. Directly
+lunch was over she seized her writing-pad and scribbled the following
+letter as fast as her pen would go.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>"Un-dear Opal,</p>
+
+<p class="indent3em">"I think you're the horridest, meanest girl I have ever met in
+my life, and that's saying something. You think yourself very
+clever and pretty, and all the rest of it, but you're not. You
+may get Miss Pollard to shut her eyes to what you do, but some
+day she'll find you out and then there'll be squalls, and I for
+one shall dance for joy. If you want to know what I think about
+you, I call you a proud popinjay; it's the best name to suit
+you! I wish you were not at this school or else that I hadn't
+come to it!</p>
+
+<p class="right1">"With the reverse of love,</p>
+<p class="right2">"Yours unaffectionately,</p>
+<p class="right3">"<span class="smcap">Merle Ramsay</span>."</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>"There! That's done me good!" she declared, handing the letter to her
+sister.</p>
+
+<p>Mavis read the effusion quite calmly, folded it, and placed it in the
+envelope addressed to Miss O. Earnshaw.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we put it in our usual post office?" she asked, then dropped it
+into the fire.</p>
+
+<p>She understood Merle, who loved to relieve her feelings by writing
+violent letters, which fortunately never reached the people to whom they
+were directed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
+It was merely a form of letting off steam, and did nobody
+any harm. Mavis always took care, though, to make sure that the epistles
+were safely consigned to the flames. She had pulled Merle out of many
+scrapes, and knew just how to manage her hot-tempered sister.</p>
+
+<p>"Opal's simply not worth thinking about," she consoled. "Let's forget
+this business. Uncle David says he's going to pay a visit at a farm on
+the moor this afternoon, and if we'll scurry home quick from school at
+four, he'll wait for us and take us with him."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Jubilate!" rejoiced Merle, recovering her good spirits. "What fun!
+I was just pining for a jaunt in the car. Go? I should think we will,
+rather! We'll fly the very second Mademoiselle lets us off. Thank
+goodness, it will be something decent to think about all the afternoon.
+Opal Earnshaw may go to Hong-Kong if she likes. I don't care about her
+and her meannesses. We're wangling a drive with Uncle David.
+Cock-a-doodle-do!"</p>
+
+<p>Merle got through her music lesson with moderate success, and did her
+drawing with tolerable correctness, so, except for a lost button and
+breaking the hinge off her pencil-box, she had no more conspicuous
+mishaps. She nearly undid herself by catching up her drawing-board and
+rising to go the moment the clock began to strike four, which caused a
+glare from Mademoiselle, who added:</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down till I dismiss the class. If you go too soon I shall make you
+stay behind all the others and wait."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="here" id="here"></a>
+<img src="images/gs04.jpg" width="400" height="608"
+alt="&quot;HERE WE ARE AT CROSS NUMBER TWO&quot;" title="Page 163" />
+<p class="caption">"HERE WE ARE AT CROSS NUMBER TWO"</p>
+<p class="right"><a href="#here2"><i>Page 163</i></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+Much terrified lest the teacher should keep her threat, Merle popped
+back into her place, and filed out in orderly fashion behind Maude
+Carey, fuming that the latter's movements were so dilatory and slow. She
+and Mavis hurried home almost at a run.</p>
+
+<p>After all they need not have been in such fearful haste, for they found
+Uncle David and Tom busy in the yard putting the spare wheel on the car.</p>
+
+<p>"Just had a puncture," explained Dr. Tremayne. "A nasty bit of broken
+glass in the High Street. Fortunately I was almost home. No, Tom, I
+haven't time to stay now while you mend it. I must get off to see old
+Mr. Tracy at once. We must just trust the spare wheel won't puncture,
+that's all. People ought to be prosecuted for leaving broken glass about
+to cut tyres. It's a dastardly trick to play on motorists. If I were a
+magistrate I'd fine them for it. The amount of time I waste over
+punctures is perfectly disgusting."</p>
+
+<p>The spare wheel was put on at last, in place of the one with the
+punctured tyre, and Uncle David and Mavis and Merle got into the car,
+and started off on to the moors. It had been quite clear in Durracombe,
+though not sunny, but directly they were up amongst the peat and heather
+great white clouds came rolling across the road, and in a few moments
+they were in the thickness of a white Devonshire mist. It was possible
+to see only for about a space of ten feet all round them. The doctor
+drove slowly, sounding his horn to warn anybody who might be approaching
+either in front or from behind.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+"I didn't think we should have caught a mist to-day," he commented. "I'd
+have started earlier if I'd known it was going to be like this. Curious
+how these queer fogs come on. I suppose it's our nearness to the sea.
+It's a regular winding-sheet. No use turning on the lamps, for they
+don't help. What's that! G-r-r-r! Great Scott! I believe we've got
+another puncture!"</p>
+
+<p>The unmistakable jarring sensation that betrays mishap to a tyre brought
+Dr. Tremayne to a sudden standstill. He got out to inspect.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is! And the spare wheel, too! Of all the hard luck. I shall
+have to set to work and mend it. And here in the midst of all the fog.
+It might have kept up till we'd reached the farm. This is the second
+puncture this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I'm the Jonah," said Merle. "I've had a pixie day ever since
+I got up this morning. Every single thing has gone wrong. I believe in
+bad luck, especially if you start badly. You'd better throw me
+overboard."</p>
+
+<p>"We must get started again before we can throw anybody overboard."</p>
+
+<p>"Can we help you, Uncle?" asked Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>"No, dear, not just at present. It's a question of finding the puncture.
+Ah! Here it is! And, would you believe it? another bit of broken glass!
+Some wretched tourist has been picnicking up here, I suppose, and
+smashed a ginger-beer bottle. Well, now I've found the spot, I can get
+to work."</p>
+
+<p>It was rather cold standing in the midst of the fog<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+watching Uncle David. The girls began to walk up and down the road instead while they
+waited for him. They could see a patch of heather on either hand, and
+occasionally, looming through the mist, the dark body of a mountain pony
+or a bullock. Quite close to them, on the top of a small mound, was a
+little old, old worn cross, and they naturally stepped aside to look at
+it. Perhaps it marked some traveller's grave, or had been part of a
+shrine in long-ago times. Standing by its shaft they could make out
+through the fog another cross only a short distance away. It seemed a
+pity not to inspect this also. It was a far finer one than the first,
+and they walked all round it; then because they thought they spied a
+cromlech on the top of another mound they set off to inspect that too.
+It was not a cromlech after all, only a pile of boulders, so they turned
+back again.</p>
+
+<p><a name="here2" id="here2"></a>"Here we are at cross number two," said Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye-e-s," agreed Mavis doubtfully. "It seems to have gone rather
+smaller, though. I don't remember that clump of ferns at the bottom."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there's the first cross at any rate. Come along."</p>
+
+<p>But when they reached what they supposed to be the first cross they were
+more doubtful still. It was quite unfamiliar. Moreover, there was no
+road within sight of it.</p>
+
+<p>"We&mdash;we've come wrong!" faltered Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"There must be several of these crosses."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's go back to that one over there, then perhaps we shall find our
+first one."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+But meanwhile the treacherous mist was rolling up thicker and thicker.
+The girls hurried back as fast as they could, but this time they missed
+the cross altogether. There is nothing so easy as to get lost in a fog
+on the moors. Thoroughly frightened, they called to Uncle David, but
+they could hear nothing in reply. They wandered on, hoping he would
+sound the hooter and so give them some clue to his whereabouts, but
+everything was deadly still. It seemed as if a great white wall had
+arisen and shut them up in some elfin castle on the moor.</p>
+
+<p>"We're pixie-led. That's just all about it," said Merle. "I told you it
+was an unlucky day."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, look here, we mustn't go too far! If we walk on like this we may
+be going straight away from the road, and might tramp miles or get into
+a bog. We'd better stay where we are and shout every now and then, and
+perhaps Uncle David will find us."</p>
+
+<p>Two very forlorn girls, feeling extremely chilly and cold in the clammy
+fog, squatted down on the heather and took it in turns to call
+"Coo-e-ee!"</p>
+
+<p>"What are we to do if we have to stop here all night?" asked Merle,
+nearly crying.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know!"</p>
+
+<p>"How long do these mists last?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, days and days sometimes I suppose!"</p>
+
+<p>"Should we be dead before morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I hope not! Shout again!"</p>
+
+<p>They both called together, but there was no response.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+"I'm going to count a hundred, and if we hear nothing by then I shall
+walk on somewhere. It's so bitterly cold sitting still," said Mavis, who
+was shivering.</p>
+
+<p>She counted aloud, and at the end they gave a frantic shout. Not even a
+bird rustled in reply. "Well here goes, there's nothing for it but a
+plunge," said Mavis. "I've not the glimmer of an idea which way to
+take."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall follow my nose," said Merle, setting off.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go too fast or you'll lose me. Let me take hold of your arm. We
+never came this way, I'm sure. We certainly didn't pass a little
+stream."</p>
+
+<p>"Any way is better than no way," said Merle desperately. "Hello! why
+there's the road!"</p>
+
+<p>The relief at finding themselves back upon the track of civilization was
+intense. They ran joyfully along, and in a few moments came upon Uncle
+David, just screwing on his last nuts and whistling to himself quite
+unconcernedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you two been?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Where!" answered Merle with dramatic unction. "Where? Why, getting lost
+like the babes in the wood! We thought we were going to perish upon the
+moors and never see home again! We wandered on for <em>hours</em>. Didn't you
+hear us shouting?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly twenty-five minutes," corrected Dr. Tremayne, consulting his
+watch. "No, I never heard you shout. I should have hooted if I had. I
+wondered where you were. Better not run off too far<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+another time. Well,
+I've mended this tyre, and been remarkably quick over it too, I think.
+I'm rather proud of myself. It's a record."</p>
+
+<p>Feeling a little small, the girls got into the car. It was humiliating
+that Uncle David did not seem to realize their terrific adventure, and
+was far more concerned over the tyre than over their possible loss and
+death from exposure and starvation.</p>
+
+<p>"It's all the fault of the Devonshire pixies," whispered Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>And Merle nodded emphatically.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather! I consider we were absolutely and entirely pixie-led. I can
+almost hear the little wretches laughing about it over there. I'll do
+for them if I catch them! It's been a pixie day."</p>
+
+<p>"Then for goodness sake do get out of bed to-morrow on the right side,"
+implored Mavis.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+<a name="xiii" id="xiii"></a>CHAPTER XIII<br />
+
+<span class="sub">Blackthorn Bower</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>As a direct consequence of sitting on the damp moor in the mist Mavis
+caught one of her bad bronchial colds and was put to bed and cosseted by
+Aunt Nellie, and was fussed over by Jessop, and was visited by Uncle
+David, and had flowers sent her by Tom, and for a few days was the
+centre of the entire household. She was such a dear gentle little
+patient, and her blue eyes and dull-gold hair always looked so effective
+against the background of a pillow, that she invariably received much
+petting and spoiling when she was ill. Merle, who went through some
+stormy scenes when left to her own devices at school, declared that
+Mavis was "a lucker", and that it paid to be an invalid. She did her
+share of the spoiling, however; for though she might sometimes affect to
+be jealous, no one was more thoroughly devoted to her sister than
+herself. It was characteristic of Merle that she would not go to
+Chagmouth alone.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll wait till Mavis is better and then we'll go together, thanks,
+Uncle David," she said decidedly, in response to all tempting offers of
+a run in the car.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+Mavis pulled round much faster at Durracombe than she would have done at
+Whinburn, and, though several weeks saw the doctor set off alone for
+Chagmouth, one Saturday arrived when he started with a pale and a rosy
+face beside him, and two wagging tongues keeping up an excited
+chatteration. The girls felt as if they had been away from the village
+for years. The short time of their absence had made changes, for the red
+pyrus japonica was in blossom on some of the houses, and daffodils and
+wallflowers were blooming instead of snowdrops and crocuses in the
+cottage gardens. It was a glorious heavenly day, one of those blue March
+days that are linked in our memories with young lambs and violets. They
+had caught the wind coming across the moor, but the Cove of Chagmouth
+was sheltered from it, and was calm and warm as summer.</p>
+
+<p>"Just the very weather for Mavis to be out-of-doors," said Dr. Tremayne.
+"If Bevis can spare the time we'll ask him to take you
+<a name="for" id="for"></a><ins title="Original did not have for">for</ins> a walk.
+You ought to go and see Pixies' Cave&mdash;that's the place I was telling you
+about the other day, where the Antiquarian Society excavated and found
+so many prehistoric weapons. Bevis was there helping them. He's got one
+or two of the things, I believe. He must show them to you. It's only
+about a mile and a half to the cave if you go along the cliffs. You can
+manage that, Mavis?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rather. I'm not a scrap ill now, and ready for anything."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+Bevis had completely forgiven the girls for deserting him on the former
+occasion. Moreover, he had kept his promise, and had made them a
+miniature grindstone upon which to sharpen their penknives. It turned
+with a handle, and was quite a neat little piece of workmanship. They
+welcomed it with much admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"It's absolutely dinky! How could you ever manage to do it?" they asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it was quite easy!" replied Bevis airily, looking gratified all the
+same.</p>
+
+<p>He agreed at once to escort them to the cave, and directly lunch was
+over they started forth. This time they went in the opposite direction
+to the sanatorium. They climbed above the village, and struck a footpath
+among woods that overhung the cliffs. On this sunny March day it was
+like a peep of fairyland. The trees were still bare, but between the
+network of branches showed the brilliant blue-green of the sea below; an
+aspect of the scene not possible in leafy summer. The ground was
+spangled with little tufts of primroses, peeping from among the grass
+and dead leaves, as the pre-Raphaelite artists so loved to paint them in
+their masterpieces. Mosses, lichens, and hardy Polypody ferns grew
+thickly on the trees, so that grey and green were mingled with the tones
+of brown and gold into one soft harmony of rich colour. The air was
+soft, and yet had an invigorating sparkle of spring in it. Everything
+seemed to hold the thrill of awakening life, and the magnetic atmosphere
+was that of an old-time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>
+folk-tale when the world was young and all its
+objects were sources of wonder and worship.</p>
+
+<p>The girls caught the spirit of the place and ran about like dryads in a
+rapture of delight, picking flowers, gazing up into the tracery of the
+bare branches, or peeping over edges of cliff at the waves dashing
+below. They were so enthralled with the wood that it was difficult to
+drag them any farther. Yet it was finer still when they had left the
+trees and walked out to the open headland. This was the grandest side of
+Chagmouth, and the view of steep jagged rocks and wide waters was
+sublime. There is a spiritual exaltation in being on the heights, else
+why have the greatest souls ever born ascended into mountains for their
+periods of meditation and transfiguration?</p>
+
+<p>Bevis was a most satisfactory person to act guide, for he appreciated
+everything so much himself. He invariably stopped at exactly the right
+places and said, "There!" The boy was a keen naturalist, and was always
+watching the birds, poking about for nests, picking up snail shells, or
+making a dash after some insect specimen that he wanted. His pockets
+were generally full of miscellaneous objects, and he had a growing
+collection put by in boxes inside the tool-shed. He had been much with
+Mr. Barnes, the local antiquary, and had acquired a smattering of
+arch&aelig;ological lore, enough to make him take a wild interest in the
+excavations which were carried on by a learned society from Port Sennen.
+He had himself helped to dig and to sift the gravel, and had been lucky<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
+enough to light upon quite a good find. The best of his discoveries had
+been sent to the County Institute, but a few objects had been private
+treasure trove, and lived in the museum of his pockets.</p>
+
+<p>The point to which he was taking the girls was a little grassy plateau
+that jutted out from the sloping cliff. Nature must have designed it
+specially for her early children, as it was sheltered from the
+prevailing winds and faced the sun. Moreover, it was the outer courtyard
+of a large cave which shelved into the hill-side. Many thousands of
+years ago successive generations of the old prehistoric race, who once
+inhabited these islands, had lived there, and had hunted the mammoth and
+elk. No one would have known anything about them had they not left
+behind them their rude weapons and the bones that remained over from
+their feasts.</p>
+
+<p>It was from these relics, buried under yards of gravel, that
+antiquarians had pieced together some idea of the life in those ancient
+times.</p>
+
+<p>The cave was dark, and, so the girls declared, decidedly "spooky", but
+Bevis had brought a piece of candle and a box of matches; so they were
+able to explore its recesses. There was really not much to see except
+rugged bits of rock, and heaps of gravel, over which they stumbled in
+the dim flicker of their solitary candle. They were both extremely
+relieved when they stepped outside again into the sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>"Ugh! Shouldn't have liked that for a home,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+thank you!" declared Merle.
+"I'd have lived outside if I'd been a prehistoric woman."</p>
+
+<p>"How about wild beasts catching you?" asked Bevis. "You'd have been glad
+to fence yourself safely into the cave at night."</p>
+
+<p>He was turning out the miscellaneous collection in his pockets, and now
+proudly produced the specimens he had found in the cave&mdash;some flint
+arrow-heads, a skin-scraper, and two bone needles.</p>
+
+<p>"I often wish they could talk," he said, "and tell me who owned them,
+and what animals they killed, and what hides they scraped and sewed
+together into clothes. They must have seemed such treasures to the
+people who first made them. Mr. Barnes is going to dig again here this
+summer. Perhaps we shall find something more. Last June I helped him to
+open a mound in the field over there."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you find arrow-heads and bone needles?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, it belonged to the Bronze Age, and a chief was buried there. His
+wife was lying by his side. The skeletons were quite perfect, and their
+hands were clasped together. She had a little baby in her other arm.
+There was a necklace round her throat, and a torque on his head. They
+must have been grand people when they were alive. I'll show you the
+mound if you like to come."</p>
+
+<p>Of course the girls wanted to come, and they scrambled up a steep place
+on to a yet more beautiful part of the headland. The tumulus stood in
+the midst of a rough field, like the green grassy hillock of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+a fairy legend. Below, with a hedge between, lay a tiny quarry, where blackthorn
+was breaking into blossom, and ivy trailed over the remains of an old
+wall. This seemed a suitable spot to sit down and eat the slices of
+home-baked cake that Mrs. Penruddock had sent with them. They settled
+themselves happily for their picnic. From the vantage-point of the wall
+they could see spread out before them the whole grand panorama of the
+Bay of Chagmouth. Away on the farther side of the harbour lay The
+Warren, half-hidden in woods, and higher up gleamed the slated roof and
+many windows of the Sanatorium.</p>
+
+<p>"We're monarchs of all we survey here," laughed Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think this is No Man's Land on the top of the cliffs," said
+Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>"As a matter of fact it's part of the estate that goes with The Warren,"
+said Bevis. "Mr. Barnes had to get permission before he might excavate
+in the mound. And an absurd fuss they made about it, too, between Mr.
+Glyn Williams and the agent. They said at first he would have to write
+to General Talland in the West Indies."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems funny to live in the West Indies when you've got all this
+beautiful place belonging to you here."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I only wish it were mine! You bet I wouldn't be an absentee
+landlord," broke out Bevis bitterly. "It seems to me the limit that
+people should own things and care nothing about them. The old General<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+hasn't been at Chagmouth for fifteen years. I don't suppose he remembers
+there's such a beauty spot as this where we're sitting now, even if he
+ever saw it. He's turned the property over to the Glyn
+Williams, and all the value <em>they'd</em> put on this
+scrap of hill-side would be its worth for the shooting. It's hard that
+things should go so unequally. There's a lot of injustice in this world.
+The people who care for the things ought to own them."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you think in a sense they do?" Mavis spoke slowly and
+hesitatingly. "What I mean is that all beautiful things belong in a way
+to the people who love them: old castles, and pictures, and landscapes,
+and everything of that sort. If you appreciate them they're yours, and
+nothing can ever take them away from you. This little quarry, and the
+sloe blossom, and the primroses, and the view over the water, are ours.
+They can't belong to people who've never seen them. I'm going to call it
+'Blackthorn Bower', and take possession. I feel as if we'd a right to
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Cheerio! Here are your title deeds, 'Lady of the Bower'!" laughed
+Bevis, peeling a piece of bark off a tree and handing it to her as if it
+had been a manuscript, "if there's any dispute with the old General
+we'll go to law about it, and prove that we're the lineal descendants of
+the mound dwellers or the cave folk, and have a prior claim on the
+property."</p>
+
+<p>"The land for the people," quoted Merle. "This patch of land certainly.
+The Lady of the Bower has proved it's ours. She's a regular Portia at
+arguing,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
+and there isn't a Shylock who could stand against her."</p>
+
+<p>"It's our joint estate then, and belongs to us three. We'll call
+ourselves The Triumvirate!" proclaimed Mavis. "Have you a penny in your
+pocket, Bevis? Merle, give me one too! Now, we'll bury these three
+pennies in the ground, like the Romans used to do before they began a
+building, and that'll mark the spot ours for ever more."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish we <em>had</em> a building here," said Merle, producing her penny.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, so do I! A sort of ancient British hut, made of boughs and turf.
+Wouldn't it be priceless? We could almost imagine ourselves mound
+dwellers, and feel as if we were living in the Bronze Age."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you really like it?" asked Bevis quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we'll see what can be done. No, I can't exactly promise anything;
+but look here! if you care to come here again next Saturday afternoon
+perhaps I might have a surprise ready for you. No, I shan't tell you
+anything about it, or it wouldn't be a surprise. You must wait and see!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do whisper just a teeny-weeny hint," begged Mavis coaxingly, but Bevis
+was adamant.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know myself yet! Wait till next Saturday. Give me your pennies,
+and I'll dig a hole. Here's a foundation at any rate. Good luck to
+Blackthorn Bower."</p>
+
+<p>Having solemnly interred the three coins, the young<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+people regretfully remembered the time, and turned away from the lovely spot to go back to
+Chagmouth. For the sake of variety they went by another path, which led
+over the top of the headland and down on to an inland road. In the deep
+sheltered green lane early violets were blooming, and presently, on the
+banks of a little pond, they spied the first kingcups of the year. They
+were growing in a rather swampy place, and it would have been prudent of
+the girls to have let Bevis gather them for them; instead of which they
+both insisted upon venturing on to some very spongy ground, with the
+result that Mavis made a false step and plunged suddenly, well over her
+knees, into water. She splashed out again immediately, but the damage
+was done. Here was a pretty business&mdash;Mavis, newly recovered from a bad
+attack of bronchitis, was wet through and shivering already.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she'll get cold!" cried Merle. "What <em>are</em> we to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I feel like a dr-r-r-owned r-r-r-at!" said Mavis through her chattering
+teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Jarvis lives close by. She'd dry her things," suggested Bevis.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do let us go there at once then!"</p>
+
+<p>Where Mavis's health was concerned, Merle, through sad experience, was
+an anxious little mother. The Triumvirate hurried off post-haste in the
+direction of a white-washed cottage whose chimney peeped above the hedge
+on the opposite side of the road.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Jarvis was a short, wizened, elderly widow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+woman, who had suffered badly in the battle of life and had come off with many scars.
+Fourteen years ago she had been the village nurse, and had been sent for
+on that tragic evening when poor Mrs. Hunter, helpless and speechless,
+lay gasping with fluttering breath on the sofa in the parlour of the
+King's Arms. It was Mrs. Jarvis who had performed the last offices, who
+had supplied what information she could to the doctor and the coroner,
+and had indeed been one of the principal witnesses at the inquest. It is
+said that misfortunes never come singly, and on the day when all
+Chagmouth had flocked to the churchyard to watch the stranger's funeral,
+Mrs. Jarvis had been overwhelmed with a trouble of her own. Her one
+child, a wilful headstrong lad of thirteen, had run away, and had taken
+with him the few savings that she had kept stored inside an old tea-pot
+in the cupboard. All search for him had been in vain, and it was
+generally supposed in the neighbourhood that he had walked to Port
+Sennen and gone to sea as a cabin boy in one of the many vessels that
+lay in the busy harbour. Certainly from that day to this his mother had
+had no further news of him. This grief had been the bitter culmination
+of many black years, and it had preyed on the poor woman's mind to such
+an extent that she was often strange in her manner, and indeed for a
+time had been an inmate of the County Asylum. She was perfectly
+harmless, and though she could no longer be trusted as a nurse, she
+fulfilled the duties of an extra postwoman and delivered letters at
+outlying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+farms. She had one unreasoning obsession. She was certain that
+Jerry, her boy, might come back at any moment. A little table in her
+kitchen was always set out ready for him, with clean cloth, tea-pot, and
+knife and fork. Every evening at dusk she lighted a candle, and placed
+it in a window to guide him home by the short cut he had been wont to
+take over the cliffs from the village. She was brisk and cheerful, and
+would talk eagerly of the lad whom she daily expected, oblivious of the
+fact that nearly fifteen years must have changed him almost out of
+recognition. People humoured her on this point, and treated her with
+that kindly consideration which is often meted out in country places to
+those who are labelled "daft".</p>
+
+<p>Amongst her other work Mrs. Jarvis went weekly to scrub floors at
+Grimbal's Farm, so Bevis knew her well, and had no hesitation in taking
+Mavis to be dried at her fire. The door of the small fuchsia-covered
+cottage was open, and the postwoman, still in her uniform, was newly
+returned from her upland tramp, and was blowing sticks into a blaze
+under her kettle. She took the advent of a drenched visitor with the
+utmost calm.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Bevis! Who'd have thought of seeing you. The young lady wet!
+Yes, yes! Nasty thing to be wet! Very nice fire! The kettle's just on
+the boil! Take her things off? Yes, missy. Come with me and I'll take
+wet clothes off. Very dangerous to sit in wet clothes."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+Poor Mrs. Jarvis might be half-crazy, but she collected her scattered
+wits sufficiently to usher Mavis into her tiny bedroom, to lend her some
+dry garments, and to make her a steaming cup of hot tea.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't give her <em>his</em> place," she murmured, glancing in doubt at the
+table set ready for Jerry, and beginning to twist her hands in the
+nervous fashion that accompanied any distress in her mind.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! She's better here by the fire," said Bevis soothingly. "I'll go
+out and find you some fresh wood, and then you can make a regular
+blazer. Don't you begin to worry! I know you're glad to do anything for
+Dr. Tremayne's niece, aren't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed! A nice gentleman&mdash;Dr. Tremayne. Very kind always when my
+head's bad. A very nice gentleman and all!"</p>
+
+<p>By the aid of a perfect bonfire of sticks and brushwood, which Bevis
+foraged out of the fields, Mavis's clothes were dried at last, and the
+little party were able to start off on their way back to Chagmouth. They
+hurried along, being afraid lest Uncle David should have returned from
+the Sanatorium and be waiting to set off in the car for Durracombe. As
+they clattered down the steep steps that led from the footpath into the
+village, they almost ran into Gwen and Babbie Williams, who, looking
+charming in white serge coats and little ermine caps, were going to post
+letters in the pillar-box. Gwen stood still and stared in utter
+amazement, first at Mavis's mud-stained garments and then at Bevis. The
+latter raised his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+cap, but Gwen did not acknowledge the courtesy, and
+remained gazing as if absolutely petrified, while the Triumvirate,
+conscious of intense disapproval, scurried past in the direction of the
+farm.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do we <em>always</em> happen to meet the Glyn Williams just
+when we're not tidy. It really <em>is</em> too bad," groaned Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>"There's fate about it I think. I've only to lose my hair ribbon, or
+forget my gloves, or dirty my boots, and Gwen turns up round the corner
+as neat as if she'd stepped out of a bandbox. It's most fearfully
+aggravating. I wish to goodness they'd stay at The Warren instead of
+acting fashion plates in the village. I'm thoroughly cross," grunted
+Merle.</p>
+
+<p>Bevis said nothing, though he might have added that it was not pleasant
+to have your civility acknowledged only with a stare. There was a
+curious stubborn look on the lad's dark face, such as the girls had
+noticed there on that first afternoon when they had been obliged to put
+off their appointment with him in the tool-shed. He turned abruptly into
+the stackyard when they reached the farm, and though, afterwards, they
+hunted about for him to say good-bye, they could not find him anywhere.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+<a name="xiv" id="xiv"></a>CHAPTER XIV<br />
+
+<span class="sub">Nicky Nan Night</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Immediately after the lesson, on the next French day, Gwen Williams
+sauntered in the direction of the Ramsays.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you go out for walks with that Penruddock boy from Grimbal's Farm?"
+she asked rather insolently.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean Bevis Hunter?" Mavis's voice was iced politeness.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I told Mother, and she <em>was</em> surprised! Does your uncle know?"</p>
+
+<p>Merle was on the point of bursting out, "It's not your business!" but
+her more discreet sister gave her a hasty poke.</p>
+
+<p>"It was Uncle David who sent us out with Bevis," answered Mavis with
+stately dignity. "He thinks very highly of him, and so do we. I've never
+met anybody who knows so much about natural history, or who can tell us
+more about excavations and prehistoric mounds and things. He was curator
+of the school museum when he was at Shelton College."</p>
+
+<p>Gwen gazed at Mavis as if she were speaking an unknown language.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a matter of taste of course," she replied. "<em>I</em><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+shouldn't care to go about with the boy from the Penruddocks' Farm."</p>
+
+<p>She walked away, leaving sad heart-burnings behind her. The Ramsays had
+been very simply brought up at home, and were accustomed to judge people
+merely by whether they liked them or not, and knew little of worldly
+standards. Bevis, with his jolly, merry ways, and his intense love of
+nature, seemed a far pleasanter companion than Gwen or her brother
+Tudor. Intellectually he was more than the equal of those who despised
+him, and his romantic story suggested many possibilities.</p>
+
+<p>"Bevis might be <em>anybody</em>," ventured Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care who he is, he's our friend," fumed Merle stoutly.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather, and we'll stick to him in spite of all the Glyn Williamses in
+the world. It really doesn't matter to us what Gwen thinks."</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately for the Ramsays, Gwen only came to school twice a week, but
+to their sorrow Opal was there every day. Lately she had been growing
+more and more out of hand. She had begun to adopt a patronizing attitude
+towards Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny, called them "poor old dears",
+quizzed their clothes, their manners, and their methods of teaching, and
+voted them hopelessly slow and out of date. There is a certain phase in
+girls who are growing up at which they are fiercely critical of their
+elders. As a child Opal had immensely admired her two godmothers, and
+had been proud of their many accomplishments.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+Now, because she too had acquired a certain skill in music and painting, she rather looked down
+upon their talents. She thought her own superior, forgetting that though
+a well-taught girl may seem clever at sixteen, there is no guarantee
+that she will go on developing in the same ratio, and will therefore be
+a genius at the age of thirty-seven.</p>
+
+<p>The fact was that Opal ought long ago to have been sent away to a
+boarding-school, where she would have found her level among other girls
+of her own age, and have been thoroughly sat upon by elder ones. Her
+position of prime favourite at The Moorings was bad both for herself and
+for everybody else. The juniors, encouraged by her example, began to
+evade rules, and to do many things they had never dreamt of before. Miss
+Fanny, finding them unusually troublesome, puzzled over the reason. She
+decided there must be bad influence somewhere, but it never struck her
+to fix the blame upon Opal. She was always ready with an excuse where
+her god-daughter was concerned.</p>
+
+<p>Among other subjects which Miss Fanny taught at The Moorings was the
+piano. She was a very good and correct musician, and had studied under
+an eminent master of her day. Perhaps her fault as a teacher was that
+she concentrated too much on the technique to the exclusion of the
+artistic element. She would stop a pupil every few bars to correct
+errors in touch or the position of the hands, and was such a martinet
+over these details that the spirit of the piece was often entirely lost.
+Merle, who liked to dash<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+away and get a general impression of a
+composition, oblivious of a few wrong notes, chafed terribly under this
+severe r&eacute;gime.</p>
+
+<p>"It knocks all the poetry out of the music," she complained. "I hardly
+know what tune I'm playing when Miss Fanny is watching my hands like a
+cat watching a mouse, and that abominable metronome is
+tick-tack-tick-tacking on the top of the piano! How I hate the beastly
+thing. I'd as soon recite Shakespeare to a metronome as play Chaminade.
+It would be just as sensible. Music, to my mind, is like reciting, you
+want to hurry up some phrases and to linger on others, not go pounding
+on like a pianola or a piece of clockwork! Tick-tack-tick-tack&mdash;Ugh! I
+hate it!"</p>
+
+<p>Opal, who also suffered from the metronome, chimed in with her side of
+the grievance.</p>
+
+<p>"My cousin learns from Mr. Jardine, the best teacher in Burchester, and
+she never uses one!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why we need. I wish somebody would break the wretched old
+thing, or lose it, or otherwise dispose of it. They'd have my blessing
+I'm sure."</p>
+
+<p>The juniors, who had gathered round to listen, giggled at Merle's
+heroics. It was rather nice to hear elder girls grumbling.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you do it yourself," piped Betty Marshall.</p>
+
+<p>Merle, just for fun, seized the object of her invective from the top of
+the piano, and opening the window placed it outside upon the sill.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+"It may stay there and tick-tack to the birds if it likes," she
+declared. "If I had my way it would never come back again. Yes, I mean
+it."</p>
+
+<p>The juniors laughed again as they ran from the room, and Merle, also
+laughing, lifted the unfortunate metronome inside and placed it back on
+the piano. She and Opal chased the smaller ones along the passage, and
+caught them, squealing with delight, in the cloakroom.</p>
+
+<p>"You little pussies, I'll tickle you!" cried Merle, swinging Posie
+Andrews off her feet and tucking her under one arm, while she made a
+grab at Florrie Leach.</p>
+
+<p>The children, wild with fun, danced about like so many imps.</p>
+
+<p>"It's Nicky Nan Night to-night," twittered Betty as she jumped and
+pranced. "We're all Nicky Nans. Look at us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hooray! It's Nicky Nan Night," shouted the others.</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens, so it is. I'd completely forgotten!" said Opal.</p>
+
+<p>She stood for a moment as if thinking, then she suddenly ran back to the
+schoolroom. She was only gone a moment or two, but she returned to the
+cloakroom with a curious look of amusement on her face.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you been up to?" asked Merle, eyeing her suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Wouldn't you just like to know?"</p>
+
+<p>"You've been doing something!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
+"Indeed! How clever we are all of a sudden. Are you
+clairvoyante may I ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all, but I know Opal Earnshaw. You're pluming yourself no end."</p>
+
+<p>Opal broke into a fit of delighted giggling, but refused all
+explanations, and slamming on her hat rushed away home, leaving the
+juniors still dancing about the cloakroom like pixies and loudly
+proclaiming: "It's Nicky Nan Night. We're all Nicky Nans!"</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth is Nicky Nan Night?" asked Merle rather crossly, but
+nobody troubled to answer, so she struggled into her coat and joined
+Mavis, who was waiting at the door, and forgot all about the matter
+directly.</p>
+
+<p>Later on in the evening, however, she began to understand. Durracombe
+was a little old-world place, and had preserved many quaint and curious
+customs from ancient times. One of the most extraordinary of these was a
+kind of carnival held by the boys of the town at the beginning of the
+season of Lent. As soon as it was dusk they commenced to prowl about the
+streets wearing black paper masks and carrying turnip lanterns. They
+were supposed to represent imps of darkness, or perhaps will o' the
+wisps, and their chief sport was to ring door bells, or rat-tap with
+knockers, and then run away. Mavis and Merle, hearing repeated peals
+from the surgery bell, were amazed that Jessop did not answer it, till
+she explained it was merely a ruse of the Nicky Nans, and that nobody in
+Durracombe who knew their tricks would respond<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+to such a summons. She offered however to take the girls out for ten minutes to look at the
+fun; so they donned coats and scarves and issued into the dim High
+Street. It was a moonless night, which made things all the better for
+such a saturnalia. In the distance a cluster of lights began to dance
+about, and presently up ran half a dozen little urchins, disguised in
+masks and waving turnip lanterns pierced with holes for eyes and mouths,
+so that the candles shining through them gave them the appearance of
+gruesome goblins. The children had indeed vied with one another as to
+which could produce the most horrible looking turnip head, and part of
+the sport was to hide in dark alleys and suddenly to exhibit the
+lanterns to unwary passers-by, to try to raise a scream. The small imps
+careered round and round, prancing and giving an occasional yell of
+"Nicky Nan". The girls laughed in much amusement, and Jessop, who had
+witnessed the custom from her youth up, felt in her pocket for some
+pennies, and threw them into the road to be scrambled for.</p>
+
+<p>Presently came the noise of a tin-kettle band, and down the High Street
+marched a procession carrying "Jack o' Lent", a grotesque figure on the
+lines of a Guy Fawkes, stuffed with straw and wearing a mask and an old
+top hat. The Nicky Nans flew to join their fellows, showing their
+lanterns like the wise virgins in the parable, and the Guy was escorted
+by quite a crowd of leaping dancing will-o'-the-wisps, who added squeals
+and whistling to the din made on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+old tea-trays and pans. They crossed the bridge to a field on the farther side of the river, where a
+bonfire had been built. Upon this Jack o' Lent was carefully hoisted,
+and a match was put to the straw. The Ramsays, hurried indoors by Jessop
+lest Mavis should catch cold, watched the scene from Aunt Nellie's
+bedroom window, and had a fine view of the flames blazing up, and the
+Nicky Nans prancing round in a circle, waving their weird turnip lights.</p>
+
+<p>On this one night in the year the town's children were veritable
+Devonshire pixies. By immemorial custom they were licensed to carry away
+brooms, pails, or any objects which people were so foolish as to leave
+unguarded outside their houses. These they pounced upon and bore off as
+booty, exhibiting them the next morning in the pound, whence they might
+be redeemed by their owners for a fee varying from a penny to sixpence,
+according to their value. As the proceeds went to their football club,
+the Nicky Nans were naturally anxious to pick up every trifle which they
+could possibly find lying about, and every house and garden in the town
+was visited for that purpose. The matron, who missed her scrubbing-brush
+or her bucket, knew what Pucks and Robin Goodfellows had been flitting
+round in the darkness, and made a visit to the pound to recover her lost
+property, paying the price with a good-natured remembrance of the fun of
+her own young days.</p>
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle, on their way to school on the morning following the
+saturnalia, peeped into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+pound, a walled enclosure intended for the
+detention of lost cows or strayed sheep, and saw half a dozen of the
+boys, still wearing masks, guarding quite a collection of treasures and
+chaffing some of the owners over the gate. Evidently they had had a most
+successful evening, and the funds of their football club would be
+replenished.</p>
+
+<p>"Little wretches. They're as light-fingered as elves," remarked Merle.
+"They've even taken the pots of geraniums off people's window-sills."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall never forget them dancing in a mad circle round the bonfire,"
+laughed Mavis, as the pair passed on.</p>
+
+<p>When the pupils at The Moorings assembled that morning for call-over,
+Miss Fanny entered with a look upon her face which everybody at once
+mentally registered at stormy. Her "Good morning, girls!" was cold. She
+never noticed the vase full of flowers which the boarders had arranged
+upon her desk, and she took the names, as if she were reading a list of
+criminals, in a deep sad voice without an atom of her usual geniality.
+When this first preliminary was finished she turned to what was
+evidently the pressing business on her mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Girls!" she began. "A very unpleasant thing has happened in the school.
+The metronome is missing from the piano. None of the boarders has
+interfered with it. Can any of you day girls tell what has become of
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>A look of much astonishment passed round the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+assembled faces. On several it was even mingled with relief. To get rid of the metronome did
+not seem an unmixed evil. Perhaps Miss Fanny noted the expression. She
+paused for a whole solemn minute, then spoke again in a yet sterner
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I put every girl in this room on her honour to tell what she knows."</p>
+
+<p>There was a stir among some of the younger children, a bending together
+of heads, and a faint whispering like the buzzing of bees, then Betty
+Marshall held up her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, Miss Fanny, there's a metronome just like ours in the pound.
+Posie and Florrie and I saw it as we came to school."</p>
+
+<p>"In the pound!" Miss Fanny's voice quivered with amazed indignation.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the Nicky Nans had taken it."</p>
+
+<p>"But surely no boy would dare to venture into our schoolroom. It's
+outrageous! I shall have to complain to the schoolmaster if they go
+beyond bounds like this. To take it off the piano!"</p>
+
+<p>Posie and Betty glanced doubtfully at one another as if uncertain
+whether to explain further. Then Posie held up a chubby hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, Miss Fanny, it wasn't on the piano; it was outside on the
+window-sill."</p>
+
+<p>"On the window-sill! Who put it there?" The teacher's voice had reached
+crescendo.</p>
+
+<p>Posie wriggled and looked uncomfortably at Betty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+and then at Florrie, finally in a rather tremulous whisper she murmured:</p>
+
+<p>"Merle Ramsay."</p>
+
+<p>Merle stood up at once with flaming cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"I put the metronome outside the window for a minute, Miss Fanny, but I
+didn't leave it there. I put it back upon the piano."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Fanny glared hard, first at Merle, and then with a kind of
+comprehensive sweeping glance over the whole school.</p>
+
+<p>"Can any other girl volunteer any information?"</p>
+
+<p>There was dead silence. Opal was rather ostentatiously sharpening the
+point of her pencil. The teacher's gaze came back to a focus on Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"You had no business to interfere with the metronome at all. I certainly
+consider it your fault that it has been taken. In future I can't have
+you day girls staying in the schoolroom after four o'clock. You must
+leave directly you've put your books away. Go to your forms now, girls!
+We've wasted too much time already."</p>
+
+<p>Merle stumped off, feeling extremely cross. She was absolutely certain
+that Opal, who had run back last thing into the schoolroom, must have
+put the metronome outside on the window-sill, knowing that the Nicky
+Nans would be sure to carry it off. At 'break' she taxed her with it.
+But Opal simply laughed, and went on eating biscuits.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't set all the work of the Nicky Nans down to me," she declared.
+"It's a pity they didn't keep the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+metronome. Miss Fanny will trot down
+to the pound and pay her sixpence and get it back, and it will be
+tick-tacking again on the piano as gaily as ever, unless some of those
+priceless kids have chanced to break it."</p>
+
+<p>"But you put it outside for them?" persisted Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"I? I never do naughty things!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you? It strikes me you tell the biggest fibs of any girl I've
+ever yet come across. I call you the absolute limit," said indignant
+Merle as she flounced away.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+<a name="xv" id="xv"></a>CHAPTER XV<br />
+
+<span class="sub">The Squatters</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>On the next day but one after Nicky Nan Night, Mavis and Merle had
+returned from school, and were walking in the garden on the terraced
+path that overlooked the river. It was a vantage-point which gave them
+as good a view across the bridge and along the high road as any medi&aelig;val
+maidens might have had from a castle turret, and they gazed at all
+comers with interest not unmixed with curiosity. There were certainly no
+Sir Lancelots or Sir Percivales riding into the town clad in golden
+armour, and carrying silken banners, only modern motor-cars and
+bicycles, creaking country wagons and homely foot passengers. But
+presently there was a sound of hoofs, and a smart well-groomed little
+horse came trotting along from the south. Mavis put up her hand to shade
+her eyes from the sun, and took an inspection of the rider as he crossed
+the bridge. Something in the fair, rather delicate face seemed instantly
+familiar.</p>
+
+<p>"I verily believe it's Tudor Williams," she said.</p>
+
+<p>It was undoubtedly Tudor, and he was evidently coming to Bridge House.
+He rode round into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+stable yard, called to Tom to take his horse,
+dismounted, and went to the surgery entrance. In the course of a few
+minutes he came out again, walked briskly on to the terrace, and greeted
+the girls.</p>
+
+<p>"Your aunt sent me to find you. She's asked me to stay for tea. I came
+to see Dr. Tremayne, but he's out at a case, so I'm going to wait till
+he comes back. I say! You've got a nice old garden here, haven't you?
+I've never been in it before. It's ripping overlooking the river."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly placed in the position of hostesses Mavis and Merle did the
+honours graciously. Tudor seemed in a very amiable frame of mind, and
+was inclined to make himself agreeable. He chatted about the
+neighbourhood, the weather, some theatres he had visited in town, told
+them one or two school episodes, and discussed the prospects of the new
+Durracombe golf club. Mavis, who had discovered his pleasanter side at
+The Warren, was soon talking quite eagerly, and even Merle, who had a
+deep prejudice against him, put in a remark now and then. Tea was quite
+a jovial affair. Aunt Nelly liked to be amused by young people, so they
+all made jokes and related adventures, and sat on enjoying the fun till
+the car returned and they heard Uncle David's footstep in the hall.
+While the Doctor interviewed his patient the two girls ran out to the
+stable to look at "Armorelle", the lovely satin-coated little horse that
+snuggled a soft nose against Merle's shoulder, and ate sugar from
+Mavis's hand. They stood by in much approval of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+her beauty as Tom led her forth for her master to mount.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd change all the cars in the world for her, sir," said Tom, stroking
+the glossy neck caressingly. "You don't know what it's been to me to
+lose my horses. It was like losing children. It's been a pleasure to
+have her in the stable, sir. It's minded me of old times."</p>
+
+<p>"She's a spoilt darling, and she ate three lumps of sugar," said Mavis.
+"What a glorious ride you'll have home. I love that road to Chagmouth."</p>
+
+<p>"You must come and see us again at The Warren! And you too" (nodding to
+Merle). "Are you keen on tennis? So am I. We've a cinder court that we
+play on in spring. Just drop in some Saturday when you're over with your
+uncle. Mother and the girls will be pleased to see you, I'm sure. We're
+generally, some of us, about the place."</p>
+
+<p>Tudor rode away, leaving a much more favourable impression behind him
+than the girls would have believed possible on their first encounter in
+the lane above Grimbal's Farm. That unpleasant episode was beginning to
+fade from their memories. Jim, the fox terrier, ran up to them now in
+friendly fashion if they chanced to meet him in Chagmouth, though
+Mavis's skirt, beautifully darned by Jessop, still retained traces of
+his teeth. It is no use keeping up ill-will against boy or animal, and
+the Ramsays were quite ready to let bygones be bygones. They even began
+to decide that they rather liked Tudor, though of course not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
+nearly so much as Bevis. When they went to Grimbal's Farm as usual on Saturday
+they could not help pouring out to their friend an account of this
+reconciliation.</p>
+
+<p>"Tom let me climb on Armorelle's back in the stable. Oh, how I'd love to
+ride her!"</p>
+
+<p>"There's a topping cinder court at The Warren. We're going to bring our
+rackets with us sometime. Mrs. Glyn Williams has sent a message to Aunt
+Nellie to say we must go there whenever we like and play tennis."</p>
+
+<p>Bevis was sitting on a hurdle in the stackyard, untwisting a piece of
+rope while he listened. He bent his head down over his work. They could
+not see his face at all.</p>
+
+<p>"You won't want to come walks with <em>me</em> now you've made friends at The
+Warren," he said in a low, strained voice. "I quite understand. I never
+thought you'd care to go about with a fellow like me. It wasn't to be
+expected. It's all right!"</p>
+
+<p>When Bevis, in that strangled tone, said "it's all right", it was
+invariably a sign that matters were all wrong. The girls, aghast at
+their own lack of tact, hastened to set things straight, and to reassure
+him that they would not miss their walk with him that afternoon for
+worlds.</p>
+
+<p>"You promised us a surprise at Blackthorn Bower!"</p>
+
+<p>"We've been looking forward to it the whole week, and counting the
+days."</p>
+
+<p>"It's really nothing worth taking you up there for."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+(Bevis's voice was still gloomy.) "If you'd rather go to The Warren, please go. It's all
+right."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, don't be absurd," urged Merle. "We want to see the Bower
+again, and we're going there this afternoon. You can please yourself
+whether you come with us or not."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't think we <em>quite</em> remember the way," added Mavis artfully.
+"It would be so very tiresome if we were to lose ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>Of course that settled it. Bevis was bound to offer himself as guide,
+and by the time they started he appeared to be in a smoother temper. He
+whistled quite cheerily as he slung a shooting-bag over his back. He
+gave the girls three guesses each as to its contents, but would not tell
+them whether they were right or wrong.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll see when you get there," he replied, and went on whistling
+softly to himself.</p>
+
+<p>By mutual but unacknowledged consent they walked by an upper way across
+the fields. It was a little longer, but it avoided all possibility of
+meeting the Glyn Williams anywhere in the village. To run
+up against them would have been most embarrassing. As it was, nobody
+mentioned even their names. The girls, having once "put their foot in
+it", were cautious, and avoided all reference to The Warren.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately their backs were turned in that direction, as they walked
+towards the headland.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached Blackthorn Bower they found an immense surprise
+awaiting them. Bevis must have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+been very busy during the time which had intervened since their last visit. He had taken some of the stones from
+the old wall, and some sods and some branches, and had constructed a
+kind of beehive hut, such as must have been used by the primitive
+dwellers in these islands.</p>
+
+<p>"It's just the sort of thing they lived in in the Bronze Age," he
+explained. "I borrowed one of Mr. Barnes's books, <i>Antiquities of
+Devonshire</i>, and it gave a fancy picture of what some of the prehistoric
+villages probably looked like. The only bit I altered was the doorway. I
+made it big, so that we could see out of it; and of course they had low
+holes that they crawled through, and blocked with a stone."</p>
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle were delighted with the structure raised in their
+honour. They had been keen on history at Whinburn High School, and had
+studied the Stone and Bronze Ages under an interesting teacher, so that
+it was particularly fascinating to find what seemed as good as a real
+live specimen of a house of the period actually before their eyes. They
+went inside at once and took possession. There were some logs for seats,
+and a big stone for a table placed in the middle of the hut. While they
+were examining these, Bevis slung his shooting-bag carefully from his
+shoulder and began to unpack it. Then he produced what he evidently
+considered his masterpiece.</p>
+
+<p>There was a small quarry near Chagmouth whence China clay was shipped.
+He had begged a big lump of this, kneaded it and moulded it into
+handleless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
+cups, and had baked them in the oven at the farm. They were,
+of course, roughly made, but they much resembled prehistoric pottery,
+even to the willow-withe markings which he had put on them. They were
+stained on the outside, one red, one blue, and one yellow.</p>
+
+<p>"So that we shall each know our own," he explained, handing the blue to
+Mavis and the red to Merle.</p>
+
+<p>It was undoubtedly an anachronism that Bevis had brought a thermos
+<a name="flash" id="flash"></a><ins title="Original has flash">flask</ins> in his shooting-bag, and offered his friends tea in
+their home-baked cups, but they were not disposed to quarrel with such a
+mixture of ancient and modern. They sat on their log seats, eating cake
+and sipping the modern beverage in defiance of historic accuracy.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel as if the Bronze Age people who were buried in the mound ought
+to rise up and come and turn us out and say it was their shanty,"
+laughed Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"What did they do with the skeletons that were found there?" asked Mavis
+suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Took them to the County Museum," answered Bevis. "I didn't like the
+idea myself. I think it was hateful to put the poor things' bones in a
+glass case. They ought to have left them where they were buried, with
+their hands still clasped and the little baby in the woman's arm. They
+must have been fond of each other thousands of years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps he built her a hut like this and made her clay pottery,"
+speculated Mavis.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+"I've no doubt he did."</p>
+
+<p>"But she didn't drink tea out of it anyway," snorted Merle. "Don't be
+sentimental over the Bronze Age people, you two. I'd rather call the
+tumulus a pixie mound, and imagine the wee folk coming tumbling out of
+it some moonlight night, and dancing on the grass. Don't Chagmouth
+people tell any stories about pixies?"</p>
+
+<p>"They wouldn't be Devon folk unless they did. Yes, there are heaps of
+pixie tales. They say an old man from Groves Cottage was once pixie-led
+on the moor. He wandered round and round in a circle, and couldn't find
+his way home till he turned his coat inside out, and that broke the
+spell. There was an old woman over by Tangoran who used to tell a
+wonderful tale about a fairy."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what was that?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's a weird sort of story. There was once a lad named Will
+Killigarth, who lived at Horndon, up on the moor. There was a witch in
+the village, and she told him that if he would go on Hallowe'en and dig
+inside one of the ancient stone circles that he would find treasure,
+only he must go at midnight, and go alone. He was rather frightened of
+the business, but he took his father's spade and went. It was heavy work
+digging, but at last he struck something, and drew out a bowl of rough
+pottery, all full of gold pieces. He was just picking this up when he
+heard a cry, and in the moonlight he saw a most lovely girl with
+streaming yellow hair stretching out her hands imploringly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+to him. She said she was the guardian of the gold, and begged him to bury it again
+where it was in the circle. He said he would do so if she would marry
+him, and after thinking awhile she said yes. So he buried the treasure
+and took the girl home to the village and married her. She lived with
+him just a year, and then on the next Hallowe'en she vanished, and he
+never saw her again. He hunted for the stone circle where he had dug
+before, but he never could find the right one again. There are so many
+of them up on the moor. So he lost both the treasure and the girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Did they actually <em>believe</em> these stories?" asked Mavis, knitting her
+brows.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, in the old days they believed them, just as they believed in
+witches and charms and all the rest of it. Mr. Barnes calls all the old
+tales folk-history. He says the pixies were the prehistoric Stone Age or
+Bronze Age people who lived on into historic times, and hid themselves
+in the mounds or caves or wild places on the moor. The stories of the
+pixies' habits and haunts read just like accounts of very primitive
+people. Bronze Age or Stone Age folk would be sure to come at night and
+steal things from the Celtic tribes who had settled in Devon, and they
+would bury their treasures inside their huts. The stone circles on the
+moor are the ruined walls of their huts."</p>
+
+<p>"But surely the Stone Age folk didn't go living on till about the
+seventeenth century?" asked Mavis, still puzzled.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+"No, but you know how people like to bring a story up to date. They
+often tell you a thing happened to themselves when you know it must have
+happened to their great-grandfather. The old Celtic accounts of the
+little men on the moor would keep being handed down, and each generation
+would fit the story with fresh names, and a few extra details."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Donald told us a lot about that at Whinburn High. She said the
+dragons of old folk-tales were probably prehistoric animals that had
+lingered on in lonely places&mdash;very likely pterodactyls."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say they were. To judge from the fossils that have been found
+the old monsters must have been pretty common in Devon. You should ask
+Mr. Barnes. He's great on all this kind of thing, always poking about
+and digging, and measuring hut circles and all the rest of it."</p>
+
+<p>"It's awfully fascinating," said Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye-es, but just a trifle spooky," admitted Merle. "Honestly I shouldn't
+like to spend a night up here camping out in this shanty. I'd be scared
+to death of the mound dwellers. What are we to do with our prehistoric
+cups, Bevis? Leave them here or take them back?"</p>
+
+<p>It was decided to wash the cups in a pool of water close by, and leave
+them inside the hut to be ready for some future picnic. That domestic
+duty finished, the Triumvirate wended their way back in the direction of
+Chagmouth. This time they climbed by a pathway down the cliffs on to the
+beach, in order to go home<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+along the shore. It was low tide, so they
+could walk on the firm sands at the edge of the high-water mark. Little
+gentle waves were rippling in over the rocks, cormorants were diving for
+fish, and the inevitable seagulls were wheeling and screaming, or
+settling down in the pools to hunt for tit-bits. At the corner of the
+cove, built on the solid rock barely above the level of winter storms,
+stood the little old, old church of St. Gervan's, disused now, except
+for an annual service. Before the building of Chagmouth church in the
+eighteenth century it had served a wide district, and there were tales
+that its bell had often proved a signal for ships in a fog, and had
+warned them off the rocks. There were other and wilder stories, of
+smugglers who had hidden their contraband goods inside the pews, of the
+press-gang who had waylaid the fishermen as they returned from service
+and had carried them off to serve in His Majesty's navy, and of a wicked
+parson, foremost among a gang of wreckers, whose uneasy ghost still
+haunted the beach on moonlight nights.</p>
+
+<p>Bevis, who knew all the legends of the village, poured out these tales
+for the girls' benefit, and of course they naturally wanted to take a
+look at the place. So they climbed the eighty-seven rough stone steps
+that led up from the shore, and scrambled over the wall into the little
+churchyard. It was a neglected spot, but all the more picturesque on
+that account. Long grass grew over the graves, and moss had almost
+obliterated the names on the fallen stones, the framework of the doorway
+had sunk at one end, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>
+tower had lost some of its coping in the
+last gale. The great pieces lay strewn about the path. The windows
+looked cobwebby, but one of them was open, and, with some difficulty,
+Bevis hoisted the girls up to peep inside. The poor little church, flung
+aside now like a cast-off ecclesiastical garment, nevertheless showed
+signs of its former glories, when worshippers had given of their best to
+deck it forth. Its pre-reformation rood-screen, one of the very few to
+escape the commissioners' hatchets or Puritan whitewash, was carved with
+quaint figures of saints, and still showed traces of colouring in red
+and blue and gold. The oak benches, grey for want of oil or polish, were
+also carved, and in the chancel there was a splendid pew with a wooden
+canopy embossed and painted like the rood-screen, though plainly of a
+later date. The whole was mouldy and ill-kept, but at least had been
+saved from the ruthless hand of that foe to all antiquarian lore, the
+nineteenth-century restorer, who would probably have stripped it of
+rood-screen and carved benches, and have replaced them with pitch pine.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to sit in that gorgeous pew," said Mavis, dropping down from
+her perch, and examining her grazed hands tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"That belongs to the Tallands. It goes with The Warren. There's an old
+monument down the nave to some of the family. You couldn't see it
+properly from that window," explained Bevis.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't they ever clean the place up?" asked Merle.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+"They do once a year, before the festival."</p>
+
+<p>"When is the festival?"</p>
+
+<p>"Late in May. They always have kept it at Chagmouth, and they make much
+more of it now because they have the war-memorial service at the same
+time, and everybody goes to that. The cross is up there, just at the top
+of the churchyard."</p>
+
+<p>The people from the several places which the tiny church had originally
+served had joined together in erecting a memorial to their brave boys
+who had fallen in the Great War&mdash;a plain Celtic cross of granite, placed
+on a platform of rock above the church, where it could be very plainly
+seen by all the vessels that passed by in or out of the harbour. It was
+a magnificent situation for it, far more romantic than any in the town,
+and to judge from the wreaths and bunches of flowers laid at its foot,
+it was the goal of an easy walk along the cliffs on Sundays. Mavis, who
+stopped to read the roll of honour, took the violets from her
+button-hole and laid them with the rest of the floral tributes.</p>
+
+<p>"I like this wee church much better than St. John's," she remarked.
+"Although it's so dirty and cobwebby and dilapidated, it seems to have
+more of the old spirit of Chagmouth about it somehow. It takes one back
+to Drake and Raleigh, almost to the days of King Arthur. I'm so glad
+Merle and I are Devon folk on Mother's side at any rate. We're
+tremendously proud of it."</p>
+
+<p>Bevis was looking beyond the ancient walls to where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+the little town lay alongside its harbour at the edge of the grey sea.</p>
+
+<p>"The boys over there have always taunted me that I don't belong to
+Chagmouth, but I've got the spirit of the place in me all the same," he
+said. "I don't believe there's one of them that cares for it like I do.
+As for the Glyn Williamses they'd modernize it to-morrow if they were
+allowed. I hope to goodness General Talland will never sell them the
+property, or they'd sweep away every picturesque corner in it, and widen
+the street so as to bring cars down. They've not a scrap of taste. That
+new Institute may be all right for lectures and theatricals and the rest
+of it, but I should think they chose the most hideous plan that the
+architects submitted. It's a perfect eyesore standing just where it
+does. You should hear Mr. Barnes hold forth about it. He got his way at
+any rate about the war memorial though, and insisted on a Celtic cross.
+Mr. Glyn Williams wanted a sort of 'Cleopatra's needle' and nearly
+carried the committee. Think of planting an ancient Egyptian monument on
+the cliff here. It would have been ridiculous. The Glyn Williamses may
+look down upon me and call me a 'nobody', but I've better taste than
+they have, and know more about old things too. I can't see that having
+pots of money gives people the right to ride rough-shod over the whole
+town."</p>
+
+<p>The boy spoke hotly, almost furiously. Evidently the subject was a sore
+one.</p>
+
+<p>"You're not called a nobody," said Mavis.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+"I <em>am</em> a nobody, and no one knows that better than myself. If I'd even
+the slightest clue, I'd be off and away to hunt out my own relations. I
+wouldn't stay here only I'm needed so on the farm. I sometimes think
+I'll&mdash;&mdash;" but here Bevis stopped and looked rather ashamed.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't take any notice of me," he continued more quietly. "I don't often
+break out like this. Why should I bother you with my troubles? They're
+nothing to you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes they are," said Mavis gently. "We're very interested indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"And very sorry," added Merle.</p>
+
+<p>They had the good sense, however, to change the subject, and Bevis,
+though at first his answers were rather short, gradually recovered
+himself. By the time they reached the farm he was chatting just as
+usual, and telling more stories of Devonshire pixies. He went into the
+surgery and helped Dr. Tremayne to dispense some medicines, and as the
+girls were starting home in the car they saw him in the orchard cutting
+down an apple tree, chopping away with most terrific energy.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess he's working off steam," said Merle waving her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I didn't know what a volcano he was covering up till he let some
+of it bubble out this afternoon. Uncle David! What's going to become of
+Bevis? Will he always stay on the farm? He's so clever!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, poor lad, he's worthy of better things, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+would make a name for himself some day if he got the chance. He ought to be back at
+school. It's hard luck on him to have his education broken off just when
+he was beginning to do so brilliantly. A nice lad too&mdash;a very nice
+lad&mdash;one of the nicest lads I know," muttered the old doctor, half to
+himself, as the car sped up the hill, and the sound of Bevis's blows on
+the apple tree grew fainter and fainter, then died away behind them.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+<a name="xvi" id="xvi"></a>CHAPTER XVI<br />
+
+<span class="sub">Trotman's Circus</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>One morning, towards the end of March, as the day girls were walking
+home from school, they came across a bill-sticker pasting a flaming red
+poster upon a hoarding. Naturally they stopped to look. The
+advertisement was headed:</p>
+
+<p>"Trotman's Circus &amp; Menagerie", and set forth that on Monday next the
+famous show would visit Durracombe for one day only, and would give two
+performances, at 3&nbsp;p.m. and 8&nbsp;p.m., introducing the latest
+novelties and sensational displays. Here was an excitement for the
+sleepy little town. It was years since any travelling circus had come
+that way, and very few of the children had seen elephants, performing
+sea-lions, trick-horses, gymnasts, North American Indian riders, or any
+of the marvels set down in the programme. Of course all the juvenile
+population was a-thrill at the prospect. The day girls at The Moorings
+carried the news to the boarders, and the arrival of the wonderful show
+at once became the most important date in the school calendar. Trotman's
+Circus had rather a bad reputation for missing its appointments, and, as
+it had once before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+advertised its advent but had failed to turn up,
+people declared they would not believe in it until they actually saw the
+procession marching into the town.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll take us if it really comes, won't you?" begged the boarders at
+The Moorings.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Pollard would not commit herself.</p>
+
+<p>"I must hear something about it first," she said guardedly. "These
+travelling shows aren't always very select."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a wonderful programme," urged Iva, who had seen the posters.</p>
+
+<p>"That doesn't guarantee it from being extremely vulgar," returned Miss
+Pollard.</p>
+
+<p>On Sunday afternoon, just as the scholars were pouring out of
+Sunday-schools, there came the rumble of wheels along the road, and
+presently down the High Street passed a remarkable procession of gilded
+caravans, horses, and elephants. The men who led them, and the women who
+peeped from the little curtained windows, were a tired-looking crew who
+deserved a Sunday's rest; but directly they had crossed the bridge, and
+arrived in the meadows at the opposite side of the river, they began to
+work hard at erecting tents, stabling their horses, and setting their
+temporary camp in order. Nearly all the children in Durracombe stood on
+the bridge and watched them. It is not every day you can see elephants
+or a camel or a troupe of tiny piebald ponies. To most of the small folk
+it was the opportunity of their lives.</p>
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle, from the vantage-ground of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+terraced walk by the
+river, had a splendid view of the settlement. They were almost too near,
+indeed, for they were much disturbed during the night by weird noises,
+the roaring of lions in cages and the trumpeting of elephants. They
+dressed next morning, feeling as if they had slept in a jungle or in an
+African forest. They found all the girls at school in a state of flaming
+excitement. Miss Pollard had not yet decided whether the circus was a
+sufficiently refined entertainment to justify her in taking her
+boarders. She was old-fashioned in her notions, and very particular
+about what was suitable and proper for children. She hesitated and
+vacillated, and even wrote a note to the vicar to ask for his opinion,
+and was more embarrassed still when she found he had gone out on his
+motor-cycle, and might not be back until the evening. She and Miss Fanny
+had discussed the matter threadbare in private, but could not make up
+their minds in the least. Meantime a whole school full of fluttering
+girls centred the circus as the one event of the term.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course we're to have a half-holiday this afternoon," began Opal.</p>
+
+<p>"There's no 'of course' about it," returned Miss Pollard, eyeing her
+god-daughter gravely. She did not like Opal's tone, which was both
+uncompromising and truculent.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but we've simply <em>got</em> to have a holiday! We can't miss this
+circus. All of us day girls have been promised at home that we may go,
+and we <em>shall</em>."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Pollard was long-suffering where her pet pupil<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+was concerned, but it is possible for even a prime favourite to go too far.</p>
+
+<p>"That's not the way to speak to me," she rebuked. "Your parents may make
+any arrangements they wish for taking you to the evening performance,
+but you will all attend school this afternoon. Do you thoroughly
+understand me, girls? I give <em>no</em> half-holiday, and I expect you all to
+be present here as usual at 2.30. You may take that message home with
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Pollard, very much on her dignity, glared first at Opal, and then
+round the entire room. She did not intend to be dictated to or forced to
+give her consent against her better judgment. She was Principal of The
+Moorings, and as such meant to maintain discipline over her pupils.</p>
+
+<p>Her announcement caused them all to look very sulky, and produced much
+grousing during 'break', but nobody thought of disputing it. The day
+girls consoled themselves by hopes of attending the evening performance.
+The less fortunate boarders said it was just like their luck. Everybody
+was more or less in a bad temper, but resigned. Mavis and Merle, walking
+back from Bridge House about 2.15, passed the corner of the
+Earnshaws' garden, and saw Opal's face peeping over the
+paling.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello! Going to school like two good little girls," she jeered.</p>
+
+<p>"Why! Aren't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I! Rather not! I call it the limit! I say, will you give a message for
+me to Miss Pollard?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+"What do you want us to say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her I've got a fearful headache, and I'm going to lie down."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll do nothing of the sort," snapped Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," said Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>Opal only grinned.</p>
+
+<p>"What nice good little girls," she repeated mockingly. "You'll give me
+the trouble of sending a note, that's all."</p>
+
+<p>"What does your mother say?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's gone to Port Sennen to-day, so I can't ask her. Look here, people
+are saying in the town that there's not going to be any evening
+performance. Trotmans want to pack up the show and start early, so as to
+travel at night. They've had a bother with the police about those vans
+blocking the roads in daytime. They held up a whole row of motors in
+Blagden, and no one could pass them for half an hour. Do you think I'm
+going to miss that circus and toddle up to school to write exercises and
+have a music lesson? Hardly! If you'll take my advice you'll scoot back
+home and do the same. I shouldn't be surprised to find an epidemic of
+headaches this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"If I stopped away, at least I wouldn't tell fibs about it," said Merle.</p>
+
+<p>Both the Ramsays agreed that it was very unsporting of Miss Pollard to
+refuse the holiday, and decided to get up a sort of eleventh-hour
+petition amongst the girls to ask her to grant it. They hurried on to
+school, therefore, not without hopes, though a little trembling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+as to how she would receive the appeal. They arrived at The Moorings to find
+the hive in a delighted ferment. The Vicar, Mr. Carey, had returned home
+to lunch, and had read Miss Pollard's note, and had sent a reply by his
+daughters to the effect that in his opinion the circus was a most
+harmless and innocent form of entertainment, and that it would be a pity
+for the girls to miss it. He suggested, indeed, that the whole school
+should visit the show <i lang="fr">en bloc</i>. The Misses Pollard, being themselves
+daughters of the late clergyman, set a high value on clerical sanction.
+The Vicar's letter settled the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"If Mr. Carey approves, it must be perfectly right," fluttered Miss
+Fanny.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so glad to know what he thinks about it," agreed her sister.</p>
+
+<p>The poor ladies were really anxious to give their boarders a treat, and
+as the day girls were already assembled, and time was flying, they
+decided to adopt the suggestion, and march the whole school in an
+orderly crocodile to the tent. Just before they started, a small village
+boy came running up the lane and delivered a note. Miss Pollard tore it
+open hastily.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me! How unfortunate," she exclaimed. "Opal ill with a bad
+headache. The child was perfectly all right this morning. Thank you,
+there's no answer. Now, girls, take your partners and form into double
+line. Quietly, quietly! Not so much talking! Iva and Nesta first.
+Where's Mademoiselle? Has Mamie brought her scarf? Those tents are
+sometimes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+very draughty. Betty, if you can't behave you'll be left
+behind! Are you ready? Then quick march!"</p>
+
+<p>It was very exciting indeed to file along the High Street and across
+the bridge on to the meadow, and more thrillsome still to enter the big
+circular tent with its green canvas roof flapping in the breeze. The
+seats were only wooden planks covered with red baize, and swayed about
+when people sat upon them, but Durracombe audiences were not accustomed
+to luxuries, and the juvenile portion would have cheerfully sat anywhere
+to watch the show. A caravan drawn up by the entrance acted as pay desk,
+and a big, fat gipsy-looking woman took the money and said, 'Thank you
+very much' to those who bought the more expensive tickets. The school
+secured a block of reserved seats all to itself, and the girls settled
+themselves with little ones in front, and big ones behind. In the middle
+of the tent was a large circle strewn with sawdust, and the spectators
+were ranged round this as in a Roman amphitheatre. Through the open door
+opposite might be caught a glimpse of horses standing outside. A very
+large part of the audience was composed of children. Most of them had
+been waiting in a queue for a long while before entering, and they were
+over-excited and tired. They were all impatience for the performance to
+begin, and the hum of their little voices sounded like the buzzing of
+bees. Through the gaps between the walls and the roof of the tent long
+shafts of sunlight streamed like Jacob's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+ladders over the heads of the
+children, and into the sawdust circle. One almost expected elves and
+fairies to slide down them and perform on the magic ring. One tiny boy,
+tired of waiting, strayed from his place, and stood a moment under one
+of these shafts of light like a fair-haired cherub. The spectators
+cheered him as if he were part of the programme.</p>
+
+<p>The contingent from The Moorings were sitting close to the main
+entrance, and as their united glances strayed round the tent they
+presently began to nudge each other and focus their gaze in one
+particular direction. Miss Pollard, aware of the undercurrent, looked
+also. What she saw caused her to take out her lorgnettes and stare
+amazedly through them to satisfy herself that failing eyesight had not
+produced an illusion. On the other side of the tent, exactly opposite to
+their party, sitting on a red-baize-covered reserved seat, was
+Opal&mdash;Opal who was supposed to be lying on her bed prostrate with
+headache, and whom she had pitied for missing the treat. Miss Fanny had
+also just made the same discovery. The sisters glanced at one another,
+and drew their own conclusions. If Opal had turned rather white at the
+entrance of the school party, she had apparently recovered from the
+shock, and was bluffing the matter out. She was sitting with some
+friends, girls much older than herself, and was laughing and chatting as
+if in thorough enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>And now at last, after much tiresome delay and waiting, the show began.
+Through the far door was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+seen a vision of men in gay costumes, and the
+strains of a band were heard.</p>
+
+<p>"O-o-o-oh!" came from the children all round, as the procession streamed
+into the tent. It was headed by the band, then followed piebald horses
+with riders in gorgeous velvet costumes or spangled dresses; there were
+Roman chariots, and a drove of tiny ponies, and an Eastern lady on a
+camel, and several funny men who bounced about like india-rubber balls,
+and three stately elephants, and some wild-looking Red Indians in
+war-paint and feathers. These all paraded round the ring to allow the
+audience to have a good view of them, then went off again, so that the
+programme might proceed in its separate items.</p>
+
+<p>It really was a capital show. There was no mistake about that. First
+entered the gymnasts, wonderful people who jumped easily on to one
+another's shoulders, and swung head downwards from trapezes, and made
+themselves into a human pyramid, and performed other amazing and
+marvellous feats. Then came the horses, which ambled round the circle in
+pairs, with riders who stood astride two of them, one foot on each,
+marvels of equilibrium, and ladies in gauzy dresses who jumped lightly
+from horse to horse as if on wings. When these had cantered off the
+scenes appeared "Queenie", a beautiful Arabian trick horse with her
+playfellow "Pixie", a tiny piebald pony. The manager, a gorgeous
+individual in evening dress, stood in the centre cracking a whip, while
+Queenie and Pixie ran in contrary circles, reared, knelt, and lay<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+down to music, and finally did a dying scene together, with Pixie's head
+resting sentimentally on Queenie's back.</p>
+
+<p>"I want that 'ickle pony," called out a small voice from the audience,
+at which remark even the manager smiled.</p>
+
+<p>Then it was the turn of the clown, a funny man in baggy white pants and
+a red patch on each of his cheeks. He kicked up six hats in succession,
+and caught them all, one on the top of the other, on his head in a
+pyramid, and had a comical fight with somebody who was dressed up as a
+lion and tried to pounce upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"Here we are again. No harm done this time," he kept saying, after
+somersaults and jumps that made some of the audience tremble for his
+safety.</p>
+
+<p>Next a tight-rope was fixed, and two lady gymnasts in spangled garments
+and holding parasols walked across it, and even danced upon it, shaking
+bells on their ankles as they moved. The funny man pretended to be
+envious and begged to be allowed to try; so he climbed up too and at
+first made the tight-rope wobble in the most alarming fashion, but
+finally performed a jig upon it, holding aloft a big black umbrella.</p>
+
+<p>"No harm done this time," he proclaimed laughingly.</p>
+
+<p>An Eastern lady, who arrived veiled on a camel, did a marvellous turn
+with Queenie, the trick horse. Slow music was played, and when the lady
+danced Queenie moved her fore-feet as if dancing also. Then the lady
+skipped, and the horse also skipped over a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+rope held by the manager and
+the clown, a performance which called forth cheer after cheer from the
+spectators. When Queenie ran out of the ring two elephants took her
+place. They saluted by trumpeting, a form of greeting which rather
+scared most of the children, and even brought squeals from some of them.
+The elephants with their slow heavy gait were favourites, however, and
+quite captured the house when one of them acted nurse to a rag baby,
+placed it inside a cradle, and rocked it gently to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>The Red Indians, with their wild, spirited horses, performed most
+daring feats, careered round the ring clinging to the tails of their
+steeds, jumped from one horse to another when in full gallop, and had a
+most exciting battle in which a little girl was bound to a stake by one
+party and rescued by another. Then one of the elephants came in again,
+and played skittles with the clown, who kept calling out "Cheat fair,
+old girl," though he always let her win in the end, and rewarded her by
+drinks from a bottle which he produced out of his big hat. The funny man
+was indeed the very heart and soul of the circus and worked hard to keep
+the audience amused. When the elephant had finished her tricks he
+brought in a pair of seals who flapped into the ring on their fins,
+roaring and snorting as they came. Their feats were, if anything, even
+more clever than those of the elephants: they balanced cups on their
+noses, played football with the clown, and flapped their fins or roared
+in answer to his questions. They played a game of hide-and-seek, and
+finally posed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+on either side of their human friend apparently whispering
+into his ear.</p>
+
+<p>A Roman chariot race followed, as a variety, and afterwards some trick
+riding by ladies accompanied by a jazz band to which the elephant played
+the drum. It was all clever and amusing, yet everybody smiled when the
+funny man, after a short interval for rest, made his reappearance in the
+circle. He seemed indefatigable, and his limbs might have been made of
+india-rubber by the way he jumped and bounced and pranced about. This
+time he was to give a performance on the trapeze, and he ran up the
+ladder as easily as a monkey, cracking out many jokes. He swung on the
+trapeze, and turned somersaults, and hung by his heels and did other
+hair-raising experiments, always ending with his usual "no harm done
+this time".</p>
+
+<p>Then he commenced to swing himself backwards and forwards for an
+enormous leap on to another trapeze. He accomplished it safely, and
+turned to make the bound back again. But either the rope was faulty, or
+for once his nerve deserted him, or he miscalculated his distance, for,
+instead of landing lightly upon the pole, he missed it, and fell down,
+down on to the edge of the net, and off again on to the ground below.</p>
+
+<p>For an instant the audience thought it was part of the performance, and
+that he would bounce up with one of his merry jokes. But this time there
+was harm done. Instead of springing to his feet he lay limp and quiet
+among the sawdust in the ring. There was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+buzz of horror from the spectators as two of the gymnasts ran in with a stretcher and hastily
+removed him. Many could not bear to look at any more and left the tent,
+though the manager made a short speech and begged people to remain for
+the rest of the programme, bringing on the ponies, and causing them to
+run and jump round the circle.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Pollard and her girls felt they had seen enough, and withdrew
+quietly, very much upset at the horrible accident. Mavis and Merle,
+running home with the news, found Dr. Tremayne just starting for the
+cottage hospital, whither the unfortunate clown had been carried from
+the circus. Jessop was helping to hunt out splints, bandages, &amp;c., and
+hastily packing them into the car.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's a pretty business," said Uncle David. "I hear the poor chap's
+badly hurt. I've an urgent call to Bragdon&mdash;man in an epileptic fit&mdash;but
+he'll have to wait till I've attended to this case first. It's a mercy I
+hadn't started. Jessop, where's the chloroform bottle? Put it here in my
+bag, please! If I want anything else I'll send someone over with a
+message. You know where the other splints are? Good! Telephone to Mrs.
+Goodwin that I can't possibly see her till to-morrow, but she must go on
+taking the medicine, and if Johnson's boy comes with a message, keep him
+till I get back."</p>
+
+<p>And Dr. Tremayne, having collected all the various things he considered
+he was likely to need, jumped into his car, and departed to the cottage
+hospital on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+his errand of help, a very real angel of mercy though clad
+in twentieth-century garments.</p>
+
+<p>"Will the poor fellow die?" the girls asked with awestruck faces.</p>
+
+<p>Jessop shook her head enigmatically.</p>
+
+<p>"It depends how much damage is done. You never can tell in a case like
+this till the Doctor has seen him. You may be sure your uncle will do
+the best that human skill can."</p>
+
+<p>"That goes without saying," said Mavis as she and Merle went gravely
+upstairs to wash their hands for tea.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+<a name="xvii" id="xvii"></a>CHAPTER XVII<br />
+
+<span class="sub">The Sick Clown</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Opal turned up at school next morning in one of her most defiant and
+reckless moods. She marched into the cloakroom with a jaunty "don't
+care" air, and immediately began to talk about the circus.</p>
+
+<p>"I was caught neatly, wasn't I!" she proclaimed. "Never got such a
+surprise in my life as when you all came parading in like a flock of
+lambkins. Miss Pollard had rather spasms to judge from her face."</p>
+
+<p>"<em>You'll</em> get spasms later on if I'm not mistaken," said Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I can always fix up the poor old dears. They've a blind eye where
+I'm concerned."</p>
+
+<p>"How about that note you wrote?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I <em>had</em> a headache, only it got better in time for the circus.
+I'm a wonderful person at getting well when I make up my mind to it.
+Will power I suppose. There's nothing neurotic about me!"</p>
+
+<p>"You're the biggest fibber I know!"</p>
+
+<p>"What <em>are</em> fibs?" asked Opal flippantly. "I only make a little
+picturesque variation sometimes instead of telling the brutal truth.
+It's what's called diplomacy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+and finesse, and all the rest of it. In a
+matter of expediency I hedge the question."</p>
+
+<p>"Use the plain Anglo-Saxon word 'lie' and I understand you," retorted
+Merle, turning disgustedly away.</p>
+
+<p>Opal laughed, and some of the younger children, who had been standing
+like little pitchers listening with all their ears, laughed too.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, you kids," said Merle, facing round again. "You may think
+all this is very clever and funny, but I tell you it's most
+dishonourable. You've some queer notions in this school. I wouldn't give
+anything for a head girl who can't speak the truth. She's not worth her
+salt. Yes, I mean it. All this underhand work isn't done in decent
+schools, and the sooner you get that into your silly little noddles the
+better. Fibbers were 'sent to Coventry' at Whinburn High."</p>
+
+<p>"Were they indeed," mocked Opal. "What an extremely superior place it
+must have been. I wonder you condescend to stay at The Moorings among
+such a set as ourselves. We're evidently not good enough for you."</p>
+
+<p>Merle took no further notice but walked away, and Opal followed her,
+giggling, into the classroom. She thought matters would be passed over
+by the Principal as they had always been condoned before. Her boast that
+she could do what she liked with her godmothers had hitherto been
+justified. She had, however, gone a step too far. Miss Pollard's eyes
+had at last been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+opened, and in the light of yesterday she suddenly
+began to remember very many sinister incidents which might easily be set
+down to the head girl's influence.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid, my dear, we have been utterly mistaken in Opal," she
+confided to her sister, and Miss Fanny, who had also had her doubts,
+regretfully agreed with her.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Pollard took the call-over that morning, but when she had closed
+the register she paused.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a matter I wish to set straight," she said impressively. "Opal,
+I received a note from you yesterday afternoon telling me you were in
+bed with a headache. Will you kindly explain how it was that we saw you
+at the circus?"</p>
+
+<p>"My head was better, thanks, and I felt well enough to go," replied Opal
+perkily. She was lolling on her seat, and sharpening a pencil as she
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit up, and put that penknife in your pocket," commanded Miss Pollard,
+in a stricter tone than she had ever used before to her favourite. "Now
+answer me. Do you consider that you have been behaving in an honourable
+fashion? Your letter was sent with the intention to deceive me! What
+have you to say for yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>Instead of doing as she was told, Opal went on sharpening her pencil
+rather ostentatiously. There was a sullen look on her face. She was
+trying her strength against Miss Pollard's. She had won before in minor
+battles, and she hoped to score in this. A faint giggle from one of her
+satellites among the juniors<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
+spurred her on. She would show the girls
+that she at any rate was not afraid of the head mistress. She leaned
+back in her seat and yawned.</p>
+
+<p>"If you ask me, I think it's a case of much ado about nothing," she
+replied. "I've explained that I felt better, and I can't say any more."</p>
+
+<p>This was the limit even for The Moorings. The girls looked at Opal in
+amazement. As for Miss Pollard she stared for a moment as if absolutely
+mesmerized with horror. Then, with a gasp, she recovered her presence of
+mind, and, summoning all her dignity as Principal, delivered her
+ultimatum.</p>
+
+<p>"If that's the view you take of your deceit and falsehood the sooner you
+leave this school the better. Get up and go home at once. You can tell
+your mother the reason I have sent you, and say I will call and see her
+this afternoon at five o'clock. Now go immediately!"</p>
+
+<p>Opal, still with the sullen and defiant look on her face, rose slowly
+and gave a glance of triumph round the room, which, however, met with no
+response. Then she walked jauntily out and slammed the door after her.</p>
+
+<p>What happened at her own home nobody ever knew. Miss Pollard called and
+had a long talk with Mrs. Earnshaw, the result of which was that Opal
+was sent away for a few weeks to stay with an aunt, and arrangements
+were made at once to place her at a boarding-school after Easter. In
+justice to her it must be chronicled that she apologized to her
+godmothers, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+said she was really sorry, but they were wise enough not
+to try the risky experiment of letting her return to The Moorings. She
+was too old for so small a school, and needed strict discipline, and the
+pressure of a high moral standard among girls of her own age. At
+Brackenfield College she would not find her "fiblets", as she called
+them, applauded or tolerated, and she would have to be straight and
+honest if she wanted to win golden opinions. In spite of her many lapses
+from the code of honour, there were elements of good in Opal, and under
+the influence of straightforward girls such as Dona Anderson and Ailsa
+Donald, who were at present leading spirits at Brackenfield, she was
+likely to make a fresh start and retrieve her past.</p>
+
+<p>The Moorings, freed from the shadow of her bad example, seemed a
+different school. Iva Westwood was appointed head girl, and filled the
+office conscientiously. The juniors, who took their colour from their
+elders, soon dropped certain unpleasant practices, and were square in
+their work. Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny also, feeling they had been too
+slack and trustful, kept a tighter hand over things, so that cheating
+and shirking were no longer possible as of yore. In respect of
+favouritism they had learnt their lesson, and became strictly impartial.</p>
+
+<p>"It hardly pays to be a boarder nowadays," mourned Aubrey Simpson.
+"We're all treated so exactly alike."</p>
+
+<p>"And a good business too," snapped Edith Carey. "I always said it was
+time we had a turn. I like things to be fair all round, without anybody
+getting special<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
+privileges. The school's been nicer this last fortnight
+than it has ever since I came here. I used to detest Miss Fanny, but I'm
+beginning almost to like her now."</p>
+
+<p>"Though she <em>is</em> making a horrible crusade about punctuality," groaned
+Maude, who, as usual, was late for everything. "Just fancy! She actually
+made me go to drawing-class without my pencils because I couldn't find
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor old sport! Buck up! Buy a pencil with a ring at the end and cable
+it on to you so that you won't lose it. You could wear it round your
+neck like a baby's comforter."</p>
+
+<p>"It wouldn't be much use at drawing when I want an 'H.B.', a 'B', and a
+'B.B.'," grumbled Maude, who had small sense of humour and rarely saw a
+joke.</p>
+
+<p>But we must return to the day after the circus. The unfortunate clown
+had been carried after his accident straight to the Cottage Hospital,
+where his injuries were attended to by Dr. Tremayne. He was badly hurt,
+and, though there was a possibility of his recovery, it would be months,
+if ever, before he could resume his profession. The manager and the
+ringmaster, and several other people from the show, came to the hospital
+to inquire about him, but the circus was due at another town, and they
+were obliged to move on at once. So that very evening the vans were
+packed, and the great rumbling cavalcade, with all its horses, and
+ponies, and elephants, and camels,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
+jolted along the High Street, and
+turned up the north road in the direction of Warebury.</p>
+
+<p>The piece of wreckage whom they left behind them lay very still and
+quiet in the clean, white bed, at the Cottage Hospital, and made no more
+jokes. His leg was in splints and his head was bandaged, and his right
+arm was held in a sling. Dr. Tremayne, going to see him for the third
+time on the following day, took Mavis and Merle, in the hope that
+visitors might distract his thoughts. They went rather shyly into the
+ward. It was strange to see "the funny man" lying flat on his pillow,
+with hollow, sleepless eyes, and lines of pain round his poor mouth.
+They offered him the flowers they had brought, and began to talk about
+the circus. He brightened up a little at that. Evidently he was proud of
+his reputation as a gymnast.</p>
+
+<p>"It was the rope that failed. It wasn't my fault," he said. "I've done
+that trick thousands of times, and never missed before. And I'd do it
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"You must make haste and get well then," said the sister-in-charge
+kindly. "When we get your splints off you shall give us a special
+performance in the ward if you like. We'll ask these young ladies to
+come and see it, won't we?"</p>
+
+<p>The ghost of a smile flickered round his lips for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say 'no harm done this time'," he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first attempt he had made at a joke. Sister said visitors
+had done him good, and though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+she sent Mavis and Merle away then, she
+asked them to come again. So every day they ran into the hospital for a
+few minutes on their way to school, and again at lunch-time and after
+tea. They never stopped long enough to tire the patient, but they
+brought him flowers or newspapers or some little thing from the outside
+world to help to cheer him up. They chatted to him and asked him what
+towns he knew, and he told them he had travelled over most of England
+and Scotland with the circus, and had even been to America.</p>
+
+<p>"I've seen a-many beautiful places! But there's none to beat Devon in my
+opinion."</p>
+
+<p>"That's what we always say," cried Mavis. "Devonshire is the loveliest
+county in England, and Chagmouth is the most beautiful little place in
+all Devonshire."</p>
+
+<p>"Chagmouth! Do you know Chagmouth?" asked the clown quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"We motor over every Saturday with our uncle when he goes to take
+surgery. Do <em>you</em> know it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I used to when I was a boy. I haven't seen it now though for a matter
+of fourteen year or so. I dare say it's changed."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe it has much. People say it's just the same as it always
+was. You must make haste and get well, and we'll ask Uncle to take you
+there for a drive when you're able to get out of hospital."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah&mdash;when?" echoed the clown, closing his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He was restless, and seemed in much pain. Dr. Tremayne came in later
+and examined him, and gave him morphia. Sister's report the next morning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+was unfavourable. His temperature was very high, and his pulse was
+fluttering.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry I shan't be about to-day," said Dr. Tremayne. "I'm obliged to
+go over to Halford to perform some eye operations at the hospital. I
+don't suppose I shall be back till nine o'clock. I'll leave the
+hypodermic syringe and if he needs it give him another dose of morphia.
+We've done the best we can, but it's an anxious case all the same."</p>
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle were detained after tea that day, and could not go round
+to the hospital until about six o'clock. Sister greeted them with
+relief.</p>
+
+<p>"I've kept expecting you, and was going to send you a message if you
+didn't come," she said. "He keeps asking for you all the time. He's gone
+downhill rapidly to-day, poor fellow. He's sinking fast, and I don't
+believe he'll ever see the night through. He's wandering a little in his
+head, and he says you two know Chagmouth, and he wants to speak to you.
+I'll tell him you've come."</p>
+
+<p>Very gently the girls entered the ward where the patient was lying. The
+signs of a great approaching change were on him. The hands that little
+more than a week ago had grasped the trapeze so strongly now lay white
+and frail on the counterpane. His face was shrunken, and his eyes held
+the far-away look of one who is beginning to sight things beyond our
+earthly plane of vision. He smiled feebly at Mavis and Merle, and tried
+to raise his head. Sister lifted him a little and propped him up with an
+extra pillow.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span><a name="you2" id="you2"></a>"You know Chagmouth?" he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! Yes!" Mavis was stooping down beside his bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mrs. Jarvis still living there&mdash;the nurse?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we sometimes see her. She's postwoman now."</p>
+
+<p>"Could you fetch her here? To-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll try!"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her it's Jerry as wants her&mdash;her boy Jerry! She'll understand!"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll bring her somehow, don't you worry," said Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm slipping west, and I'd like a word with her afore I go. You've been
+so kind&mdash;I thought I might ask you to do that for me."</p>
+
+<p>His breath came in gasps. His face was drawn with a spasm of pain.</p>
+
+<p>Sister took the girls quietly aside.</p>
+
+<p>"If there's anything you can do for him, you'd better do it," she said.
+"I don't think he'll last the night."</p>
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle saw for themselves that if mother and son were to meet
+again on earth they must fetch Mrs. Jarvis quickly. How could they get
+her to Durracombe in the shortest possible time? Outside the hospital
+door they held a whispered consultation. Uncle David and the little
+Deemster car were fifteen miles away, at Halford. They must find some
+other means of conveyance. They went, therefore, to the Swan Hotel,
+where motors were to be hired, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+explained the urgency of their
+errand. The manageress shook her head.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="you" id="you"></a>
+<img src="images/gs05.jpg" width="400" height="627"
+alt="&quot;YOU KNOW CHAGMOUTH?&quot; HE WHISPERED" title="Page 232" />
+<p class="caption">"YOU KNOW CHAGMOUTH?" HE WHISPERED</p>
+<p class="right"><a href="#you2"><i>Page 232</i></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Mr. Johnson's out himself with the four-seater, and Bates has gone to
+the station with the little car to meet a lady and take her to Rushton.
+There's only the old Ford left, and no one to drive it."</p>
+
+<p>"A Ford! May I look at it?" said Merle eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"You can if you like."</p>
+
+<p>The car was standing in the yard, rather a shabby specimen, but in
+workable order. Merle examined it carefully.</p>
+
+<p>"It's exactly like Daddy's at home," she said. "I've often driven that.
+Will you let me try this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know whether I dare!" gasped the manageress.</p>
+
+<p>But Merle got inside the car and showed such a working knowledge of its
+various levers and begged so hard to be allowed to take it out that at
+last Mrs. Johnson relented.</p>
+
+<p>"If it weren't a matter of life and death, as you might say, I wouldn't
+let you for a minute. It seems almost like murder to trust you two
+alone, and those hills and all. Still you do seem to know how to drive.
+Be very careful of the brakes, and don't go tearing along too fast. I
+shan't know a moment's peace till I see you safe back again. Little
+George will give you a start. He knows how to do that, though he can't
+drive yet."</p>
+
+<p>George, a small boy of twelve, turned the starting-handle, and soon the
+engine was humming. Merle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+took off the brake, put in the low gear, waved
+a good-bye to Mrs. Johnson, and with Mavis by her side steered
+successfully through the gate-posts of the garage yard into the High
+Street. The girls devoutly hoped that neither Aunt Nellie nor Jessop
+would be looking out of the windows as they crossed the bridge. The
+risky ride must be ventured, but they preferred to spare the feelings of
+those at home.</p>
+
+<p>To Merle it was a gorgeous opportunity. She was not in the least afraid
+and perfectly confident that she could manage the car. She had always
+wanted to go for a drive entirely on her own. Mavis, rather nervous but
+ready to stick to her sister through all perils, kept an anxious eye on
+the road, in case a motor-lorry should suddenly whisk round a corner, or
+a flock of sheep emerge from a field.</p>
+
+<p>"May Providence sweep all nails and bits of broken glass out of our
+path. I don't know what we should do if we got a puncture," she
+murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"Run on the rim," returned Merle. "As long as the old car can keep going
+I'll make her go. She's really doing very decently considering she's
+rather a ramshackle concern. I'll get some pace out of her, you'll see,
+when the road's clear ahead. I wonder if the speedometer is working?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do be careful!" implored Mavis. "There's something coming now.
+Sound your hooter! It's one of those wretched furniture vans, and they
+never leave proper room."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad we haven't to pass the circus at any rate,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>
+said Merle, squeezing the bulb of the hooter, and lurching dangerously as she did
+so, but regaining the left side of the road before they met the van.</p>
+
+<p>Mavis was thankful when they were out of the deep Devonshire lanes and
+up on the comparatively safe level of the moors, where there were no
+high hedges to conceal approaching vehicles, and the road could be seen
+stretching like a long ribbon in front of them.</p>
+
+<p>"Shan't find any police trap here," chuckled Merle, increasing the speed
+till the rattling old car seemed to be flying. "That speedometer isn't
+working, but I dare say we're going at thirty miles an hour. I believe
+she'd do forty."</p>
+
+<p>"Merle, <em>don't</em>" squealed Mavis. "For goodness sake slow down or you'll
+be upsetting the whole business into the ditch."</p>
+
+<p>The hooting of a motor-cycle that wanted to pass them stopped Merle in
+her mad career, and reminded her that she was occupying the middle of
+the road. She steered to the left, and proceeded more soberly.</p>
+
+<p>"We must be half-way there already," she triumphed. "We've simply
+bounded along like a house on fire. Who says I can't drive? I shall tell
+Daddy about this. It'll be a score for me, won't it."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope we shan't meet a policeman anywhere who'll ask for your
+licence."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't care if I do. I just shan't stop, however much he waves his
+white gloves at me. He can take the number of the car, and prosecute me
+afterwards if he likes. I'd rather enjoy going before the bench of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>
+magistrates. I'd tell the reason, and say the end justified the means."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll make an end of us if you go bumping so fast over this lumpy
+road. The holes are enough to upset a tank. What a sharp wind there is
+up here! I wish we'd got our thick coats."</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to have brought a wrap!" Merle's voice was self-reproachful.
+"Turn up the collar of your jersey. Oh, I'm all right, thanks. It's hot
+work to drive, I can tell you. There's Gundry Tor. We really <em>are</em>
+getting on. We shall soon be at Chagmouth now."</p>
+
+<p>What Mavis was dreading most was the tremendous hill that ran down the
+ravine into the little town. It was a very steep gradient, and was
+marked with a danger signal. She hoped the brakes of the rickety old car
+would be equal to their duty. The road was unfenced, and had several
+awkward bends, where an unskilled motorist, losing control, might dash
+over the edge, and down into the woods. How she longed for Dr.
+Tremayne's firm steady hand on the driving-wheel! It is always far more
+anxious work to sit and watch a novice than to do a thing yourself.
+Merle, in her girlish confidence, felt no alarm. She was ready to
+venture anything in the way of a descent.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately for the safety of the sisters, her powers had no need to be
+tested. While they were still on the level road at the top of the hill
+they saw, walking briskly along in front of them, a little stumpy figure
+in a navy-blue uniform, and with a leather bag slung over her back.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+"Mrs. Jarvis, by all that's wonderful," exclaimed Mavis, in much relief.</p>
+
+<p>The postwoman was coming back from collecting letters at a pillar-box in
+a neighbouring village. It was the merest luck that they had overtaken
+her at that particular spot. Merle stopped the car, and the girls
+explained their errand.</p>
+
+<p>"You must come with us at once," said Mavis. "Never mind the letters. We
+can hand them in at the post-office at Durracombe instead. It will be
+all right."</p>
+
+<p>Poor Mrs. Jarvis did not need any urging. As soon as her clouded brain
+understood who wanted her, she was ready to throw her post-bag to the
+winds. She jumped into the back part of the car and took her seat,
+trembling with excitement and eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>"Jerry! My own boy Jerry!" she kept repeating. "Bless him! The little
+table's all spread out in the kitchen ready for his tea. I knew he'd
+come back to me some day. Bless his heart."</p>
+
+<p>Merle with much difficulty managed to restart the old Ford, and to turn
+it with its bonnet in the direction of Durracombe; then they set off
+again at a rather reckless pace. Every minute seemed of importance now,
+and Mavis did not remonstrate though they bumped over holes, tore round
+corners, or flew across the moor at thirty miles an hour. Perhaps her
+nerves were getting used to it. She gave a sigh of satisfaction,
+however, when at last they came in sight of their destination, and
+motored back across the bridge into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+the High Street. Merle drove
+straight to the hospital, where the girls took Mrs. Jarvis inside and
+asked for Sister.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you come into the ward, please," said the nurse who returned with
+the message. "You've brought her just in time!"</p>
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle stood aside to give precedence to Mrs. Jarvis. They had
+warned the poor mother that it was no lad of thirteen whom she must
+expect to see, that long years had passed away, and had changed him
+possibly past recognition. There was little resemblance between the
+round cheeks she used to kiss, and the sunken face on the pillow. But
+mother hearts cannot forget, even though the brains may be blurred. She
+knew him instantly as she stepped to his bed-side.</p>
+
+<p>"Jerry! My own boy, Jerry! Come back at last!"</p>
+
+<p>Then Nurse put a screen round the bed, and mother and son were left
+alone, for there are some scenes too sacred for even the kindest friends
+to witness.</p>
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle returned an hour later to inquire, having taken back the
+car, delivered the post-bag to the authorities, and reassured Aunt
+Nellie of their whereabouts. They met Sister in the corridor of the
+hospital. They looked at her in mute interrogation, and she shook her
+head.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew it was hopeless this afternoon, but it's been quicker than I
+thought. He didn't suffer much, and he was so glad to have his mother
+with him. Will you please tell Dr. Tremayne."</p>
+
+<p>Very softly the girls went out of the hospital door.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+It was dark, and
+bright stars were shining overhead, but there was still a faint streak
+of red where the sun had set. They looked at it for a moment or two
+without speaking, then:</p>
+
+<p>"It will rise over there," gulped Mavis, pointing eastward, and Merle
+understood her meaning.</p>
+
+<p>All the jokes and tricks of the funny man were over now, and his poor
+hurt body was lying quiet and still, but he himself had "gone west", and
+though the tea-table was spread in vain in the little cottage,
+somewhere, in the light of the eternal dawn, mother and son would meet
+and know one another again.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
+<a name="xviii" id="xviii"></a>CHAPTER XVIII<br />
+
+<span class="sub">Greek meets Greek</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>On the last Saturday in March, by special invitation from Mrs. Glyn
+Williams, the Ramsays spent the day at The Warren. They went in their
+best dresses and took their tennis rackets with them. They were not at
+all sure whether they wished to go, but it was one of those coercive
+visits which society demands, and which there is no evading, so they set
+forth, Mavis in one of her quiet moods, and Merle, with an awkward
+remembrance of past skirmishes, on her very best behaviour. There is no
+better fence than good manners, and it is really impossible to squabble
+with a person who preserves a studied politeness. To-day, however, the
+Glyn Williams did not wish for quarrels. They might have
+their faults, but they could be pleasant enough hosts and hostesses when
+they liked, and they really made an effort to entertain their guests.
+When their shyness thawed, Mavis and Merle began to enjoy themselves.
+The cinder court was in excellent order, and it was rather delightful to
+have a game of tennis. Tudor and Merle played Gwen and Mavis, and beat
+them in two sets, a score which caused them much triumph.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+"I say, you know, you're a jolly good player," said Tudor to his
+partner. "Those swift serves of yours are A1!"</p>
+
+<p>"We had cinder courts at school in Whinburn," replied Merle. "It makes a
+difference if you're used to them."</p>
+
+<p>She might have added that she had been one of the champions, and had
+helped to win a tournament, but she was not given to boasting. It is
+pleasant, though, to be congratulated on present prowess, even if you
+feel too modest to mention your past successes. She began to relent a
+little towards Tudor. He was so obviously doing his best to give her a
+good time. According to his own lights he tried to be amusing.</p>
+
+<p>"The cinder court is my last stronghold," he assured her. "Just when we
+get the grass courts into decent order in the summer the Mater always
+insists on having half Chagmouth up to trample over them&mdash;wheezy old
+women who drink tea till you think they'll never stop, and awful
+children who stuff themselves with buns, and run races for bags of
+sweets. You don't know what I suffer. And the Mater says: '<em>Do</em> come and
+speak to them'! Speak to them! What the Dickens am I to say? I'm longing
+to tell them that I wish the whole lot of them were at Jericho rather
+than messing about our garden. Why can't they drink tea and run races
+down in the town? The Mater says we <em>must</em> know our neighbours, but I
+say bother our neighbours. If she likes to do the Lady Bountiful
+business I wish she'd leave me out of it."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+"Chagmouth is a lovely place," ventured Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, but they're a cantankerous set of people. Never satisfied
+whatever you do for them. The shooting here isn't really up to much
+either, nor the fishing. I stayed with a friend of mine once in
+Herefordshire. His father has a splendid place there. I can tell you we
+had some sport. The woods here haven't been half preserved. Every Dick,
+Tom, and Harry from Chagmouth thinks he may go into them, and the same
+on the headland. They pretend there's a right of way along the cliffs,
+and it's nothing on earth but an excuse for poaching. They go rabbiting
+up there. I've found lots of traps, and flung them over the cliffs into
+the sea. Beastly cheek, setting traps on our land. I tell Dad he ought
+to put up a fence and dispute that right of way along the headland. I
+believe he's going to too. You must stand up for your rights with these
+people, or they'll take advantage of you at every end and give you no
+thanks either."</p>
+
+<p>After lunch, Tudor, a large part of whose interests centred round the
+stables, offered to show the horses, and all the young people went to
+admire and pet beautiful "Armorelle", Gwen's pretty cob "Taffy", and
+Babbie's little pony "Nixie". Merle would have liked to beg to mount
+Armorelle, but good manners prevailed, and she only stroked the soft
+nose instead.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you ride?" asked Gwen rather grandly.</p>
+
+<p>"A little," said Merle, not liking to confess that her equestrian
+experiences were mostly confined to donkeys on the beach at the
+sea-side.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+"Brought your habit with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered Merle, who did not possess a riding-habit at all.</p>
+
+<p>"What a pity! But of course your uncle has sold all his horses. He
+always goes about in that little yellow car now, doesn't he? Motoring's
+well enough&mdash;one must have a car naturally&mdash;but give me a horse."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, give me a horse, too, for choice," echoed Tudor. "I simply
+couldn't live without horses."</p>
+
+<p>On the whole the Ramsays spent a pleasant day at The Warren. Gwen and
+Tudor might be rather patronizing, and too fond of showing off their
+possessions, and "talking large", but these were their obvious failings,
+the direct result of their early training and upbringing, and they were
+not without pleasanter traits. Everybody is a mixture of perfect and
+imperfect, in greater or lesser degree. The young Glyn Williamses might
+have false standards of life, and would perhaps have to suffer many hard
+knocks before they learnt to revise them, yet in their own way they
+certainly meant to be kind. Gwen gave Mavis several foreign stamps, and
+was liberal in handing round chocolates. Little Babbie waxed really
+affectionate. She had liked the Ramsays from the first, and had begged
+her mother to invite them. In the drawing-room, after tea, she asked
+them to repeat the dialogue which they had given at The Moorings on the
+wet afternoon when the day girls waited for the storm to clear.</p>
+
+<p>"I've never forgotten how you two acted," she urged. "It was splendid!
+Just like going to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+theatre. <em>Please</em> do it again! <em>Please!</em> Mother
+and Tudor haven't heard it."</p>
+
+<p>"We want two other characters," objected Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never mind! We'll imagine the other two, and you can say their
+parts for them. Give the funny piece where the aunt says what she thinks
+about the modern girl. You did it so well."</p>
+
+<p>"May we dress up a little?" asked Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>"As much as you like. Come upstairs and take what you want."</p>
+
+<p>So after a time the visitors returned duly costumed for the piece, Merle
+as an elderly spinster with white cotton-wool hair and a black veil tied
+over a toque, and Mavis in a sporting coat and rakish hat belonging to
+Gwen. They played up to the best of their ability, and delivered the
+amusing little sketch with much vigour. Merle, as the maiden aunt, was
+inimitable, and quiet Mavis astounded everybody in her pose of the
+up-to-date damsel. Tudor stared as if he had not suspected she had so
+much in her. The audience of four clapped tremendously at the close of
+the performance.</p>
+
+<p>"It's really very clever. You're quite actresses," commented Mrs. Glyn
+Williams. "Have you ever performed in public? No! Why, when you leave
+school I should think you'll be tremendously in request for dramatic
+performances in aid of charities."</p>
+
+<p>"We ought to get up something here in the Institute," said Tudor. "It
+would be topping fun, and astonish the natives no end. I should think
+everybody's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
+sick to death of their eternal concerts. It's always the
+same old business&mdash;part song by the choir, timid warble by village
+soprano about spring or roses, seafaring song roared by the bass,
+ambitious operatic air attempted by tenor, who makes a hash of it,
+strains on a violin badly out of tune, temperance speech by the Vicar,
+who, of course, wants to butt in with a word on 'Prohibition', action
+song by kids from the school, then votes of thanks till everybody has
+thanked everybody else all round, and said how clever they all are. Then
+'God Save the King', and thank goodness one may go home."</p>
+
+<p>"Tudor's a naughty boy," laughed Mrs. Glyn Williams. "I never <em>can</em> get
+him to take an interest in Chagmouth."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I hate being trotted out to these functions," declared her son.</p>
+
+<p>When Mavis and Merle, brushing their hair as they went to bed that
+night, compared notes on their experiences at The Warren, both decided
+they had had a very enjoyable time there. Merle had revised her first
+opinion of Tudor.</p>
+
+<p>"He's quite jolly in his own way," she admitted. "I rather like him."</p>
+
+<p>"But of course he's nothing to Bevis."</p>
+
+<p>"They're in a different running altogether."</p>
+
+<p>The two boys were certainly an utter contrast, in circumstances,
+disposition, and attainments. Tudor was fond of sport, but not at all
+intellectual. From various hints the girls had gathered that his school<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
+career was not unchequered; indeed they strongly suspected, from a
+foolish remark of Babbie's, that ill-health was not the sole reason for
+his passing this term at home, and that for some episode, carefully
+hushed up, he had been temporarily suspended by the authorities. Tudor's
+accomplishments all seemed to stand on a foundation of wealth. Take away
+his horses, his gun, his woods, his visits to town to see theatres, and
+he would have no resources left. His pleasures were inseparable from the
+spending of money, and though they were well enough in their way, and
+kept him amused, they were not cultivating the highest part of him. The
+citizen side, which seeks to be of some use to the community, was
+conspicuously absent. He posed, indeed, as deliberately scorning the
+masses, and laughed at his mother for her well-meant efforts at trying
+to entertain her neighbours. Human souls are surely at different stages
+of evolution, and his was an undeveloped one that had not yet progressed
+beyond the period of self-serving. Sometimes a rough lesson is needed to
+clear the soul's vision, and teach it what things are really worth
+while; and Fate, who jolts us about much to our own indignation, had her
+special plan for his education, which in the fulness of her time she
+meant to bring about.</p>
+
+<p>Bevis, reared up from babyhood at Grimbal's Farm, had learnt to shoot
+and to ride as well as Tudor, though he had not so good a gun nor so
+fine a mount. He was a splendid swimmer, and he had brought back many
+medals from school gained at athletic sports.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
+He could almost do a man's
+work in the fields now, and while he hated farm labour it had made him
+physically very fit. He rejoiced in his young strength, with something
+of the pure gladness of the old Greeks merged with the Christian ideal.
+Mavis, looking at him as his muscular arms chopped with an axe in the
+spinney, or his long legs came jumping over a fence, always thought of
+some lines that she had copied for her "pet quotation" in the High
+School calendar at Whinburn.</p>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">"God who created me<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nimble and light of limb,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In three elements free<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To run, ride, or swim.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not when the sense is dim,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But now from the heart of joy<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I would remember Him&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Take the thanks of a boy."<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Bevis's brain capacity fully balanced his bodily strength. He liked to
+read the newspapers, and think out all the problems of the times, and
+the country's needs. He relished a mental tussle with the same keen zest
+as he enjoyed a football match or a vaulting contest. Whoever his father
+and mother might have been the boy was innately refined, and at school
+had caught up all the culture that his foster parents&mdash;kind homely
+people&mdash;unfortunately lacked.</p>
+
+<p>It was a matter of amazement to Mrs. Glyn Williams that Mavis and Merle
+were allowed to go for walks with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
+Bevis, and she blamed the Doctor for
+slackness in the care of his nieces, but Dr. Tremayne knew the boy
+thoroughly, and was perfectly satisfied that he was a fit companion for
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The girls themselves thought him a most delightful comrade. He was so
+well versed in all country lore, and he could make so many things, and
+he was so jolly and humorous and full of fun and jokes. They looked
+forward to their weekly excursions, and felt they could not have
+explored Chagmouth half so thoroughly without Bevis as guide. Saturday
+at the beginning of April saw the three once more setting off for
+Blackthorn Bower. It was a showery day, but they had their mackintoshes,
+and did not mind the light rain. Mavis was so wonderfully better that
+she could now do with impunity what before might have been risky. She
+had grown, and seemed altogether stronger, though she still looked more
+ethereal than Merle. That, however, was partly a matter of temperament.
+The months in Durracombe had been an immense delight to both girls.
+After the severe winters of Whinburn they had seemed like perpetual
+spring, and they called Devon "the Garden of Eden". To-day, as they went
+up the lanes towards the headland, there were many excitements. Bevis,
+who seemed to have a kind of second-sight for discovering birds' nests,
+found a hedge-sparrow's, a robin's, and a thrush's, full of eggs, and
+showed them where a tit-lark was beginning to build. Then they actually
+saw the first swallow, an early arrival which had come before the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+cuckoo, but whirled past with unmistakable forked tail and white breast.
+The primroses were a dream, and Mavis gathered a bunch of wild hyacinths
+and some purple ground ivy, and Merle thought she saw a snake, but was
+not perfectly sure about the matter. They were following a footpath
+which led through the field where the tumulus lay, on to the headland.
+When they reached the usual point where they had always passed through a
+gap in the hedge to get down to the tiny quarry they found their way
+barred. A strong fence had been erected, with prickly gorse placed upon
+the top of it. The girls halted in much dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's been stopping the path?" asked Merle blankly.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of those keepers, I expect," answered Bevis. "They've no right to
+do it. It's been a public way for years and years. People come across
+the hill, and go along the headland, and down to the beach. They always
+have done, and they always will. There was a bother once before about a
+right of way through the woods, and Mr. Glyn Williams went to law about
+it, but he lost his case."</p>
+
+<p>"What are we going to do now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Take down the fence, that's all. It's easily done."</p>
+
+<p>Bevis set calmly to work, and pulled away first the gorse, and then
+enough of the fence to enable his companions to scramble across. He
+laughed as he handed them over.</p>
+
+<p>"Those keepers will be jolly vexed when they find<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
+their work spoilt,
+but it serves them right. They shouldn't try to stop a public footpath."</p>
+
+<p>The girls had an uneasy remembrance that last Saturday Tudor had spoken
+of this very matter of a right of way along the headland, and had said
+that he had urged his father to dispute it. They had not mentioned to
+Tudor that they knew the spot, though they had guessed where it was from
+his description. They did not care for him to know about Blackthorn
+Bower, or the cups of rough pottery, and their picnics and talks about
+the prehistoric people. They felt instinctively that he would not
+understand or sympathize in the least, and would only sneer at it all as
+nonsense. They did not say anything about Tudor to Bevis now, because
+the subject always seemed a sore one, and their friend was in such a
+particularly jolly mood that they did not want to bring the cloud that
+sometimes settled over his face. They took his word for it that they
+were not trespassing but pursuing a perfectly legitimate path, and
+climbed down the bank to the little quarry.</p>
+
+<p>Here a horrible surprise awaited them. Their beautiful bower, put up
+with so much skill and trouble, had been completely pulled to pieces.
+The staves of its roof were stacked in a pile, and the sods had been
+thrown down the cliff. For a ghastly moment they stared as if hardly
+able to believe the evidence of their own eyes. Then their indignation
+found vent.</p>
+
+<p>"What an abominable shame!" exploded Merle.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+"Oh, it's <em>too</em> bad! Our <em>lovely</em> hut!" quavered Mavis, practically in
+tears.</p>
+
+<p>Bevis said nothing. He gazed round the ruin, then stooped and picked
+something up from the ground. It was a fragment of the blue pottery cup
+smashed to atoms. He looked at it with somewhat the same consternation
+with which a hedge-sparrow might regard her torn and robbed nest and
+broken eggs.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll make somebody pay for this!" he muttered.</p>
+
+<p>The girls were still exclaiming in much wrath and annoyance. At first
+they were so busy bemoaning the hut that they never heard sounds on the
+bank behind, then becoming aware of voices they walked out from the
+quarry to find Tudor, and two of the keepers standing by the fence.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello!" cried Tudor, springing down and greeting them joyously.</p>
+
+<p>But at that moment Bevis stepped from the ruins of Blackthorn Bower and
+faced him.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this your doing?" he asked abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>The two boys glared at one another with looks that suggested clashing of
+steel.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly it's by my orders," returned Tudor in his most lofty and
+insolent tone. "What business had you building a hut on my property? A
+regular squatter! I won't have you fellows from the village coming
+poaching up here. I'll throw every rabbit trap I find down the cliffs,
+so I give you warning. I could prosecute you for breaking down that
+fence."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+"Oh, Tudor! Bevis <em>doesn't</em> poach," interposed Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"He built the hut for <em>us</em>," put in Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately the girls' remarks only made matters worse.</p>
+
+<p>"A nice fellow you are to take young ladies about!" continued Tudor
+tauntingly. "I wonder they'll condescend to walk with you. A nobody like
+you, who doesn't know where he comes from! You may fancy yourself no
+end&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But here Bevis, whose dark face held a "Hast thou found me, O mine
+enemy" expression, sprang at him in an anger too deep and furious for
+words.</p>
+
+<p>Both the boys were wrestlers. For one wild minute they held each other,
+and swayed to and fro as they struggled, while the girls shrieked in
+alarm, and the keepers, standing by the fence, gaped too utterly amazed
+to interfere. Then Bevis, by far the fitter and stronger of the two,
+gained the mastery, and seizing Tudor, flung him violently away. He
+fell, and rolled over and over nearly twenty feet down the side of the
+cliff. Then the keepers recovered from their frozen paralysis, and
+rushed to the rescue of their young employer.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately Tudor had landed upon a platform of rock, but he lay there
+quite quiet and still, and did not stir when the men carried him up. His
+eyes were closed, and his head hung loosely as they laid him down beside
+the ruined bower. One of them fetched water in a hat and bathed his
+temples, and the other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+rubbed his hands. The girls looked on in pitiful
+distress. Bevis was still standing on the patch of grass that was the
+scene of their combat. He stared at Tudor's prostrate form with wild,
+horror-stricken eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I've murdered him," he gasped to Mavis and Merle. "It's murder! Yes,
+that's what it is! I'm going away, and you'll never see me any more! I'm
+not fit to say good-bye to you!"</p>
+
+<p>And without another look he turned and began scrambling recklessly down
+the cliff, not following a path, but dropping anyhow over the rocks as
+if he did not care what happened to him. For a moment or two he was
+visible, and then he vanished.</p>
+
+<p>After more water and vigorous rubbing Tudor at last revived and opened
+his eyes. He was stiff and much shaken, but there seemed no bones
+broken, and with the help of the two keepers he was able to walk home.
+Mavis and Merle fled back to Grimbal's Farm with the disastrous news.
+They poured out the story to Mrs. Penruddock as she was feeding the
+fowls. She dropped her pan of Indian corn on to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"There now! I always said it would come to that," she bemoaned. "Bevis
+flown at young Williams and run away. What will his father say? The
+lad's so hasty, and he flares up when he's roused. Don't you cry! You
+say there's not much harm done after all, and I dare say Bevis will come
+creeping back at dark when things are quiet. It's not the first time
+he's run off, and turned up again when he felt hungry."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
+"He said we'd never see him any more," sobbed Mavis, much upset by the
+whole affair.</p>
+
+<p>"He'd say anything, but he doesn't mean it. I'm sorry it's happened
+because it will make fine trouble with The Warren, and we've trouble
+enough as it is, goodness knows! But I'm not afraid for Bevis. He'd
+never go off without fetching some of his things at any rate. He loses
+his temper and there's a flash, and then it's all over. I know Bevis!
+He'll come back all right, don't you fear!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>
+<a name="xix" id="xix"></a>CHAPTER XIX<br />
+
+<span class="sub">At Half-mast</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>For once Mrs. Penruddock was mistaken in her calculations. Bevis did not
+come back. His supper waited in the oven, and his room over the kitchen
+was ready, but the potatoes were spoilt, and his bed was never slept in.
+Nobody in Chagmouth had seen anything of him, and all inquiries were in
+vain. Day after day passed without bringing news of the truant. When
+Mavis and Merle motored over with Dr. Tremayne on the following Saturday
+they found sad trouble at Grimbal's Farm.</p>
+
+<p>"It's not like Bevis," proclaimed Mrs. Penruddock. "He's never treated
+us in this way before. To run off without a word when he'd know well
+enough we'd take his part even if there was a little trouble with The
+Warren. We thought he might have gone to his school, and we telegraphed
+to the headmaster, but they'd seen nothing of him. We're afraid the
+silly lad must have tramped to Port Sennen, and got on some vessel
+there. If that's so goodness knows where he may be by now, or when we
+shall have a letter from him. If we could only be sure he was all right
+we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
+shouldn't mind so much. It's this waiting that wears one out. Young
+folks don't think of all it means to their elders when they do these
+things. I can't sleep at nights for worrying. The place doesn't seem the
+same without Bevis. Such a good lad he's always been too."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Penruddock's pleasant face looked quite puckered, and there was a
+choke in her voice which she had to cough away. She was busier than
+usual, and hurried off into the dairy to serve customers who came for
+their Saturday portions of scalded cream. (Chagmouth people could not
+eat their Sunday tea without jam and cream on their bread.) She missed
+her foster-son's help with the poultry, and in many other matters. He
+had never shirked work on the farm, and had always been ready to lend a
+strong hand when she needed it.</p>
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle, strolling round the stackyard, agreed with her. The
+place was certainly not the same without Bevis. It seemed very slack and
+slow indeed now he was gone. To kill time before lunch, while Dr.
+Tremayne saw his patients in the surgery, the girls took a walk down the
+town towards the beach. Midway in the quaint steep street there was a
+spot railed off where people could sit on benches and look out over the
+sea. It was a favourite lounge, and two or three old fishermen were
+generally there discussing catches and tides, or the village invalids
+were sunning themselves and collecting local news. In the middle stood a
+flagstaff where the Union Jack was kept flying.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+To-day as the Ramsays
+passed this observation point they noticed that the flag was at
+half-mast.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what's the matter?" said Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. Somebody dead, I suppose, and we haven't heard yet. I
+hope it's not the King! Shall I ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, do. Ask that old man!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I daren't! You do!"</p>
+
+<p>Merle, having more courage with strangers, made the necessary inquiry.
+The blue-jerseyed individual whom she addressed pulled his pipe from his
+mouth and grunted a reply:</p>
+
+<p>"It's General Talland as is gone. There was a telegram come this morning
+from the West Indies. He was only sixty-one. He ought to a' been good
+for another ten year or more."</p>
+
+<p>"They do say the climate is awful over there," chimed one of the
+loungers, quite willing to discuss the event.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay! He should a' stayed in his native air!"</p>
+
+<p>Other listeners had strolled up and began to give their opinions.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't hold with foreign parts myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Not to live, though it's nice to see them."</p>
+
+<p>"There's always fever about in those hot places."</p>
+
+<p>"He'll be buried out there!"</p>
+
+<p>"And his son was buried in India!"</p>
+
+<p>"It seems as if the luck was against the family."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Glyn Williams will be for buying the property now!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>
+"If he can get hold of it."</p>
+
+<p>"It's what he's been after ever since he came here."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I suppose he'd make a better landlord than some."</p>
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle were not remarkably interested in General Talland, so
+they said "Thank you" for the information they had received, and walked
+down to the shore, where they amused themselves till it was time to
+return for lunch. When they got back to Grimbal's Farm, however, they
+found Mrs. Penruddock full of the news, which she had learnt from some
+of her customers.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems trouble on trouble," she declared. "Everybody is saying that
+Mr. Glyn Williams will be sure to get hold of the estate now, and with
+our lease just falling in, and this business between Bevis and young
+Williams which they'll likely not forgive, we may be turned out of the
+farm for all I know. I came here when I was married twenty-five years
+ago, and Mr. Penruddock was born here. It would break our hearts to have
+to go anywhere else."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I hope it won't be as bad as that!" said Mavis consolingly.</p>
+
+<p>At lunch-time the girls told Uncle David about the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Will Mr. Glyn Williams really buy the property?" asked Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think he can," replied Dr. Tremayne; "the estate's entailed."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
+"What's 'entailed'?" said Merle, looking puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a legal term, which means that a property cannot be sold, but must
+always pass to the next heir in the male line, so that the owner really
+only has a life interest in it."</p>
+
+<p>"And who is the heir then?"</p>
+
+<p>"A distant cousin of General Talland's, Mr. George Talland, a most
+unsuitable man from all accounts. I believe he spends most of his time
+gaming at Monte Carlo. Very probably he will make the same arrangement
+as before with Mr. Glyn Williams, and will let him the The Warren and
+the shooting. There's a possibility, though, that Mr. George Talland and
+his son might 'cut the entail'. If owner and heir both agree to sell a
+property they can legally do so, and they might care to have the ready
+money and settle up their debts rather than only the income of the
+estate."</p>
+
+<p>"Pity General Talland hadn't a son to leave it to."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, poor Austin. He died in India. It must be fifteen years ago now.
+There was a persistent rumour at the time that he'd been privately
+married out there, and had a son of his own, but no wife and child ever
+turned up to claim his heritage, which they would most certainly have
+done if they had existed. It was all gossip and hearsay. People love to
+invent these stories, but when you come to sift them there's no truth in
+them. I'm sorry the estate will go to the George Tallands. The son&mdash;also
+a George&mdash;has six daughters, but no son, so the male line comes to an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>
+end in that direction. That's why I fancy they may cut the entail&mdash;to
+get a little money for the girls. It seems a sad pity for an old family
+to die out absolutely. There have been Tallands at Chagmouth from time
+immemorial. After the younger George goes, the name will become quite
+extinct. Many of the old Devon families have died away like that for
+want of heirs."</p>
+
+<p>The troubles of the Tallands seemed to Mavis and Merle quite a minor
+business, however, compared with the overwhelming misfortune of Bevis's
+running away. They did not quite know what to do with themselves after
+lunch. They would have gone with Uncle David to the Sanatorium, but he
+wished to drive a patient up there, and had no room for them in the car.
+They might of course have gone to The Warren, where they had a general
+invitation to play tennis, but they hesitated, partly because they felt
+a delicacy in going without being definitely asked and certain of
+welcome, and partly because after what had happened the week before they
+were not very keen to meet Tudor. They could not forget the way he had
+taunted Bevis, and they had not yet forgiven him for it.</p>
+
+<p>"Gwen would be sure to say something nasty about last Saturday,"
+ventured Merle, who had carefully avoided the Williamses at school on
+French days.</p>
+
+<p>"I vote we go a walk by ourselves," decided Mavis.</p>
+
+<p>So they set off, and instinctively their steps turned in the direction
+of their dismantled bower. They did not, however, choose the upper road
+to it, which would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>
+have led them over the forbidden fence, but went the
+same way as on their first visit, taking the footpath among the woods.
+Spring had come since they were there before, and had brought out the
+leaves, so that the sea was seen through a screen of greenery. The
+primroses were nearly over, but hyacinths were opening like a blue
+cloud, and great purple orchises were shooting up. In clumps at the
+edges of the cliff bloomed the pink thrift and white sea-campion, and
+patches of the yellow lady's-fingers. Merle thought she heard the
+cuckoo, though Mavis was certain it was only a little boy who was
+anticipating the well-known call. They lingered and loitered for a long
+time in the wood, picking flowers and hunting about for birds' nests,
+and wishing Bevis were there to find them for them. At last they left
+the trees behind, and coming out on to the headland reached the grassy
+plateau that jutted out from the sloping cliff.</p>
+
+<p>The cave looked very dark and particularly "spooky" to-day. Merle
+peeped timorously inside, and turned away shuddering. Mavis, more deeply
+interested, ventured farther. She had neither matches nor candle, and
+could only trust to the faint twilight that reigned within. It seemed to
+her as if in a dark corner a heap of something was lying. She did not
+think it had been there on their former visit. Wild thoughts of
+smugglers and contraband goods flashed into her mind. Were there
+smugglers nowadays? Was it a bale of silk or a case of champagne that
+was being stored there for safety? With rather a fluttering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>
+feeling she crept nearer. It was no case of wine or bale of silk; in the darkness it
+looked more like a tumbled bundle of clothing. What could it be? She was
+frightened, and almost turned to go; but some attraction greater far
+than curiosity seemed to draw her on. She was quite close to it now. Her
+eyes had grown accustomed to the dim light, and she could just
+distinguish the sleeping figure of a boy, covered with a mackintosh
+coat.</p>
+
+<p>"Bevis!" she whispered. "Oh, Bevis!"</p>
+
+<p>He roused at her voice, and sprang to his feet with a cry, turning to
+her such a white, haunted face that she scarcely knew him. Merle ran
+forward from the entrance, and seeing both the girls he came slowly
+towards them.</p>
+
+<p>"It's you, is it?" he said. "Have you brought the police with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Police! Why no, Bevis, of course not!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why should we?"</p>
+
+<p>He put his hand wearily to his head. His face was very pale, and his
+eyes were bright and big with dark rings round them.</p>
+
+<p>"No, you wouldn't bring them, I know, but they'll come all the same! I'm
+wanted. Wanted by the police. They're after me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Bevis, don't talk like this! No police want you. Why don't you go
+home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Go home! Go to Chagmouth! His ghost would stop me! Tell me, where have
+they buried him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Buried whom?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>
+"Why, Tudor Williams of course&mdash;the poor boy that I murdered."</p>
+
+<p>"But Tudor's all right. He wasn't really much hurt. He walked home."</p>
+
+<p>Bevis stared searchingly at Mavis, then shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I <em>know</em> he's dead. It's no use telling me he isn't. I murdered him.
+Haven't I heard the bell tolling for his funeral? It never stops. I tell
+you it never stops. I hear it night and day, and I feel like Cain!"</p>
+
+<p>The girls glanced at one another. Bevis was plainly very ill. He looked
+ghastly, and his knees trembled so greatly that he had to lean against
+the wall of the cave.</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you been all this week?" Mavis asked him.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. Here mostly, I think. I thought I'd walk to Port Sennen
+and try to get on board a ship, but somehow I feel weak. Perhaps I could
+get off to-night if I tried."</p>
+
+<p>"Come home, Bevis," persuaded Merle.</p>
+
+<p>But he sank down again on to the bed of leaves which he had made, and
+drew the mackintosh coat over him.</p>
+
+<p>"It's so cold," he shivered. "First I'm burning hot and then I'm cold.
+It's the curse of Cain!"</p>
+
+<p>Mavis took Merle's arm, and drew her outside the cave.</p>
+
+<p>"He's in a high fever, and simply raving," she whispered. "He's not fit
+to walk home even if we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
+could get him to try. You go back to the farm
+and tell Mrs. Penruddock, and I'll stay here. We mustn't both leave him
+or he might wander off somewhere on to the cliffs. Be as quick as you
+can."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall run all the way," declared Merle. "Oh, the <em>poor</em> boy. Think of
+staying here by himself the whole week."</p>
+
+<p>Mavis went back into the cave, and kneeling down by Bevis tried to
+soothe him. She had been ill so often herself that she could sympathize
+as he shuddered and shivered. His hands were burning hot, and his great
+dark eyes shone like fires in his white face. She told him over and over
+again that Tudor was safe; but he scarcely seemed to understand, and
+kept moaning that he had murdered him.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not fit for any one to speak to. It's the curse of Cain," he
+repeated.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Merle, who was swift of foot and had won many long-distance
+races at school sports, flew back to Chagmouth with record speed, and
+carried her news to Grimbal's Farm. Mrs. Penruddock was in the kitchen.
+She ran at once and called her husband from where he was working in the
+orchard.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll put the horse in the trap," he said briefly. "We'll go by the
+upper road, and then slip across the fields to the cave. Best take his
+overcoat and a rug."</p>
+
+<p>Merle went with them, not that she could be of any special use, but
+because she simply could not stop behind, and after all she was able to
+render a service, for she held the horse while Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>
+hurried down the fields to the cave. They came back after a short time
+half-carrying Bevis along, with Mavis, looking extremely grave, walking
+beside them. They lifted him into the trap, and drove him home, meeting
+Dr. Tremayne on the very doorstep.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor shook his head when he heard of the nights in the damp cave.</p>
+
+<p>"Get him to bed, and we'll do our best," was his verdict. "He has youth
+and strength on his side at any rate. Please God we'll pull him round
+again. I've seen people worse than he is, Mrs. Penruddock, so keep your
+heart up. While there's life there's hope, remember. That's a proverb I
+always tell my patients, and one of the best that was ever invented."</p>
+
+<p>"I know, Doctor," gulped poor Mrs. Penruddock. "I know if anybody can
+pull him through, you will. But it's hard to see him looking like this
+all the same&mdash;Bevis, who's hardly had a day's illness in his life
+before."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
+<a name="xx" id="xx"></a>CHAPTER XX<br />
+
+<span class="sub">A Confession</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>All the next week Bevis lay desperately ill, and in the gravest danger.
+Every morning Dr. Tremayne motored over to Grimbal's Farm to see him,
+and arrived back with the same unsatisfactory report. Mavis and Merle,
+who waited anxiously for the daily bulletin, would run in from school at
+lunch-time hoping for better news. When Saturday came round again they
+begged to be allowed to go to Chagmouth as usual.</p>
+
+<p>"We wouldn't be a scrap of bother to Mrs. Penruddock," said Mavis. "If
+Jessop may give us some lunch we could eat it on the cliffs or in the
+woods."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a great idea," declared Uncle David. "I'll do the same to-day.
+Jessop shall make us up a lunch basket, and we'll all have a picnic meal
+together somewhere before I go up to the Sanatorium. It will certainly
+save them trouble at the farm. Mrs. Penruddock won't want to do any
+cooking for us, I'm sure, when she's so busy nursing."</p>
+
+<p>As they motored along towards Chagmouth, the girls felt strongly, what
+had sometimes struck them before, that it was good to belong to a
+Doctor's family, and to be taking skilled help where it was so greatly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>
+needed. They had the utmost confidence in Uncle David, and knew that he
+would give every service that human aid could render or his long
+experience could suggest. He came down that morning from his patient's
+room with no better report:</p>
+
+<p>"He's still very ill. I can't get his temperature down. But I'm trying
+different treatment, and we must see what that will do. I'm glad I shall
+be about the place to-day. They know where to find me if they want me."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Tremayne went into his surgery to attend to the string of other
+patients who were waiting for him, and Mavis and Merle sat in the little
+front garden, on the green bench under the fuchsia tree outside the
+French window. They had not the heart to go for a walk. Mrs. Penruddock,
+kind as usual, but overwhelmed with trouble, had greeted them, and taken
+them upstairs for one brief peep at the invalid. They had not gone
+inside the room, but from the doorway they had seen Bevis lying in bed
+with ice on his head, so thin and changed and hollow-eyed, that he
+scarcely looked like their old friend. As they sat in the garden,
+talking in undertones, the gate clicked, and Tudor Williams came up the
+path to the door&mdash;such a subdued Tudor, without any of his former
+jauntiness and gay flippancy of manner. When he saw the girls he crossed
+the grass and shook hands with them.</p>
+
+<p>"I've come to ask about the poor chap," he said quietly. "Mother sent
+down a message to Dr. Tremayne to say that if there's anything we can do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>
+we'll be very glad. We'd send Jones for ice or anything of that sort,
+you know. He'd take out the car directly and get what was wanted."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks very much, we'll tell Uncle David. Oh, there's Mrs. Penruddock!
+Perhaps you'd better speak to her and give her the message. There might
+be something wanted at once."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Penruddock had come into the parlour, and now walked to the French
+window to meet Tudor, who inquired about Bevis, and explained his
+errand. She mopped her eyes as she thanked him.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure people have all been so kind," she gulped. "Everything that
+can be done has been done. But there he lies rolling his head on his
+pillow, and talking for ever about the 'curse of Cain'. He can't get it
+out of his mind but what he's murdered you. It seems no use telling him.
+He just listens, and goes on again how he knows you're lying dead on the
+cliff. I wonder if he saw you if it would put that right? Could I ask
+you to step up to his bedroom for a minute, and let him have a look at
+you, and see for himself that you're alive?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, may I?" said Tudor, passing through the French window into the
+parlour, and following Mrs. Penruddock upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>He came down again after perhaps five minutes, and, big manly boy though
+he was, his eyes were red, and his voice was choking.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd no idea the poor chap was in such a state," he burst out to Mavis
+and Merle. "It's awful to see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>
+him with his hollow eyes and his white
+hands. He asked me to forgive him! Forgive him! It's I who ought to ask
+for forgiveness. It was all my fault! Mine entirely! I was an utter
+vulgar brute and beast! I never thought&mdash;" But seeing somebody coming to
+the gate, and boy-like not wanting to give an exhibition of his
+feelings, Tudor bolted back into the parlour, and going out by the side
+door into the stackyard, crossed the orchard, and went home over the
+fields to The Warren.</p>
+
+<p>Mavis and Merle were rather glad that they were not having lunch to-day
+at the farm. Mrs. Penruddock was busy and upset, and though many
+neighbours had come in to help her, nobody seemed to know exactly what
+to do, and they sat in the kitchen talking and shaking their heads.</p>
+
+<p>"Just like a set of old crows. As if that could do Bevis any good!"
+exclaimed Mavis rather impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"They're telling each other all sorts of tales about early deaths and
+funerals. Nice cheerful kind of conversation for a sick-house," agreed
+Merle.</p>
+
+<p>Of course as they were in a hurry to get away, Dr. Tremayne had more
+patients than usual, and was detained a long time in the surgery. They
+waited for him in the garden, where the lilac bush under Bevis's window
+was already breaking into blossom, and swallows were darting past.
+To-morrow would be Palm Sunday, and next week was Easter week, and
+Father and Mother would be coming down to Durracombe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>
+for a brief holiday. It was three months since they had seen them, and to-day, in
+the midst of all the sadness around them, the girls felt rather
+home-sick, and were longing for a peep at their "ain folk".</p>
+
+<p>"Are they going to take us back with them to Whinburn?" speculated
+Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know! I've asked Mother in almost every letter, and she's not
+answered my question."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm torn in two!"</p>
+
+<p>"So am I. I want Dad and Mother, and yet I don't want to leave dear
+Devonshire."</p>
+
+<p>"Or Uncle David?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I've got real right-down fond of Uncle David. He's a darling!
+There's nobody else in the world exactly like him."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Tremayne worked through his list of waiting patients at last, and
+went round to the stackyard to fetch his car. Mavis and Merle jumped
+joyfully in, and they drove away up the hill. They went in the opposite
+direction to the Sanatorium because the Doctor had a visit to pay at a
+farm, and he wished to combine with it a call on Mrs. Jarvis, whose
+cottage would be close by his destination. The manager of Trotman's
+Circus had sent some few possessions which had belonged to her son
+Jerry, and they had brought the parcel with them in the car.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll have our lunch first," decreed Uncle David, "then we'll go and
+see the poor old body afterwards. I want something to eat before I
+interview any more patients."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>
+They chose a quiet spot at the edge of a wood, and drawing up the car on
+a patch of grass by the roadside, they took their basket among the trees
+and spread forth their picnic. Jessop had provided handsomely for them,
+and they immensely enjoyed the meal in the open air.</p>
+
+<p>"If I'd only time, I'd go skirmishing all over Devonshire. It's my ideal
+of a holiday, to motor just where you like, and not have to think of
+your surgery," admitted Dr. Tremayne, throwing pine cones at the girls,
+and behaving quite boyishly in spite of his sixty-five years.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't Daddy take surgery for you while he's over and give you a rest?"
+suggested Merle. "I'm sure he'd help if he could."</p>
+
+<p>"It's rather a brain wave. Perhaps he might," said Dr. Tremayne
+thoughtfully. "I'm growing a little tired of being perpetually in
+harness. When a man gets to my age he begins to crave for some leisure.
+I've been trying for the last three years to write a book on 'The
+Treatment of Tuberculosis', but I can't find the time to do it. Directly
+I begin somebody rings up and wants me to go and see them."</p>
+
+<p>"I should smash the horrid old telephone and then they couldn't ring you
+up," laughed Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right, little Pussie, but they'd send a messenger to fetch
+me instead, so it would come to just the same thing in the end."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do doctors always go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because people can't do without us, I suppose.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>
+Of course we don't make
+unnecessary journeys, but when a case is serious we turn out whatever
+the weather or however late it is."</p>
+
+<p>"I know; that's what Daddy always says," put in Mavis. "He comes in
+tired to death, and goes out again in a snowstorm because the case is
+serious. I think doctors are just the best and kindest men in all the
+world."</p>
+
+<p>They were quite sorry to leave the wood and go back to the car, but time
+was creeping on fast. Dr. Tremayne paid his visit at Clavedon Farm, then
+drove on to Mrs. Jarvis's cottage, which was close by. The girls took
+the parcel between them, and they all three walked together up the
+little garden to the open door. They found Mrs. Jarvis sitting in her
+kitchen with a neighbour to keep her company. Since the death of her son
+the postwoman had failed greatly, and for the last week she had not
+undertaken her duties in connection with the pillar-box. To-day she
+seemed hysterical and excited. She sprang up at the sight of Dr.
+Tremayne, and began a loud complaint of pains in her head, mixed up with
+lamentations on the death of General Talland.</p>
+
+<p>"She's been like this all the week, Doctor," explained the neighbour.
+"She's not fit to be left alone. Ever since she heard the news about
+General Talland, she's been going on with this wild talk. We take no
+notice of her. He's nothing to her. It's just one of those queer fancies
+she gets sometimes. She'll perhaps calm down again."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a name="she" id="she"></a>
+<img src="images/gs06.jpg" width="400" height="627"
+alt="SHE REACHED DOWN INTO SOME DARK RECEPTACLE AND DREW UP A
+BROWN-PAPER PARCEL" title="Page 275" />
+<p class="caption">SHE REACHED DOWN INTO SOME DARK RECEPTACLE AND DREW UP A
+BROWN-PAPER PARCEL</p>
+<p class="right"><a href="#she2"><i>Page 275</i></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>
+"Can you bear to look at some of Jerry's things, Mrs. Jarvis?" asked the
+Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>At the mention of her son the poor woman's excitable mood changed;
+instead of shouting she spoke more quietly, and her eyes filled with
+tears as she turned over the trifles that had been sent to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Jerry! My boy Jerry!" she murmured. "I always said he'd come back. He
+oughtn't to have gone and left me&mdash;ought he? And he took&mdash;I never told
+anyone what he took! He was a bad son to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind that now he's dead and gone," put in the neighbour.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, he's dead and gone, and so is General Talland, so is General
+Talland."</p>
+
+<p>"She's off again on that point," groaned the neighbour.</p>
+
+<p>But Mrs. Jarvis was looking at Dr. Tremayne with a curious craftiness in
+her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"General Talland's gone," she repeated. "And I hear they've to go a long
+way to find an heir to the property. What if there was an heir close at
+hand&mdash;here in Chagmouth?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" asked the Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, what do I mean? I'm not so demented as some folks think me.
+There's something that I could tell if I liked. I wouldn't have said a
+word if <em>he'd</em> a-lived, but he's dead and gone, so it makes no
+difference to him now if I speak. Sit you down, Doctor, and the young
+ladies too! I may as well tell it to plenty of witnesses while I'm about
+it. Do you remember,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>
+Doctor, when I was village nurse over fourteen year
+ago? I was called in all of a sudden one day to attend Mrs. Hunter, the
+lady who'd been taken ill at the King's Arms."</p>
+
+<p>"I remember," nodded Dr. Tremayne.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I swore at the inquest that she died without saying a word, but I
+swore false. I was left alone with her for just one minute in the
+parlour while Mrs. Tingcomb fetched more brandy, and Mr. Tingcomb sent
+Bob hurrying on his bicycle to Durracombe with a message for you. In
+that minute she got her breath. She knew that she was going fast, and
+she gasped out that she'd come to Chagmouth to find General Talland,
+that she'd been married secret to his son, and that the child was the
+heir. 'I've all the papers', says she, but then the faintness took her
+again, and though Mrs. Tingcomb ran in and gave her brandy she never
+come round."</p>
+
+<p>"But I thought at the inquest it was distinctly said there were no
+papers. I remember that point of the evidence particularly," said the
+Doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"There were none in her handbag or in her portmanteau. She had them all
+in a hanging pocket slung round her waist under her dress skirt. I found
+them when I was laying her out. I put them by, and said nothing about it
+just then. I meant to give folks a big surprise at the inquest. I took
+them home and looked them over. There was forty pounds in notes amongst
+them. My poor boy Jerry was lying in bed asleep, as I thought, but he
+must have been watching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>
+me, for he up and away as soon as it was light,
+and took the notes and my bits of savings too out of the old tea-pot.
+Why didn't I tell at the inquest? They'd have issued a warrant against
+Jerry! I wasn't going to put my own boy in prison! No one knew about the
+pocket, and the safest thing was to keep my mouth shut. I wouldn't have
+told now if my poor boy had been alive. Oh! he broke his mother's
+heart!"</p>
+
+<p>"This is a most extraordinary story," said Dr. Tremayne. "If it's true
+have you anything to prove your words? Where are these papers you speak
+of?"</p>
+
+<p>"Those that hide can find! May I trouble you to shift your chair,
+Doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Jarvis moved away several pieces of furniture, and lifted first the
+hearthrug, and then part of the oilcloth that covered the floor. There
+was a loose board underneath; she raised it, <a name="she2" id="she2"></a>reached down into some dark
+receptacle, and drew up a brown-paper parcel. She unwrapped this and
+revealed a small case made of linen, with tapes attached to it. Inside
+were a number of papers which she handed to Dr. Tremayne.</p>
+
+<p>"They're all as she said, Doctor. There's her wedding certificate and
+the birth certificate, and letters from her husband too. You'll find
+them all right. She'd everything in order, poor thing. They'd have made
+a stir at the inquest, wouldn't they, if I could only 'a told about
+them?"</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Tremayne was looking rapidly through the contents of the old linen
+case.</p>
+
+<p>"These are indeed most valuable papers," he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>
+remarked. "I shall take
+them to the lawyers who manage the Talland estate, and they'll no doubt
+prepare a statement which you will be required to sign to show how they
+came into your possession. Oh, Mrs. Jarvis! how <em>could</em> you keep them
+back for all these years, when you knew how much was involved?"</p>
+
+<p>"Better late than never, Doctor. I was in two minds whether to burn them
+and have done with it. Oh, my poor boy Jerry! It's ill raking up matters
+against them that's gone. If he'd been alive, I'd have kept my mouth
+shut, and never have said a word."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Jarvis was rocking herself to and fro in a state of great
+excitement. She was sane enough where a recollection of the events at
+the King's Arms was concerned, but her clouded brain revolved round the
+pivot of her son's death. She moaned, and twitched her mouth with
+nervous jerks.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll make her up a bottle of bromide mixture when I get back to the
+surgery," said Dr. Tremayne to the neighbour. "Can you send one of your
+boys down for it about six o'clock? She oughtn't to be left alone."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Doctor. I'll do what I can. She's in a bad way, poor soul. There's
+a lot of trouble in the world, isn't there?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is indeed! Now I must hurry off, for I'm due at the Sanatorium,
+and I'm very late. Give her the mixture, and I'll call and see her again
+next week."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Tremayne put the linen case inside his safest inner pocket, and
+took his departure. As they drove down the hill towards the ravine all
+the little town and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>
+its neighbouring cliffs and woods lay stretched out
+before them.</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle David," asked Mavis, "if those papers are proved does it mean
+that The Warren and the whole of Chagmouth will belong to Bevis? Is he
+the grandson of General Talland?"</p>
+
+<p>"There seems very little doubt about it. It was evidence that ought to
+have been given at the inquest fourteen years ago. Poor lad! Poor lad!
+If we'd only known sooner."</p>
+
+<p>"But why did his mother call herself Mrs. Hunter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Probably she wouldn't care to give her true name at the hotel until she
+had been to see General Talland. The marriage had been kept secret, and
+nobody in Chagmouth knew about it. No doubt she had intended to go to
+The Warren and show her child to its grandfather. But General Talland
+had started for the West Indies. It was perhaps the news of his absence,
+and the consequent failure of her errand, that brought on the heart
+attack that caused her sudden collapse."</p>
+
+<p>"So Chagmouth belongs to Bevis," repeated Merle wonderingly. "The house,
+and the grounds, and the woods, and the shooting, and the farms, and the
+town are Bevis's. It's like a fairy tale!"</p>
+
+<p>But the heir to all the Talland Estate lay between life and death.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>
+<a name="xxi" id="xxi"></a>CHAPTER XXI<br />
+
+<span class="sub">The Floral Festival</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Bevis pulled round after all. As Dr. Tremayne had said, he had youth
+and a strong constitution on his side. The new method of treatment
+seemed a miracle, and perhaps also the interview with Tudor, by settling
+the disturbance in his mind, allowed the medicines to have a fair
+chance. Nature reasserted herself, drove out baneful microbes, and set
+that wonderful instrument of hers, the human body, once more in working
+order. As soon as the fever left him Bevis picked up very fast. There
+was so much to get well for. The papers, hidden away so long in Mrs.
+Jarvis's cottage, established without a doubt his claim to the Talland
+property, and when the necessary formalities could be gone through he
+would become its legal owner. Naturally the affair was the talk of
+Chagmouth, and Bevis would have been overwhelmed with visitors and
+congratulations had not Mrs. Penruddock acted dragon, and kept away all
+callers except those who had a special permit from the Doctor. Under her
+excellent nursing he gained strength rapidly, and by the time St.
+Gervan's Day came round he looked almost his old self again. The floral
+festival held every year in honour of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>
+patron saint of Chagmouth was
+an extremely ancient custom dating back probably to dim ages before the
+dawn of history. The antiquarians of the neighbourhood said it was
+either a survival from the Romans, or more likely still a relic of
+Druidism and sun worship. Christianity, finding pagan rites had always
+heralded the beginning of the summer, had adopted the feast and
+dedicated it to St. Gervan, an obscure Cornish missionary whose very
+legend was forgotten. Nothing is so persistent, however, as the survival
+of an old village f&ecirc;te, and for hundreds of years Chagmouth people, when
+the anniversary occurred, had decked their boats with flowers, and rowed
+across the harbour, and round the point to the little old church on the
+rock. Ages ago Druids had no doubt invoked the heavens to send
+favourable harvests, in medi&aelig;val times the parish priest had probably
+blessed the fishing boats according to the custom which still obtains at
+a few places in Brittany, but these points in the old ceremony were now
+lost, and it had simply become a village holiday. It is likely enough
+that in these modern times, when few are given to sentiment, the whole
+thing would have fallen into disuse, had not the Vicar had the happy
+idea of combining with it a memorial service for those who had "passed
+on" in the Great War. Chagmouth people might smile at saints' days, and
+ask who St. Gervan had been, but they remembered their own boys, and
+would take wreaths to lay round the Celtic cross that had been erected
+in the little churchyard.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>
+Mavis and Merle were very anxious to see the floral festival, and
+though the Easter vacation was over, and school had begun again at The
+Moorings, they were allowed a special holiday for the purpose. That was
+Mother's doing. She had come to Durracombe with Father for Easter, and
+had stayed on for some weeks because Aunt Nellie was not very well, and
+needed extra care. On St. Gervan's day she hired a car from the hotel,
+and drove over to Chagmouth with the girls in order that they might all
+see the interesting ceremony. It was years since Mrs. Ramsay had been in
+the little town, and she was delighted to renew her acquaintance with
+it. To-day it was entirely <i lang="fr">en f&ecirc;te</i>. Everybody was down by the quay
+side, where rowing boats of every description were ready in the harbour.
+The veriest old cockleshells had been patched up for the occasion, and
+there were also some motor-launches, and a small pleasure steamer which
+had made the trip from Port Sennen. All local boats were beautifully
+decorated with flags and with boughs of lilac or branches of pink
+hawthorn, and garlands of all kinds of gay cottage blossoms, May tulips,
+wallflowers, pansies, forget-me-nots, double daisies, pinks, or
+campanulas. There was great competition in the decorations. The school
+children had special boats to themselves, and proudly held up banners
+and little staves upon which were tied round bunches of flowers and
+flying ribbons. The Provident Societies also had their boats and their
+banners, and their members wore nosegays in their button-holes.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>
+The Ramsays had been offered places in Mr. Penruddock's boat, and they
+walked along the quay side to where she was moored. It was really a
+beautiful and very quaint scene, the harbour with its green, lapping
+water looking for once like a field of flowers, and the flocks of
+seagulls wheeling overhead and screaming at the unwonted sight. <i>The
+Dinah</i>, an old tub that belonged to Grimbal's Farm, had been made
+unwontedly smart for the occasion with a coat of fresh paint. Boughs of
+white lilac, wreaths of early roses, forget-me-nots, globe flowers, and
+starry clematis had fashioned it into quite a bower, the Union Jack
+fluttered in the stern, and rugs were spread over the seats.</p>
+
+<p>The bell in the little church of St. Gervan's was clanging loudly, and
+people were beginning to get into their various craft, and push away
+across the harbour. Merle was carrying her camera, and was busy taking
+snap-shots of the interesting scene. Mavis, who had leanings towards
+art, had brought her sketch-book and jotted down impressions in
+black-lead pencil. For the sake of everybody it was a mercy that the
+weather, which had been behaving badly of late, held up and gave bursts
+of brilliant sunshine. It was only a short row from the quay to the old
+church. The congregation disembarked at a jetty, moored their boats, and
+climbed the eighty-seven stone steps that led steeply upward. To-day the
+usually neglected place had been made to look wonderfully spick and
+span. The grass had been mown between the graves and round<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>
+the soldiers' monument, where people were already piling up wreaths, floral crosses,
+and bunches of blossoms. The tower still lacked its coping, and the
+doorway had sunk yet more, but the windows had been cleaned, and all
+cobwebs were swept away. Inside the church was decked with beautiful
+flowers, arum lilies, and roses, and pale-pink peonies and bush lupins,
+and many lovely half-exotic plants from the gardens of The Warren and
+the Vicarage. People were taking their places on the old oak benches.
+The Ramsays went into a seat half-way down the nave, exactly behind the
+Glyn Williamses, who had arrived in a body, governess and all. Bevis was
+about to follow when the Vicar came up to him, and after a short
+whispered conversation motioned him into the Talland family pew. It was
+Bevis's first visit to church since his illness, and to the whole
+congregation the Vicar's act seemed a public acknowledgment of the boy's
+new position in Chagmouth. He flushed scarlet, hesitated a moment, then
+stepped forward and took his place with a quiet dignity which became
+both himself and the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>The short service was very simple, partly a thanksgiving, and partly a
+memorial to those who had given their lives for their country.</p>
+
+<p>Through the open door came the sound of the lap of waves and the
+screaming of gulls.</p>
+
+<p>"They that go down to the sea in ships," ran the Vicar's text, "that do
+business in great waters: these see the works of the Lord and His
+wonders in the deep."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>
+To Mavis the sunlight and the scent of the flowers and the prayers all
+seemed blended together into one beautiful picturesque whole, that
+joined ancient and modern and the living and the dead, and united those
+who worshipped with their rough forefathers who had carved those quaint
+bench ends, or those figures of the saints with the colourings of red,
+and blue, and gold.</p>
+
+<p>As Bevis left the cool, flower-decked church, and stepped through the
+doorway into the sunshine, the very first person to greet him was Tudor
+Williams. The two boys gripped hands heartily, and without a trace of
+any former resentment.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe they'll be friends now," said Mavis, as she talked the matter
+over with Merle afterwards. "I was afraid the Glyn Williamses would be
+bitterly disappointed at the prospect of having to give up The Warren
+some day to Bevis, but Tudor never cared much for Chagmouth, and what do
+you think Gwen told me just as we were starting back in our boat? Why,
+that her father had the offer of Godoran Hall, and all the property and
+shooting, and he means to buy it, and go and live there. It will be more
+convenient for them close to Port Sennen, and it's a lovely place."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, hooray! Perhaps they'll ask us to go and see them there sometimes.
+I hated them at one time, but I'd be sorry now if I never saw them
+again. Funny how one turns round, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never believe much in your violent hatreds,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>
+laughed Mavis. "You generally like people in the end."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I liked Bevis in the beginning."</p>
+
+<p>"So did I. I've always felt what Jessop said about him was true, he's a
+'gentleman-born'! I don't mean that he's better than other people just
+because he's a Talland and owns the estate, but always, when he was
+quite poor and people jeered at him and called him a nobody, he behaved
+like a true gentleman. He stuck to Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock and helped
+them, though he hated the work on the farm, and he never spoke roughly
+and rudely like some of the boys about Chagmouth. He loves books and
+natural history and all those nice kinds of things, and he wanted to go
+on studying, and yet he didn't shirk a scrap at ploughing, and cutting
+hedges, and feeding the poultry. I'm sure if any one in this world
+deserves his good luck it's Bevis."</p>
+
+<p>The girls had been uncertain whether they were to go home with Father
+and Mother to Whinburn after Easter or stay in Devon, but Dr. Ramsay had
+declared that the improvement in Mavis's health was so marvellous that
+the experiment was worth continuing.</p>
+
+<p>"You look a different child," he said. "We'll leave you at Durracombe
+for another term at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>"And what about the next term after that?" asked Mavis. "It will be
+autumn then, and very cold at Whinburn."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a problem that needs carefully thinking out," answered Dr.
+Ramsay diplomatically.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>
+He would say nothing further at the time, but later on, before she
+returned north, Mrs. Ramsay had a secret to tell to Mavis and Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"How would you like to live always at Durracombe?" she asked them.</p>
+
+<p>"Always? Oh, Mummie! I'd adore it, if only it weren't for you and
+Daddy."</p>
+
+<p>"We've missed you loads, Muvvie darling!"</p>
+
+<p>"But suppose we were here, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here! All the time?"</p>
+
+<p>Then Mother, very proudly, revealed her great piece of news.</p>
+
+<p>"Father is going to help with the practice. Uncle David has too much
+work, and wants somebody to take part of it off his hands. He and Father
+will go into partnership as soon as we can sell the practice at
+Whinburn. We shall all live here at Bridge House. It's a splendid
+arrangement, because then I can take care of Aunt Nellie. She's such an
+invalid now that she needs constant nursing. Jessop wants to leave and
+keep house for a brother, who is a widower, and Aunt Nellie would be
+lost without Jessop, unless she had me to look after her instead. Don't
+you think it's a lovely plan?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lovely! It's absolutely splendiferous!"</p>
+
+<p>"And if Daddy brings the Ford car down here I can drive it for him,"
+sparkled Merle.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll see about that; you wouldn't have had that wild motoring
+expedition if I had been on the spot, you young madcap!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>
+"But I fetched Mrs. Jarvis, and if I hadn't she might never have known
+it was her own son at the hospital, and then she wouldn't have told
+about the papers, and Bevis would never have got the Talland property.
+It's like the story of the old woman and her pig: the fire began to burn
+the stick, and the stick began to beat the dog, and the dog began to
+bite the pig, and the pig jumped over the stile, and she got home at
+last. We did Bevis a good turn when we tore over to Chagmouth that
+evening, didn't we, Mavis?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rather! Though we didn't guess it at the time."</p>
+
+<p>"So 'Whinburn High' will know us no more. Well, we've settled down quite
+comfortably at The Moorings. It's rather a decent school now Opal has
+gone."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope it will improve very much," said Mrs. Ramsay. "Miss Pollard
+tells me that in September she's going to have a first-class English
+teacher, a B.A. with plenty of experience, who will run the school on
+new lines. Funnily enough, it happens to be Eve Mitchell, who was
+educated at St. Cyprian's College, Cousin Sheila's old school. I've
+often heard her talk about Eve. <em>She</em>'ll soon reorganize The Moorings.
+They have such a splendid record at St. Cyprian's for games and musical
+societies, and literary clubs, and nature-study unions, and all the rest
+of it. It was a school in a thousand, according to Sheila. Miss Pollard
+has the promise of ever so many fresh boarders, elder girls, not little
+ones. The climate of Durracombe is getting quite a reputation, I hear,
+and specially suits<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span>
+anyone who has been born in India. If the numbers
+increase so much, particularly in the upper forms, it will give the
+school a far better opportunity in every way, especially in games."</p>
+
+<p>"Hooray," exulted Merle joyfully. "That's the one thing where The
+Moorings has been really slack. We could do nothing with only that crowd
+of kids. But with girls of our own age, and a mistress from St.
+Cyprian's, we ought to forge ahead now, and have topping times. I'm
+looking forward to the September term."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet I loved the last one," said Mavis. "I feel nothing will ever
+quite come up to my first peep at Devonshire, and those Saturdays at
+Chagmouth. It was like seeing a new world. It's been a first impression,
+a fresh experience, a gorgeous spring, an idyllic few months&mdash;what else
+can I call it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Call it a very fortunate term," finished Merle.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center">
+PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN<br />
+<i>By Blackie &amp; Son, Limited, Glasgow</i></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="hr3" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div id="box2">
+<p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p>
+
+<p class="noi">Punctuation has been made consistent.</p>
+
+<p class="noi">The use of "The Glyn Williams" and "The Glyn Williamses", and
+spelling and hyphenation have been retained as they appear in
+the original publication except as follows:</p>
+
+<p class="noi">Page 168<br />
+to take you a walk <em>changed to</em><br />
+to take you <a href="#for">for</a> a walk</p>
+
+<p class="noi">Page 199<br />
+had brought a thermos flash <em>changed to</em>
+had brought a thermos <a href="#flash">flask</a></p>
+
+<p class="noi">Page numbers in the list of illustrations have been retained as they
+appear in the original publication although they don't match the page numbers
+in the body of the book.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FORTUNATE TERM***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 36080-h.txt or 36080-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/6/0/8/36080">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/0/8/36080</a></p>
+<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.</p>
+
+<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.</p>
+
+
+
+<pre>
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a>
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a>
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a>
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+</pre>
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/36080-h/images/cover.jpg b/36080-h/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce14ea3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36080-h/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/36080-h/images/gs01.jpg b/36080-h/images/gs01.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dd25f0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36080-h/images/gs01.jpg
diff --git a/36080-h/images/gs02.jpg b/36080-h/images/gs02.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e5c6a17
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36080-h/images/gs02.jpg
diff --git a/36080-h/images/gs03.jpg b/36080-h/images/gs03.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d55d408
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36080-h/images/gs03.jpg
diff --git a/36080-h/images/gs04.jpg b/36080-h/images/gs04.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6e1c38b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36080-h/images/gs04.jpg
diff --git a/36080-h/images/gs05.jpg b/36080-h/images/gs05.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..56bd755
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36080-h/images/gs05.jpg
diff --git a/36080-h/images/gs06.jpg b/36080-h/images/gs06.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..447748a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36080-h/images/gs06.jpg
diff --git a/36080-h/images/spine.jpg b/36080-h/images/spine.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..88df5dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36080-h/images/spine.jpg
diff --git a/36080.txt b/36080.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a3fedf8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36080.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8160 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Fortunate Term, by Angela Brazil,
+Illustrated by Treyer Evans
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: A Fortunate Term
+
+
+Author: Angela Brazil
+
+
+
+Release Date: May 10, 2011  [eBook #36080]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FORTUNATE TERM***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 36080-h.htm or 36080-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/36080/36080-h/36080-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/36080/36080-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+A FORTUNATE TERM
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+By ANGELA BRAZIL
+
+"Angela Brazil has proved her undoubted talent for writing a story of
+schoolgirls for other schoolgirls to read."--Bookman.
+
+    Loyal to the School.
+    A Fortunate Term.
+    A Popular Schoolgirl.
+    The Princess of the School.
+    A Harum-Scarum Schoolgirl.
+    The Head Girl at the Gables.
+    A Patriotic Schoolgirl.
+    For the School Colours.
+    The Madcap of the School.
+    The Luckiest Girl in the School.
+    The Jolliest Term on Record.
+    The Girls of St. Cyprian's.
+    The Youngest Girl in the Fifth.
+    The New Girl at St. Chad's.
+    For the Sake of the School.
+    The School by the Sea.
+    The Leader of the Lower School.
+    A Pair of Schoolgirls.
+    A Fourth Form Friendship.
+    The Manor House School.
+    The Nicest Girl in the School.
+    The Third Class at Miss Kaye's.
+    The Fortunes of Philippa.
+
+LONDON: BLACKIE & SON, LTD., 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+[Illustration: SHE FOUND TOM IN THE GREENHOUSE _Page 44_]
+
+
+A FORTUNATE TERM
+
+by
+
+ANGELA BRAZIL
+
+Illustrated by Treyer Evans
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Blackie and Son Limited
+London Glasgow And Bombay
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+     CHAP.                            Page
+
+        I. MAVIS AND MERLE               9
+
+       II. "THE MOORINGS"               22
+
+      III. THE SCHOOL FAVOURITE         34
+
+       IV. RED DEVON BY THE SEA         48
+
+        V. FAIR MAIDS OF FEBRUARY       61
+
+       VI. A CHILD OF MISFORTUNE        75
+
+      VII. THE INNOVATORS               86
+
+     VIII. THE WARREN                  103
+
+       IX. A QUESTION OF HONOUR        117
+
+        X. AMONG THE BOARDERS          127
+
+       XI. ROUND THE FIRE              141
+
+      XII. PIXIE-LED                   152
+
+     XIII. BLACKTHORN BOWER            167
+
+      XIV. NICKY NAN NIGHT             181
+
+       XV. THE SQUATTERS               193
+
+      XVI. TROTMAN'S CIRCUS            209
+
+     XVII. THE SICK CLOWN              223
+
+    XVIII. GREEK MEETS GREEK           240
+
+      XIX. AT HALF-MAST                255
+
+       XX. A CONFESSION                266
+
+      XXI. THE FLORAL FESTIVAL         278
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+
+                                                 Facing
+                                                   Page
+
+    SHE FOUND TOM IN THE GREENHOUSE _Frontispiece_
+
+    BOTH MAVIS AND MERLE LET THEMSELVES GO           88
+
+    IT CERTAINLY WAS A MOST ALARMING SPECTACLE      136
+
+    "HERE WE ARE AT CROSS NUMBER TWO"               160
+
+    "YOU KNOW CHAGMOUTH?" HE WHISPERED              232
+
+    SHE REACHED DOWN INTO SOME DARK RECEPTACLE
+    AND DREW UP A BROWN-PAPER PARCEL                272
+
+
+
+
+A FORTUNATE TERM
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Mavis and Merle
+
+
+There had never been a week of worse weather, even for Whinburn, and
+that was saying something! Mavis, sitting up in bed with a
+dressing-jacket and two shawls round her and three comfortable pillows
+tucked at her back, could just see out of the window if she craned her
+neck a little. The prospect which greeted her was anything but
+pleasing--a wilderness of roofs covered with dirty snow, and a row of
+factory chimneys belching forth grimy smoke against a leaden sky. From
+the street came the noise of tram-cars and tramping feet; a motor-lorry,
+thundering by, shook the house like an earthquake. Mavis, in the blessed
+lull between two storms of coughing, turned her eyes resolutely from the
+forlorn view of the outside world to the cheery interior of the bedroom,
+with its glowing fire, its bookcase full of attractive volumes, and its
+walls so covered with framed prints, photos, and picture postcards that
+there hardly seemed a vacant inch of space left. Directly facing her,
+and in the place of honour, was a water-colour representing a landscape
+with a peep of the sea beyond. The trees in the painting were bare, but
+the undergrowth was green, and a patch of gorse blazed in the
+foreground, a rift of light from the sky gleamed on the waters of a
+stream, and the figure of a little girl was stooping to gather ferns.
+Mavis gazed at the picture for some time in silent contemplation, then:
+
+"Muvvie, dear," she said suddenly, "I think you must have made a mistake
+when you told me you painted that in December."
+
+Mrs. Ramsay, sitting with the mending-basket near the fire, snicked a
+piece of wool and put down the scissors.
+
+"It's perfectly true, Madam Doubtful. Your mother doesn't tell fiblets.
+I sketched that in Devonshire the year before I was married. It was a
+milder winter even than usual, and I remember the gorse was in blossom
+at Christmas, and the laurustinus coming out in the gardens. I painted
+exactly what I saw, and no more. Can't you believe me?"
+
+"Ye-e-s! But it's wonderful all the same. We don't get winters like that
+here in the north. When I look at the snow and the chimneys, and then at
+the picture, it's like peeping through another window into a different
+world. I only wish----"
+
+But a severe gust of coughing interrupted Mavis's reflections, and when
+it was over she lay back, very quiet and white and exhausted, upon her
+three pillows.
+
+Mrs. Ramsay, mixing a poultice by the fire, sighed as she stirred
+linseed meal into boiling water.
+
+"It's most unlucky you've started with one of your bad attacks of
+bronchitis before Christmas. How am I going to get you through the
+winter, child, if you've begun to take cold already? I'd like to wrap
+you in cotton-wool and pack you away in a box to sleep like a dormouse
+till the warm weather woke you up! Whinburn certainly doesn't suit you.
+It may be bracing, but people with delicate chests can be too much
+'braced' sometimes. Is the poultice too hot? Be a brave girl! Remember,
+Father said 'the hotter the better!' Bear it as long as you can. Why,
+there's the bell! Is it Merle home already? Surely she's early to-day?"
+
+Mavis, protesting against the poultice, looked up eagerly as stamping
+feet resounded on the stairs, and her sister, with coat and hat lightly
+powdered with new-fallen snow, burst into the room.
+
+"Hello, Mavis! You've got the best place, in bed! It's detestable out
+to-day. The wind's like a knife, and it's beginning to snow again. Oh,
+it was cold at school! My fingers were simply frozen. The end of Miss
+Donald's nose was quite blue, and her temper was bluer. She snapped my
+head off when I asked her a question. We played tig in the gym at
+'break', though, and got warm, but Gertie upset the coal-box and made
+such a mess, and Miss Greene scolded ever so, and said we were trampling
+coal-dust into the floor, and it would have to be washed again before
+dancing lesson. It wasn't really Gertie's fault; Joan pushed her. I met
+the postman outside, Mumsie. He gave me this parcel. It's for you.
+You're always the lucker! I wish it was mine."
+
+"We'll all share it together," said Mrs. Ramsay, taking the package to
+Mavis's bed and snipping the string with her scissors. "It has the
+Durracombe postmark, and it's Aunt Nellie's writing, and I think I
+shan't be very far wrong if I guess flowers."
+
+The contents of the box were soon spread forth on the invalid's
+counterpane. They were an amazing display, for it seemed as if the
+seasons had overlapped, and late autumn had joined hands with early
+spring. There were yellow rosebuds, and passion flowers, and a few
+montbretias, and some Michaelmas daisies, a big bunch of purple violets,
+some primroses, polyanthuses, a pansy or two, blossoming ivy, little
+pink double daisies, and beautiful sprays of the yellow jessamine. Mavis
+fingered them delicately as if they were priceless treasures. The colour
+had flooded into her cheeks and her eyes shone like stars.
+
+"Muvvie! Surely they come from a greenhouse?" she asked. "They _can't_
+be growing out-of-doors _now_."
+
+"Indeed they can! You don't know Durracombe. The flowers go blooming
+along all the winter--if you can call it winter down there. I told you
+it was a different climate from Whinburn. Oh, how sweet they smell! I
+remember just the exact spot in the dear old garden where these violets
+grow."
+
+Mavis looked out of the window, where the now fast-whirling snow was
+hiding the smoke of the factory chimneys, then looked back to the pure,
+clean, delicate blossoms that lay on her lap.
+
+"It's like a fairy tale!" she murmured. "Think of picking them in
+December! Muvvie, if I could go and stay at the place where these
+flowers grow I should get well."
+
+"I verily believe you would," said Mrs. Ramsay thoughtfully, as she
+fetched vases and began to place the drooping violets in warm water.
+
+Mavis, at the time our story begins, was fifteen and a half, and exactly
+fourteen months older than Merle. It is necessary to state her age,
+because people always forgot it, and set her down as the younger of the
+two. Everybody, friends and strangers alike, gave precedence to Merle,
+the taller, stronger, more confident, and more dominating individuality.
+Mavis was an ethereal little person, who might be described as a spirit
+very lightly embodied in flesh. With Merle soul and body were balanced,
+with a bias towards the latter--on the whole she was of the earth,
+earthy. There was a sufficient likeness between the sisters to suggest
+that nature had reproduced an identical type in different mediums. She
+had painted the first delicately in water-colours, then had copied the
+same model more strongly in oils. Which picture you preferred was a
+matter of taste.
+
+Fortunately there was a complete understanding between the girls. Their
+particular faults and virtues seemed to dovetail into one another
+without friction, and they were excellent chums, a useful factor at
+school, where Mavis often needed a defender, and Merle was constantly
+requiring the services of someone to help to pull her out of her
+numerous scrapes.
+
+Dr. Ramsay lived at the north-country manufacturing town of Whinburn, a
+prosperous but bleak corner of the kingdom, where smoke had stunted the
+trees and soiled the herbage, where flowers were scarce and bloomed
+late, and winter stretched its icy fingers well into autumn and spring.
+The house, like most doctors' houses, was on the main high road, and
+part of the garden behind had been turned into a garage, so there was
+very little room for the bed of bulbs and the perennial border upon
+which Mavis concentrated most of her outdoor energies. She toiled hard
+to have a floral display in the summer months, but it was disheartening
+work, for the frost always killed her wallflowers, and only the hardiest
+of plants would consent to make a sulky struggle against the smoky
+atmosphere that seemed to blight the very heart of vegetation and turn
+the choicest bedding varieties into sickly specimens. Merle, less deeply
+wedded to nature, had long given up gardening as a bad job, and had
+handed over her patch of unkindly northern soil to her sister. She was
+more interested in the car: she liked to watch the chauffeur clean it,
+and the high-water mark of her bliss came on the days when, on a quiet
+road and with no policeman within sight, her father would allow her for
+a brief space to assume command of the driving-wheel.
+
+"I'll be your chauffeur, Dad, when I'm old enough to leave school," she
+would assure him airily. "I _do_ think you might get me a driving
+licence now! Too young? What nonsense! We've no need to tell the
+Government I'm only fourteen. I'd soon drive as well as Greenhalgh if
+you'd let me try. I'm not afraid of anything."
+
+"I dare say not, but think of _my_ feelings with a harum-scarum like you
+at the helm!" her father would reply. "You'd soon collide with a lorry,
+or land us in the ditch. I'll stick to Greenhalgh, thank you. He doesn't
+want to run at forty miles an hour."
+
+"I'll take proper motoring lessons when I've left school," Merle would
+declare, "then I'll be ready to drive any car in the United
+Kingdom--that's to say, if I haven't made up my mind to be a lady
+detective."
+
+Mavis, who was in bed when our story begins, weathered her December
+attack of bronchitis and came downstairs in time for Christmas Day, but
+with such white roses in her cheeks that her father looked at her
+anxiously, and called Mother into the consulting-room for a private
+confabulation, the result of which was a long private letter addressed
+Dr. Tremayne, Durracombe, Devonshire, which was posted without the
+girls' knowledge. Several other letters followed, and the brisk
+correspondence had just reached a satisfactory conclusion on a certain
+January day when Mavis, with a shawl round her shoulders, was peering
+out of the window at the flying snowflakes.
+
+"Watching the feathers from Mother Carey's chickens, bairns?" said Mrs.
+Ramsay. "I'm afraid it's going to be a wild night. The wind's rising. I
+like the snow when it's newly fallen, but it gets dirty directly in
+Whinburn."
+
+"And I don't like snow at all, Muvvie," replied Mavis. "We were building
+castles in the air just now, and mine was to live in a lovely wood where
+it was never really winter."
+
+"My castle was to be a chauffeur or a lady detective!" laughed Merle.
+"Perhaps both! It would be great sport to go dashing about the country
+in a car, unravelling mysteries and catching jewel thieves. Will you
+come with me, Mavis?"
+
+Mavis shook her head.
+
+"I've told you I'm going to live in a house with an enormous garden, and
+a wood where I can watch the birds. I'd rather track tomtits than jewel
+thieves. You shall come and stay with me when you're tired of chasing
+your burglars. It will be fine and warm in my wood, with no slushy snow
+_ever_, or yellow fog, only lovely flowers and ferns the whole year
+round, and I shall go out without being eternally wrapped up. That's my
+castle in the air!"
+
+"Don't you wish you may get it, that's all! It sounds like El Dorado.
+Oh, I'll come and stay with you right enough when you find such a
+fairyland. Woods like that don't grow near Whinburn. Look at the sky
+now! It's actually trying to snow again!"
+
+"It won't snow in my _wood_!"
+
+"And I say such woods don't exist except in your imagination," declared
+Merle emphatically.
+
+"Not quite the fairy land Mavis pictures, but there's a very good
+approach to them in Devonshire," said Mrs. Ramsay. "I've something I
+want to tell you chicks. How would you like to go to Durracombe and stay
+with Uncle David and Aunt Nellie? Don't look so incredulous! It's really
+true. We've arranged to send you for three months, and I'm to take you
+down there next week."
+
+This was news indeed, such news that at first the girls were hardly
+able to believe it. They had never been in Devonshire, and had not seen
+their mother's uncle, Dr. Tremayne. Their father, Dr. Ramsay, busy with
+his own professional work, had little time to spare for visiting, and
+when he snatched a holiday the family had generally gone to Scotland, or
+to some east-coast seaside resort. He was fond of the north, which has a
+charm all its own, but his wife was a Devon woman, who could not forget
+the county of her birth. She had told her children stories of its
+beauties, its mild air, its early flowers, its legends of pixies, its
+smugglers' coves and blue stretches of sea, its moors and dancing
+brooks, till they had come to look upon it as a sort of Elfland, a
+fairy-tale country that had no more real existence than the kingdom at
+the top of Jack's beanstalk. Uncle David and Aunt Nellie, too, though
+familiar household names, were entities as unsubstantial as characters
+in a book. To go and stay with them at Durracombe seemed as amazing as a
+visit to Robinson Crusoe's island or a sojourn with Robert Louis
+Stevenson in the South Seas. When their minds were adjusted to the new
+idea they demanded details.
+
+"Three months! We shall miss school for a whole term. Oh, Mummie, what
+fun! Shall we find cowslips in the fields? And can we go paddling in the
+brook? It sounds gorgeous!"
+
+"You certainly won't find cowslips in January. Don't expect
+impossibilities. And as for paddling, I forbid anything of the sort
+before Easter. Don't congratulate yourselves that you're going to have a
+term's holiday. There's a very nice little day school in Durracombe,
+kept by the late vicar's daughters, only ten minutes' walk from Uncle
+David's house. Don't pull faces! Of course you must go to school, and
+you'll probably like it. How long can I stay? About a week. I shall take
+you there and see you settled, then I must fly back to Father, for he's
+not accustomed to doing without the whole of his family. I wish he could
+have come with us, but it's quite impossible for him to leave his
+patients at present. If you catch another cold, Mavis, before we go
+away, I shall be really cross with you. We hope Devonshire air will work
+a cure and stop these perpetual bouts of bronchitis. As for you, Merle,
+there's really no reason for sending _you_, except----"
+
+"Except that my little sister couldn't and wouldn't and shouldn't go
+without me. We're practically twins, and we're no more use apart than
+the two blades of a pair of scissors. Oh yes, Mummie darling, we'll be
+patterns of virtue. Don't worry about us. We'll cheer up Aunt Nellie and
+amuse Uncle David, and wake the new school up too, I dare say. Don't
+look horrified, sweetest, I'm half joking. Mavis is such an angel-girl
+she needs me to drag her down a little or she'd just go floating off to
+heaven like a balloon, and never find her way back. I act earthly
+ballast for her, and keep her anchored to this world. She'd never
+remember her tonic if I didn't remind her. I'll keep an eye on her down
+in Devon, and see that she doesn't sit in draughts or get her feet damp.
+Trust her twin to look after her. Whenever she wants to do silly things
+I'll scold till I'm hoarse. You don't know how I can croak when I like!"
+
+"As if I were going to do silly things!" interrupted Mavis indignantly.
+"Really, to hear you talk, anybody'd think you were my grannie instead
+of fourteen months younger than I am! I hope this new school will be
+decent. We shall miss Janie and Edna."
+
+"But think of getting rid of Miss Donald for a whole term, and not
+having Miss Hanson to teach us algebra. Oh, what a jubilee! Our desks
+will be empty in IVA. Sounds quite pathetic, doesn't it? Sort of twin
+tombstone business."
+
+    "They grew in beauty side by side;
+     They filled one school with glee,"
+
+laughed Mavis.
+
+    "And now they're going to have some larks
+     In Devon by the sea!"
+
+finished Merle.
+
+"Durracombe--Durracombe--Durracombe," repeated Mavis. "Yes, I like the
+name. It grips me somehow. I feel I can be happy at Durracombe. I
+shouldn't want to go to a place called Porkville or Mudbury. There's a
+great deal in a name. Mumsie, dear, I wish we were starting to-morrow. I
+can't wait. I want to see Durracombe at once."
+
+"You silly child! And I, who have all your clothes to get ready, am
+thankful to have at least a week to turn round in. I don't say I'm not
+looking forward to seeing Devon again, though. We shall be ever such a
+jolly trio when we set off in the train, shan't we?"
+
+"And where do I come in?" asked a mock-lugubrious voice, as Dr. Ramsay
+joined the party. "My family appear very anxious to run away from me. It
+seems to me I'm to be left out in the cold. Poor Papa! Sitting alone by
+his desolate hearth with only the cat for company. My heart bleeds for
+him!"
+
+"Daddy! You naughty boy! You ought to come with us," cried the girls,
+forcing their father into an elbow chair and seating themselves on the
+two arms, so as to be in position to administer smacking kisses on both
+his cheeks. "You know very well Devon won't be _quite_ Devon without
+you. We hate to leave you behind. Now, promise us something! Oh, it's
+perfectly easy and possible, and we know you can do it. Say yes! You'll
+be kissed to death by wild daughters if you don't. It's your only chance
+of life! Now or never! There! You've promised to come down to Durracombe
+at Easter to fetch us home."
+
+"Have I indeed? Oh, I dare say!"
+
+"I'll keep him to his bargain," laughed Mother; "but I expect when the
+time comes he'll be fussing to start. We're not a family who can bear to
+be divided for long, are we?"
+
+"Rather not!" said Merle, slipping from the arm-chair to pull Mother
+into the charmed circle. "You shall come in the car, darlings, and motor
+us back, and I'll drive whenever there's a smooth bit of road ahead.
+It's a topping idea."
+
+"Only your driving doesn't happen to be included in the bargain, you
+young puss! We've some respect for our limbs, and prefer to reach home
+with bones unbroken," declared Father, escaping from his tempestuous
+daughters to answer the insistent telephone-bell that was ringing loud
+peals of agitated warning in the hall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+"The Moorings"
+
+
+The tiny town of Durracombe consisted mainly of one very long and
+enormously wide street. Everything that was of any importance was
+situated in this High Street--the church, the bank, the public hall, the
+reading-room, the free library, the best shops, and the Swan Hotel. Each
+Friday it was turned into a species of market, with stalls, and barrows,
+and butter-baskets, and shouting men driving frightened cattle, but on
+great festivals, such as Empire Day, it became a gay cafe, for tables
+and forms were placed on the pavements and the school children were
+entertained to tea in the open air, while the town band played patriotic
+music. Being such a small and compact place, it had the advantage of
+beginning and ending quite suddenly. The river marked the boundary. On
+one side of it you were in civilization, with a mayor and police and a
+town crier, and the privileges of gas and the telephone, but directly
+you crossed the bridge you were in the happy fields that owned no
+sovereign but Dame Nature, and in quite a few minutes you seemed to have
+left the world behind you.
+
+Dr. Tremayne's house was the very first when you entered Durracombe by
+the road from the south. Its green front door with the brass plate stood
+in the High Street, but its garden wall overtopped the river, and its
+side windows looked out over the fields to the open country. People
+coming to fetch the doctor on a black night could see his red surgery
+lamp from the top of the hill a whole mile away. It seemed to hold out
+promise of help like a kind hand stretched across the darkness of the
+river. For the last forty years Durracombe and district had depended
+upon Dr. Tremayne. Time had, of course, brought changes, and the
+dark-haired man who drove a high gig in the 'eighties was now grey and
+elderly, and did his rounds in a two-seater car. Quite apart from
+medicines the mere sight of him seemed to do his patients good. His very
+atmosphere was electric, and he had that true gift of healing that helps
+people to get well of their own accord. Certainly no one within a radius
+of thirty miles was a greater favourite than "the dear old doctor", and
+his small biscuit-coloured motor was a familiar feature on the country
+roads. His three children were married and settled down in various parts
+of the globe. None had followed their father's profession; so, though he
+might be proud of a son who was a judge in India, a barrister in London,
+or a successful civil engineer in Canada, he could claim no help in his
+practice from his own family. His wife, grey-haired and elderly too, was
+somewhat of an invalid, and most of the housekeeping was done by Jessop,
+an invaluable old servant who attended to the surgery, took patients'
+messages, sterilized instruments, washed medicine bottles, could give
+first aid in an emergency, and was generally almost as great a feature
+of the practice as the doctor himself.
+
+It was to this rather old-fashioned household that Mavis and Merle,
+sworn to the most exemplary behaviour, were sent for three months in the
+hope that in the soft Devonshire air Mavis would catch no more bad
+bronchial colds, and would have a chance of setting up her health and
+growing the two extra inches which she still needed to set her head on
+the same level with Merle's.
+
+To the two girls everything in Durracombe seemed delightful. The
+mildness of the climate amazed them. After the nip of Whinburn's
+perpetual east wind, lifeless hedgerows, and desolate winter fields, it
+felt like a sudden jump into spring to find campion, herb robert, and
+dead-nettle blooming by the road-sides, catkins waving on the hazel
+bushes, clumps of snowdrops and Christmas roses under the apple trees,
+violets beneath the sheltered wall, primroses peeping through last
+year's dead leaves, and the missel thrush chanting a triumphant song in
+the yew tree that overhung the river.
+
+Mother, as happy as if she were a girl again, took them round to her
+favourite haunts: the beacon-top, where you could catch the first view
+of the sea, eight miles away; the moor with its rushes and soft, short
+green grass; the fields where cowslips would be found later on; the fir
+wood that seemed like a wilderness of Christmas trees; the marshy flats
+where you could see the wild ducks flying; the little quarry where the
+sand-martens had burrowed holes for their nests--all the dear delightful
+spots that she had known as a child, and had described to them so often
+that they recognized them the moment they saw them.
+
+"It's gorgeous! Muvvie, if only you weren't going away I'd think myself
+in Paradise," declared Mavis, with pink cheeks, and standing on tiptoe
+as if she were growing already. "Uncle David's a dear, and so's Aunt
+Nellie, and as for Jessop, she's just a sport--that's what I call her.
+Bridge House is simply A1, and if school anything like comes up to it,
+well--I shall say it's the time of my life. It's going to be the nicest
+term I've ever had."
+
+"Don't congratulate yourself too soon," croaked Merle. "School's school
+all the world over, and there's sure to be something to put up with.
+_I'm_ not looking forward to sums and exercises. When do we start?
+To-morrow! Ugh! Enter it as a black day in the calendar of Merle Ramsay,
+and probably of the school too, for they won't find me soft wax in their
+hands. I've got ideas of my own, and when people begin to try to mould
+me I'm apt to turn katawampus. Mumsie, darling, don't shoot up your
+eyebrows! There! I'll promise and vow to be a perfect seraph. They'll
+call me St. Merle before they've done with me. Honest, Mumsie, I will
+_really_ try! You know how I flare out, but I'll make a bouncing start
+at this new school and think of you every time I get into a pixie mood.
+If I don't, the Devonshire pixies had best steal me away and have done
+with it. I'd be a good riddance to everybody, I dare say."
+
+Merle spoke half in jest and half in earnest. There was laughter in her
+voice, but her eyelashes were suddenly wet. Mrs. Ramsay laid a tender
+hand on her younger daughter's shoulder. She was not laughing at all.
+
+"I hope both my girls are going to grow this term," she said quietly,
+"in character as well as in inches. There's room for improvement in both
+of you. Mavis must stir about instead of always dreaming and reading,
+and Merle must curb that little demon that sometimes gets possession of
+her. I expect to find two very sweet girls when I come to fetch them at
+Easter. We want this term to be in every sense a fortunate term."
+
+"We'll do our level best, Muvvie! Can't you trust us?" whispered Mavis,
+linking her arm in her mother's, as they turned from the wood and began
+to walk down the hill-side towards the little town where the next
+eventful months of their lives were to be spent.
+
+But Merle, who always hid her deepest feelings under a joke, chirruped
+out an impromptu ode to the future:
+
+    "School! School! School!
+     They'll probably call me a mule!
+     And stick me to stand,
+     With a book in my hand,
+     And a dunce's cap, on a stool!"
+
+So it ended in the three of them laughing after all.
+
+There was no large college or high school for girls in Durracombe, only
+a very small private establishment kept by Miss Mary Pollard and her
+sister Fanny, daughters of the late Rev. Horatio Pollard, formerly vicar
+of the parish. They educated about twenty-four children, half of them
+from the immediate neighbourhood: Opal Earnshaw, the bank-manager's
+daughter; Edith and Maude Carey, from the Vicarage; Christabel Oakley,
+who rode over on her bicycle from St. Gilda's Rectory; the three little
+Andrews, from Fir Tree House; Major Leach's small grand-children; Betty
+and Stella Marshall, who lived with their aunt, Miss Johnson, while
+their parents were in Buenos Ayres; and twelve resident boarders, most
+of whose parents were stationed in India, and who, born under burning
+skies, had been sent to Durracombe for the sake of its soft air and mild
+winter record, until they should be sufficiently acclimatized to stand
+their chance as hardy specimens in bigger schools.
+
+"The Moorings" was a large, pleasant, white house with green shutters
+and a veranda, and it stood at the bottom of a short road that led from
+the High Street. It was what is commonly known as "a dear little
+school", that is to say it was rather old-fashioned and out-of-date but
+very comfortable and "homey", and the classes were more like lessons
+with a private governess than working with a form. Miss Pollard, whose
+hair was as silver as spun moonlight, had dropped behind the more modern
+methods of education, and, feeling rather diffident in the schoolroom,
+concentrated her attention on the housekeeping, cossetted up the
+delicate children, aired the linen, superintended the dormitories, and
+acted nurse to anybody who was lucky enough to be kept in bed. The bulk
+of the teaching rested in the hands of Miss Fanny, who was thorough, if
+old-fashioned, and whose original methods, by a curious coincidence,
+actually anticipated those of some of our most advanced educationists,
+and so placed her ahead of as well as behind the times.
+
+It was into this small community, more like a big family than a school,
+that Mavis and Merle were introduced one January morning, causing
+visible thrills to the occupants of other desks as they took their
+seats. To plunge suddenly from the work of one school into that of
+another is a rather bewildering experience, and by the time the
+half-past twelve bell sounded, the Ramsay girls felt as if their
+standards had been turned upside down. Mavis, shaky in general over
+history, had reeled off the dates of the principal battles in the Civil
+War, the only period of which she happened to have any special
+knowledge, and Merle, by an equal fluke, worked correctly all her
+problems in mathematics, a lesson which she usually abhorred. They were
+so astonished at scoring on these subjects that they naturally hoped to
+do better still in the French class, for languages had been their one
+strong point at Whinburn High School. But alack for their self esteem!
+The girls at The Moorings had concentrated on French, and not only
+translated easily from a book which was much too stiff for the Ramsays,
+but chattered quite fluently with Mademoiselle Chavasse, whose
+encouraging remarks and questions were palpably not understood by her
+new pupils. It is humiliating not to be able to express yourself in a
+foreign tongue when others are talking it all round you. Merle, who
+never liked anybody to "go one better" than herself, was particularly
+aggravated by a fair-haired girl who sat near her, and who, as she
+conversed with the teacher, kept the corner of her eye on the new-comers
+as if judging the impression she was making on them.
+
+"I don't like her! I shan't _ever_ like her!" thought Merle irately.
+"She's conceited, and those eyes are sneaky. It's nothing so much to
+talk French. I suppose they're used to it. She needn't think I'm
+admiring her cleverness, for I'm not. I'll pluck up courage myself to
+say something next time Mademoiselle looks at me."
+
+But Merle's powers were not equal to her courage, and when Mademoiselle
+gave her another chance she turned scarlet and stuttered, and generally
+made rather a goose of herself, to her own infinite indignation and
+evidently to the amusement of the rest of the class, especially of the
+fair-haired girl, who tittered openly till she met the teacher's
+outraged gaze, when she suddenly straightened her face and tried to
+appear quite unconscious. Mavis, profiting by her sister's example, did
+not commit herself to speech. Mademoiselle Chavasse's accent was
+unfamiliar and difficult to understand, and most of her remarks might as
+easily have been in Greek as French, to judge by the standards of
+Whinburn High School. Both the Ramsays were particularly relieved when
+the lesson came to an end.
+
+At 12.30 Mavis, who had been sent to the school with a special
+recommendation that her health should be looked after, was carried off
+by Miss Pollard to be weighed and measured and otherwise inspected,
+while Merle, with boots and hat and coat on, and all impatience to be
+off, waited for her in the cloak-room. The other day-girls had scurried
+away with hardly more than a glance in her direction, and she sat alone,
+kicking her heels and not in the sweetest of tempers, till one of the
+boarders, passing the door, peeped in, saw her, and entered. The
+new-comer was a nice-looking girl, with grey eyes and a plait of very
+dark hair. She smiled in quite friendly fashion.
+
+"Hello!" she began. "Sitting here all by your lonesome? Why don't you go
+home?"
+
+"Can't. I'm waiting for Mavis."
+
+"Is Mavis the other? She's rather sweet! I like her fluffy hair and that
+blue velvet band. Somebody said she was older than you, but she doesn't
+look it."
+
+"People often take us for twins," conceded Merle.
+
+Iva Westwood shook her head.
+
+"No one with eyes, surely! You're alike in a way, but not very. Opal
+Earnshaw was fearfully angry that you beat her in maths. She's been cock
+of the walk till now."
+
+"Which is Opal Earnshaw?"
+
+"That fair girl who sat near you."
+
+Merle's face darkened.
+
+"That was why she tried to take it out of me in the French class, then?"
+
+"Oh, Opal tries to take it out of everybody. She won't be very pleased
+you two have come, I expect. You're too old to stand her bossing."
+
+"Why do other people stand it?"
+
+"Well, you see, she's head of the school, and Miss Pollard and Miss
+Fanny are her godmothers."
+
+"What difference does that make?"
+
+"A great deal of difference, as you'll soon find out. Everything their
+darling god-child does _must_ be right, that's the long and short of it.
+They favour her fearfully."
+
+"What a blazing shame."
+
+"Yes, some of us get rather fed up I can tell you. We mutiny every now
+and then."
+
+"Count on me, then, next time you have squalls."
+
+"Thanks!"
+
+"Tell me about some of the other girls. Who's that one in the green
+jersey who sat by the window and dropped her pencil-box? Is she nice?"
+
+"Edith Carey! Ye-e-s, she's nice enough in a way." (Iva's tone was
+unconvincing). "She's the kind of girl who drags on your arm when she's
+tired, and insists on kissing you when she's got a bad cold."
+
+"I understand--exactly. I suppose the other green jersey is her sister?"
+
+"Maude? Oh, she's not a bad sort either. Rather a slacker though,
+always late for everything. We say she'd be late for her own funeral.
+She made us miss the train once when we were going an excursion. What
+are the others like? Well, we call Aubrey Simpson the jackdaw, because
+she's always talking. Muriel Burnitt makes fun of everybody. You should
+hear her take off Mademoiselle! Nesta Pitman may be a little nasty to
+you at first, but don't mind her, because it's only her way with new
+people. She'll soon come round. She's rather off-hand, but a real
+sport!"
+
+"So are you, I should guess!"
+
+"Oh, I don't know. I'm Cornish, and Cornish people are supposed to be
+queer. At least Devon people say they are."
+
+"Mother is Devon."
+
+"Then I expect you'll think me queer. Are you living with your uncle,
+Dr. Tremayne? _He's_ a sport if you like! He used to come and see me
+when I had scarlet fever, and he brought me strawberries long before our
+own were ripe. I wish I weren't a boarder. We live fifteen miles away,
+at Langoran Rectory. It's too far to come every day, or I'd bike, like
+Christabel Oakley. We used to have a governess at home until my brother
+went to school and----"
+
+But Iva's reminiscences were broken by the appearance of Mavis, rather
+hot and injured after her health examination, and very anxious that they
+should not be late for one o'clock lunch. Iva, hearing a bell,
+disappeared without further remark, and the Ramsays hurried back through
+the town to Bridge House, where Aunt Nellie, who admired punctuality as
+a cardinal virtue, was looking out of the window for them. They compared
+notes while they washed their hands.
+
+"Are you going to like it?" asked Mavis eagerly.
+
+"Um--I don't know! I certainly shan't like Opal Earnshaw, and she
+needn't think because she's head girl and all the rest of it that _I'm_
+going to truckle to her. They must be a poor-spirited set to let her
+lord it over everybody. Who said she did? Why, Iva Westwood. She was
+talking to me in the cloakroom. I could be chums with that girl! There's
+something about her I rather take to. She's Cornish, and they say Devon
+and Cornish people never can agree, but perhaps we'll hit it in spite of
+that. She said you were rather sweet! Don't screw up your mouth! She
+meant it as a compliment really. Do you think teachers ought to have
+their own godchildren for pupils? No, I've not suddenly gone mad, but
+Iva told me Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny are Opal's godmothers, and think
+everything she does is absolutely perfect. 'The Queen can do no wrong'
+sort of idea! I think it's horrid to have favourites. There goes the
+gong. Help! Give me the towel, quick! We mustn't be late for lunch on
+our first day without Mother, or Aunt Nellie'll think us horrible
+slackers."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+The School Favourite
+
+
+Mavis and Merle walked into the dining-room just in the nick of time to
+satisfy Mrs. Tremayne's sense of propriety. She was a dear, nervous, old
+lady, who had never had any daughters of her own, and had rather a hazy
+notion of girls in general, and was indeed a little frightened of
+schoolgirls; but she tried to be very kind to her great-nieces, and had
+told Jessop to be sure and look after them. Jessop did not need any
+telling. It was she who had arranged their bedroom, and had put the
+little table in the window, and the two basket-chairs, and the bookcase
+full of tales of adventure and bound volumes of _The Boys' Own Paper_.
+The iced soda-cake was of her making, and so was the plateful of
+delicious treacle toffee.
+
+"It's twenty years since the boys used to come home from boarding-school
+for their holidays, but I haven't forgotten what young folks like," she
+explained to Mavis and Merle, as she helped them to unpack. "It's more
+like a boys' bedroom than a girls' perhaps, but I just collected
+anything of Master Richard's and Master Cyril's that I could find about
+the house. If you don't care about them we'll take them out."
+
+"But we _love_ boys' things," declared Merle, admiring the pictures of
+dogs and horses on the walls, opening the drawers of the cabinet of
+birds' eggs, and touching the whip and the cricket bat with friendly
+fingers. Mavis was already deep in _Coral Island_, and temporarily deaf
+to the outside world, but she had just sufficient sense of manners left
+to grunt "It's a gorgeous bookcase!" before she lost herself in the
+South Seas among the palm trees.
+
+"Two very nice young ladies, and to have them here is like old times,"
+Jessop had confided to Tom, the factotum. "The house has always seemed
+dull since Master Cyril went away. Miss Mavis reminds me of him, with
+her blue eyes and that gentle little voice of hers. Now, Miss Merle is
+like Master Percy. He'd a way with him! I never knew what was going to
+happen next when he was at home. 'Jessop' he'd say, 'you're a wonderful
+woman!' Then I knew he meant to coax me to let him keep his rabbits in
+his bedroom, or do something of that sort. Girls are quieter than boys,
+but these two will cheer us up a little, I dare say. We all seem to have
+grown old here lately."
+
+And Tom, the factotum, polishing boots by the back door, agreed with
+her. Twenty years ago he had been the coachman, and, immaculate in his
+grey livery and silver buttons and top hat with the cockade at the side,
+had driven the high gig about the country lanes. It had nearly broken
+his heart when his master decided to give up the horses and take to
+motoring instead. There were tears in his eyes when he groomed Czar and
+Ruby for the last time. But, though Dr. Tremayne might march with the
+century, and visit his patients more quickly in his new automobile, he
+had no intention of parting with his old coachman, and determined to
+turn him into a chauffeur instead. So Tom learnt to drive the car,
+learnt almost too well, indeed, for, determined not to show the white
+feather, he waxed foolhardy, and would career round corners with one
+wheel off the ground, or dash down hills at such breakneck speed that
+the doctor, not usually a nervous subject, would gasp with relief to
+find himself alive at the bottom. Something plainly had to be done, or
+Tom would soon have broken the family's bones, and the question was how
+to shelve him without giving him offence. The riddle, fortunately,
+solved itself by the retirement of Dalton, the factotum-gardener. Dr.
+Tremayne decided to retrench and to keep only one man-servant. In future
+he drove his own car, and Tom was installed in Dalton's place, to weed
+the walks, clip the grass, polish the knives, and carry the coals. He
+made friends at once with Mavis and Merle, or rather he merely
+transferred to them the friendship he had given to their mother
+twenty-five years ago, when she used to spend her holidays at Bridge
+House, and rode Cobs, the white pony, whose grave lay at the bottom of
+the paddock. To Tom, motoring was the sign of a degenerate age, and he
+would descant to the girls about the good old days, when people were not
+in such a frantic hurry and could wait for the doctor until he drove up
+behind a well-groomed horse, and made such a case for the past times
+that Merle, in spite of her ambition to drive a car, began to wish Czar
+and Ruby and Cobs were still in the stable, and she herself could be
+clad in Mother's old riding-habit and flourish Cousin Percy's discarded
+whip as she ambled along the lanes on pony-back.
+
+That, however, was before she had had a run in the little, yellow
+Deemster car. After the first trip to Chagmouth she completely changed
+her mind.
+
+For a week life went on with the greatest regularity at Durracombe.
+Every morning the girls were called by Jessop promptly at half-past
+seven. They started for school at twenty minutes to nine, returned home
+for lunch, rushed back to The Moorings by 2.30, did their preparation
+and practising in the evenings, and went to bed at nine o'clock. Uncle
+David was nearly always out, or busy in the surgery, and Aunt Nellie sat
+by the fire, knitting or taking little naps. She would ask very kindly
+about their lessons, then, hardly giving them time to answer, would
+plunge into reminiscences of her boys' schooldays. Life, for her, still
+centred round Percy, Richard, and Cyril. When the girls wanted to talk
+they went to Jessop. It was to her they poured out their experiences of
+their new school, and she listened with the flattering interest of one
+who really enjoys hearing. She never read any books, so perhaps the
+little adventures described humorously by Mavis or Merle took the place
+of chapters in a serial story. She was familiar directly with the names
+of all the girls and teachers at The Moorings, and most delightfully
+ready to "take sides", and like those whom they liked and agree about
+the iniquities of those who offended them.
+
+For this first week had not been all plain sailing. It is often really
+easier to get on in a big school than a little one. There is more
+elbow-room among two hundred girls than among two dozen. Nobody except
+Iva Westwood had seemed particularly pleased to welcome them. Opal
+Earnshaw palpably resented their presence.
+
+"Miss Pollard is only supposed to take twenty pupils," she remarked, on
+the day after their arrival. "I know she refused two other girls, so I
+can't think why she should have broken her rule."
+
+"But those girls would have been boarders," objected Iva.
+
+"Well, where's the difference?"
+
+"A great deal when it means two extra beds in a dormitory."
+
+"It means two extra seats in a room that's already overcrowded,"
+declared Opal loftily. "If the school is going to take any more new
+girls it had better build an annexe and let them have classes there."
+
+"Sorry to be on the earth!" said Merle sarcastically. "Perhaps you'd
+like us to sit inside the cupboard? We shouldn't crowd you out there."
+
+Opal looked her up and down, from her velvet hair-band to the tips of
+her shoes, then she gave a kind of snort.
+
+"I suppose you think yourself ever so clever," she retorted. "Girls from
+big schools generally give themselves airs."
+
+"Other people can give themselves airs," snapped Merle, warming to the
+battle. "Big schools teach manners at any rate!"
+
+"Oh, we don't mean anything against _this_ school," hurriedly put in
+Mavis, who generally tried to take the edge off her sister's cutting
+speeches. "We think it's going to be quite jolly. I'm sorry if we've
+taken the desks where you've had your museum, but where _are_ we to keep
+our books and things?"
+
+Opal, who was grudgingly removing the contents of two desks, which for a
+whole term had been devoted to a collection of natural history objects,
+had the grace to look rather ashamed of herself.
+
+"Oh, it's all right," she temporized, "but what I'm to do with all our
+birds' eggs and butterflies goodness only knows! I daren't keep them in
+any of the other classrooms or those juniors would be fingering them and
+they'd be smashed to bits. I suppose I must pack them in boxes and get
+Miss Fanny to stow them away somewhere."
+
+"Can't I help?" said Mavis, coming to the rescue.
+
+Iva had just arrived on the scene bearing some large cardboard boxes,
+into which the three girls transferred the little collection. It seemed
+quite a pity to have to move it, for it had been so carefully set out.
+There were certainly grounds for Opal's ill humour, though even the most
+unreasonable of head girls can hardly expect a mistress to reserve desks
+for a museum when she can give them to two extra pupils. The fact was
+that Opal had been "first favourite" at The Moorings for too long. It
+would have done her all the good in the world to be sent to a large
+boarding-school and find there were people more important than herself.
+Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny, devoted friends of her mother, undoubtedly
+spoilt her, lent a ready ear to her complaints, but listened coldly to
+anybody who made accusations against her. The knowledge that she will
+receive support at all costs from head-quarters is a dangerous weapon
+for a girl in a position of authority. During the whole of last term
+Opal had done pretty much what she liked, and when others grumbled would
+declare: "Well, go and tell Miss Pollard and see which she'll believe,
+you or me!" an argument which was so unfortunately well founded that the
+luckless objectors preferred to suffer in silence.
+
+It was not in the nature of things that a disposition such as Merle
+Ramsay's could be in the same school with Opal Earnshaw without a clash.
+Merle loved fair play, and was always ready and willing to stand up for
+anybody's rights, including Mavis's and her own. Her first instinct had
+been to clear their new desks by tipping the unfortunate museum on to
+the floor. That was Merle all over. She preferred forcible methods to
+diplomacy. It generally needed all Mavis's tact to smooth over the
+difficulties roused by Merle's ardent partisanship and freedom of
+speech. Many were the squalls from which she had rescued her sister at
+the Whinburn High School, and apparently she would be required to
+perform the same office for her at The Moorings.
+
+Opal calmed down and was fairly civil during the morning, but on that
+very afternoon arose another unfortunate occasion of dispute. The
+Ramsays had finished lunch early, and hurried back to school in order to
+have a little fun with the boarders before lessons began at 2.30. They
+liked Iva and Nesta, and also some of the younger ones, and meant to
+enjoy half an hour with them in the playroom. Merle was by nature a
+public entertainer. She could not spend ten minutes in the company of
+other girls without wanting to start games or organize a sing-song or in
+some way get up amusement. During the Christmas holidays she had been
+poring over an article on palmistry which she found in a magazine. As
+the result of her studies in that direction she offered to tell the
+fortune of anybody who liked to consult her. She was instantly besieged
+by an excited crowd, all thrusting forward their hands at once for
+inspection and trying to push one another aside.
+
+"Cheerio! This won't do!" decreed Merle. "One at a time, my hearties!
+Take your places in an orderly queue and come up in your turns to the
+witch, or she'll fly away on her broomstick and tell you nothing! Iva
+first, then Nesta, then you others, and no squabbling. Anybody who tries
+to push in front will be turned to the end of the queue. That's kismet!"
+
+Merle could always keep order among juniors. The small fry giggled, but
+formed into line and kept their places while Iva and Nesta consulted the
+oracle. The prophecies were rather startling but sufficiently exciting
+to make eight young heads bob up and down with eagerness to secure their
+turns before the bell rang for afternoon school. Iva had been sent away
+a little dubious between the attractions of "foreign travel" and a
+warning of "danger by sea", while Nesta was openly rejoicing over a
+prospect of "wealth and honours" in spite of the "accidents" scattered
+over her future path. It was now the turn of Mamie Drew, and that
+short-skirted damsel was just advancing with rather awed eyes and a
+nervous chuckle, when the door opened and Opal Earnshaw strolled into
+the room.
+
+"Hello! What are you all doing here?" she exclaimed. "Fortunes! Oh, I
+say! I _must_ have mine told. What can you make out of my hand?"
+
+And, thrusting Mamie aside, she spread out her palm for Merle's
+inspection.
+
+Now it was partly Merle's love of fair play and partly her antipathy to
+Opal, and partly a little bit of "katawampus", but the three feelings
+combined made her thrust away the hand in a very peremptory fashion, and
+brought an extremely tart note into her voice as she said:
+
+"No pushing in front! Go to the end of the queue and take your turn with
+the others. It's Mamie next."
+
+"I don't mind," volunteered Mamie, making way for Opal.
+
+"But _I_ mind!" snapped Merle. "It's I who's telling the fortunes and
+I'll do it as I like, and take you in order. If you don't want to come
+next, Mamie, get out of the way can't you, and let Joyce have her
+innings! Opal must wait like other people."
+
+Opal, however, as head girl, considered herself highly insulted.
+
+"You needn't think I'm going to wait at the end of a queue of kids," she
+retorted angrily. "I don't care about your old fortune-telling, thanks!"
+and she flounced out of the room.
+
+She was very glum indeed all afternoon, and would not look at either of
+the Ramsays, though Mavis, to make amends, offered the loan of a new
+penknife, and even tendered a surreptitious chocolate.
+
+"I took her down, didn't I?" smirked Merle, as the sisters walked home
+up the High Street, and watched the retreating figure of Opal, who had
+scuttled past them with averted eyes, hurrying towards her own front
+door.
+
+Mavis sighed. Her naturally kind and peaceful disposition and her
+loyalty to Merle were always pulling her in opposite directions.
+
+"I'm afraid Opal just detests us. Perhaps you might have let her take
+Mamie's turn as Mamie actually offered."
+
+"Certainly not." (Merle's voice was firm.) "If you begin to let a girl
+like that butt in whenever she wants, you never know where you are. I
+think she's the limit. She'd no need to look so annoyed when we arrived
+at school. What does it matter to her? The Moorings isn't run for her
+private convenience!"
+
+"She couldn't forgive us for taking those spare desks and turning out
+the museum."
+
+"Bother her museum!"
+
+"It's rather a nice one anyway. It seems a pity it has to be put by in
+cardboard boxes."
+
+Mavis was really concerned about the little collection of curiosities
+that had been so neatly spread forth in the unoccupied desks. She
+cogitated for a long time as to how the difficulty could possibly be
+overcome. Finally she sought Tom, with whom she was already on terms of
+great friendship. She found him in the greenhouse, repotting some ferns.
+
+"Oh, Tom!" she burst out eagerly. "Do you think there's anything about
+the place I might take to make a museum?"
+
+Tom stroked the grey stubble on his chin reflectively.
+
+"A museum?" he repeated. "That's a big order, Miss, isn't it? I went
+through the museum in the castle grounds at Taunton once. It must be ten
+years ago. Or will it be twelve now?"
+
+"Oh, of course, I don't mean a museum like that," explained Mavis, "only
+a kind of box arrangement with some glass over it, to put butterflies
+and birds' eggs in, very like--" (her eyes wandered round the
+greenhouse) "very like what you grow seeds in."
+
+The nice part about Tom was the alacrity with which he caught up
+suggestions. At his age it was really amazing.
+
+"A very good idee, Miss," he agreed. "I know what you want. Master
+Cyril used to keep his butterflies in boxes like that. I'll hunt about
+and see what I can find for you."
+
+"Smart-looking boxes and some pieces of glass to fit over them?" pleaded
+Mavis.
+
+"You leave it to me," was all Tom would promise, but there was a twinkle
+in his eye as he stooped over his ferns again.
+
+Every morning Mavis asked him for the boxes, and each time he either
+pretended to have forgotten or was ready with some excuse. At the end of
+four days, however, he took her into the old harness-room, where he had
+a joiner's bench and a variety of tools, for he acted handy man to the
+establishment.
+
+"How will these suit you, Miss?" he enquired, in a would-be nonchalant
+tone.
+
+Mavis gave an absolute bounce of surprise. There on the bench lay two
+most beautiful cases. Tom had planed the boxes and made lids for them,
+into which he had fitted the pieces of glass. They were stained brown
+and varnished, and were lined neatly with dark-blue cloth. The old man
+was evidently bursting with pride at his handiwork, though he affected
+an attitude of indifference.
+
+Mavis made haste to congratulate him.
+
+"It's the cleverest thing I've ever seen done in my life," she purred.
+"Oh, they're just too lovely for words--absolutely topping! Thanks, a
+thousand times over. You must have simply _slaved_ to finish them so
+quickly."
+
+"Oh, I just worked at them in odds and ends of my time," said Tom
+casually, looking very pleased all the same. "That varnish is a bit
+sticky yet, but I dare say it'll be dry by the morning. If you want the
+boxes at school I'll carry them round for you to-morrow some time."
+
+"Oh, thanks! Could you bring them at eleven o'clock 'break'? That would
+be scrumptious. I must fetch Merle to look at them at once, and Jessop
+too. You don't mind?"
+
+Tom delivered the cases next day with admirable punctuality; indeed he
+was standing on the school doorstep exactly as Miss Fanny rang the big
+bell for break. The girls, pouring into the hall, saw him deliver the
+treasures into the safe custody of Bella, the housemaid. Naturally they
+crowded round to look.
+
+"Hello! What are these for?" asked Opal. "What stunning cases!"
+
+"They're for Miss Ramsay," proclaimed Bella.
+
+Mavis, with rather a red face, stepped forward.
+
+"If you think they'll do to keep the birds' eggs and butterflies and
+things in will you please have them as a museum for the school," she
+said quickly. "Tom, my uncle's coachman, made them on purpose."
+
+"Jolly decent of him. They're A1," approved Opal. "Better than the
+desks really, because of the glass lids. I say, I'm going to bolt my
+lunch in two secs, and get down those boxes and spread out the
+collection again. The things will look no end on that dark cloth."
+
+"Spiffing," agreed Iva, who was also inspecting the new acquisitions.
+
+"Hurry up with your lunch then, and help me to arrange them. No, I
+can't have a dozen people's fingers interfering! I'm curator of the
+museum and I won't have it smashed. Three are quite enough. Iva and
+Mavis and I are going to do it, and we don't want anyone else, thank
+you! You can come and look at it when it's finished. I'll put the cases
+on the window-sill in the big schoolroom. Mavis Ramsay" (this last
+communication was whispered) "I don't mind telling you I didn't care for
+you before--it was mostly the fault of that sister of yours!--but I
+think now you're an absolute sport. You and Merle aren't a scrap alike.
+Nobody would ever take you for sisters."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Red Devon by the Sea
+
+
+Mavis now found herself placed in a somewhat embarrassing situation. The
+school favourite had taken rather a fancy to her and extended overtures
+of friendship. Had she been at The Moorings by herself she might have
+responded, but it was impossible to be chums with a girl who displayed
+such open hostility to Merle. The two were "diamond cut diamond". Each
+was a strong character, and neither would give way an inch. They
+squabbled and heckled one another continually. If Opal had had even a
+term's experience of a big school, and if Merle had possessed a little
+tact and forbearance, they might have rubbed along together. As it was
+they went about like two thunderclouds. Mavis found her best safety lay
+in neutrality. She was quite nice to Opal, but not expansive, and
+whenever opportunity offered she patched up a truce, though the task of
+peacemaker was often a thankless business, for Opal would say: "Oh, of
+course, you side with that sister of yours!" and Merle would indignantly
+accuse her of not taking her part with sufficient vehemence.
+
+Merle had found an ally in Iva Westwood. Iva was a rather
+out-of-the-way girl, proud and reserved. She did not often care to wage
+battle with Opal herself, but she keenly enjoyed hearing somebody else
+do it, and was ready to act "backer-up" within limits. She appreciated
+both the Ramsays, though her particular temperament was more attracted
+by Merle. In a certain off-hand, abrupt fashion she might be considered
+a chum.
+
+On the second Friday afternoon after their arrival at Durracombe, Mavis
+and Merle went to The Moorings as usual. To their immense surprise, when
+they arrived there, they found the whole school arrayed in light frocks,
+silk stockings, and sandalled slippers.
+
+"Hello! What's the meaning of this? Is there going to be a party?" they
+asked quickly.
+
+"Party? No! Don't you know it's dancing afternoon?" replied Nesta,
+re-tying her pale-blue hair-ribbon, which was coming off. "Surely Miss
+Pollard told you?"
+
+"She never said a word about it."
+
+"Well, she told Opal to tell you at any rate. Just when you'd gone home
+this morning I heard her say to Opal: 'Run after those two and remind
+them it's dancing afternoon.'"
+
+"Opal never came near us. What a shame!" blazed Merle.
+
+"We didn't have dancing last Friday," objected Mavis.
+
+"No, because Miss Crompton hadn't come back. We shall have it every
+Friday now."
+
+"Where? In the playroom?"
+
+Nesta laughed.
+
+"Oh no! We don't have it at school. There's no room big enough. We go to
+Miss Crompton's class in the public hall."
+
+"Well, look here! What are we to do?" asked Mavis. "We can't turn up as
+we are? Shall we run home and change into 'war paint'?"
+
+"I don't know. You'd better ask Miss Pollard. Oh, here she is! Miss
+Pollard, please! Mavis and Merle didn't know it was dancing afternoon."
+
+"How very annoying! I told Opal to remind you," said the mistress,
+turning to the aggrieved pair almost as if it were their own fault. "Go
+home to change? Oh no! There isn't time now. You must all come along at
+once or we shall be late. It's a tiresome mistake but it can't be helped
+and you mustn't miss the lesson. You'll know better next week."
+
+"Might we _tear_ home and change, and run on to the public hall?" begged
+Mavis desperately.
+
+"No, no! You must all come together. Never mind. I'll explain to Miss
+Crompton, and it will be quite all right."
+
+It was all very well for Miss Pollard to say "Never mind" in so easy a
+fashion. Mavis and Merle were furious. They possessed dainty dresses,
+thin stockings, and dancing slippers in their wardrobe at Bridge House,
+and when the whole school was arrayed _en fete_ it was most humiliating
+to be marched off in their brown knitted jerseys, ribbed stockings, and
+ordinary serviceable shoes. They both looked daggers at Opal, who just
+then put in an appearance very prettily got up in a white _crepe de
+Chine_ dress and a big, pale-pink hair-ribbon. She started guiltily when
+she saw them.
+
+"Oh, I forgot to tell you two about the dancing. It simply went out of
+my head," she exclaimed.
+
+"Then your head's as empty as a brass nob," exploded Merle. "It was just
+_criminal_ of you to forget. I believe you did it on purpose."
+
+Even Mavis did not attempt to palliate Merle's home truths, for she was
+bubbling over with injury, and sharper words still might have followed
+had not Miss Fanny arrived and swept her whole flock from the house for
+a "crocodile" walk to the public hall. The big room here, engaged by
+Miss Crompton, was certainly a very good one for the purpose, with a
+polished floor and nice decorations, so that it looked quite festive and
+"Christmasy", as the girls, having left their coats and hats and
+over-shoes in the cloakroom, marched in and took their places. The class
+was not confined to the pupils at The Moorings; girls from various
+country houses in the neighbourhood, and a sprinkling of little boys
+were also there. The array of light dresses and thin shoes made the
+Ramsays more indignant than ever. And there would have been plenty of
+time to go home and change. Miss Crompton and her assistants were so
+long in getting the children arranged, that Mavis and Merle might easily
+have been back from Bridge House, robed in their best, before the first
+dance began.
+
+Miss Crompton ascertained that her two new pupils were no novices, then
+placed them in the senior class. In revolt against what some parents
+termed "stage posturing" she had revived some of the old Victorian
+square dances, and was teaching the first figures of the quadrille.
+Merle happened to be _vis-a-vis_ with a girl of about her own age, a
+tall athletic girl with fair hair, who looked as if she would be more at
+home on horseback than in a ballroom, but who, nevertheless, gaped at
+the Ramsays' morning costumes with unconcealed scorn, and arranged the
+skirt of her own pretty dress rather ostentatiously, as if calling
+attention to the difference. When she met Merle in "the ladies' chain",
+instead of joining hands as the figure required, she deliberately
+refused the outstretched fingers and swept past without touching them.
+
+To Merle it was an open insult. She looked at Miss Crompton to see
+whether the teacher had noticed, but Miss Crompton's attention was
+concentrated on two special bunglers, and though the incident happened
+again as the girls crossed back to their own places, it drew down no
+reproof.
+
+"Slack teaching here," thought Merle, fuming with wrath. "Such a thing
+would never have been allowed in our class at Whinburn. I don't know who
+that girl is, but she's an out-and-out blighter. This is one of the most
+grizzly afternoons I've ever had in my life."
+
+The Ramsays were indeed glad when half-past four arrived, and they were
+able to go home and pour out their woes to Aunt Nellie and Jessop, both
+of whom were most sympathetic and indignant about the whole business.
+
+"I'd have brought your dresses to the town hall for you if I'd only
+known," declared Jessop.
+
+"It was a great mistake of Miss Pollard's; she ought to have sent you
+home to change, even if you missed part of the lesson." (Gentle Aunt
+Nellie sounded quite wrathful). "How could you dance properly without
+your thin shoes? Never mind, dears! You'll know better next week, and
+we'll take care you go really nice. I wouldn't worry any more about it
+if I were you. Do your preparation this evening, and if it's fine
+to-morrow perhaps Uncle David will take you with him to Chagmouth. That
+will give you something else to think about, won't it?"
+
+The girls cheered up at this suggestion. They were very anxious indeed
+to go out with Dr. Tremayne in his little Deemster car. He had a branch
+surgery at Chagmouth, a village ten miles away, and every Saturday he
+spent most of the day there, seeing patients and visiting a sanatorium
+to which he was consulting medical officer. He would have taken the
+girls on the previous Saturday, but there had been a strong gale, and he
+was afraid of Mavis running any risks just at first.
+
+"When you're acclimatized we shan't fear a puff of wind or a few drops
+of rain," he said, "but we'll harden you gradually, like Tom does with
+his bedding-out geraniums."
+
+"Devon wind and rain are so soft they don't hurt me," urged Mavis. "The
+whole air has a different feel from the north. It's nearly as mild as
+our summer. Uncle David, I just want to forget I ever had a sore chest!"
+
+"That's the best way; still we must go slow and sure. I don't want to
+have to order you to bed with a bronchitis kettle."
+
+"I hope I've said good-bye to that wretched old kettle for evermore. I
+didn't want Mother to pack it, but she put it in. I'll give it away
+willingly to the first person who needs it."
+
+Saturday morning fortunately proved fine and mild enough to dispel all
+fears on Mavis's behalf, and the girls were ready and anxious to start
+long before Dr. Tremayne had finished his work in the surgery. They
+fumed round the waiting-room door, casting indignant glances at the
+patients seated within, and hoping their cases were not serious, and
+would not require much of the doctor's time and attention; then, finding
+such hanging about rather dispiriting, they went to the garage and
+helped Tom to polish the brasses of the car--a praiseworthy occupation
+that kept them busy until the last patient had been dismissed from the
+surgery.
+
+"Just a few bottles of medicine to make up, and then we're off," said
+Uncle David, giving some instruments to Jessop to sterilize. "Have you
+each got a warm scarf, girls? And where's the rug? Tell Tom to put my
+bag inside the dicky, there won't be room for it in front to-day. You
+two will have to sit close, but we'll squeeze in somehow."
+
+The little yellow car was only a two-seater, but it held three at a
+pinch. Mavis, in the middle, sat as far back as possible, so as not to
+incommode Uncle David's left arm as he drove, while Merle sat a little
+forward, to give extra room. Jessop tucked the rug over their knees, Tom
+started the engine, Aunt Nellie waved good-bye out of the open window,
+and at last they were off, over the bridge and along the road that led
+to the south. It was a lovely sunny morning, with great fleecy clouds on
+the horizon, and a blue sky overhead. Small birds were flitting about in
+the hedges, and large flocks of rooks and starlings were feeding in the
+ploughed fields. The banks were green with masses of beautiful
+hart's-tongue ferns, and all nature seemed alive and stirring and
+thinking of spring. The car whizzed along at a good pace, and they were
+soon scaling the hill and crossing the portion of the moor that lay
+between Durracombe and Chagmouth. The glistening drops from yesterday's
+showers still shone on the brown heather, sheep were feeding on the
+patches of fine grass, and wild little ponies stampeded away at the
+approach of the car, as if they were running a race with motor power.
+
+It was so beautiful on the uplands that the girls were quite sorry when
+the open, hedgeless road dipped between banks into a valley and turned
+into the orthodox deep Devonshire lane. Down and down they went, so
+steeply that Uncle David seemed to be hanging on to the brakes, and for
+at least two miles there was no occasion to use the engine, then quite
+suddenly they whisked round a bend of the road and caught a glimpse of
+the village lying below them. Chagmouth came afterwards to mean so much
+to Mavis and Merle that they never forgot their first sight of it. It
+burst upon them, a compact mass of picturesque houses lying huddled
+between two magnificent headlands crowned with gorse and brown bracken.
+
+A rushing stream ran through the valley, flowed under several bridges,
+and poured itself into the harbour, where gulls were flapping and
+screaming, and the rising tide was rocking the fishing-boats gently to
+and fro. Out beyond the jetty white sea-foam was flying round jagged
+rocks, and a motor-launch was making its way cautiously among chopping
+waves. Though it was only the first of February, the village, owing to
+the large number of its half-exotic shrubs, was framed in a setting of
+green, among which the little colour-washed houses shone like flowers.
+Seen as a bird's-eye view from the road above, Chagmouth indeed looked
+like a gigantic flower border with the emerald sea for a lawn. As they
+dipped downward into the ravine there rose up towards them certain
+scents and sounds intimately connected with the place, and afterwards
+indissolubly associated with it in the minds of the two girls--the
+murmur of running water, the cries of sea-gulls, the twitter of small
+birds, the salt smell of the sea, the pungent smoke of burning
+driftwood, and the faint, aromatic odour of moist evergreen shrubs
+steaming in the sunshine.
+
+Dr. Tremayne halted at a house at the top of the village, and took his
+car round into the stable-yard. The house was a farm, and he rented
+rooms there for the purpose of his profession. A brass plate upon the
+door set forth his surgery hours. People in Chagmouth, unless they were
+seriously ill, kept their aches and pains until Saturdays, for it was a
+long way to fetch the doctor from Durracombe to pay a special visit. The
+waiting-room at Grimbal's Farm was generally full when he arrived, and
+there were enough messages from patients requiring his attendance to
+keep him busy for the whole of the day.
+
+When the car had been put safely under cover, Uncle David took Mavis and
+Merle beneath the great arch of fuchsias that framed the doorway and
+into the wide, old-fashioned hall, where the farmer's wife, who had been
+watching for the car, was standing to greet them.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Penruddock, how are you? Anybody waiting for me this
+morning?" began Uncle David. "You see I've brought my nieces with me
+to-day. They'll take a look round the place while I'm busy. Can you
+manage to find any lunch for them, do you think?"
+
+"Of course I can, Doctor," smiled Mrs. Penruddock. "It's a nice day for
+them to see Chagmouth. It's really quite warm down by the harbour. There
+are ten people in the waiting-room, and I have the messages here. Mrs.
+Glyn Williams said there was no hurry, any time would suit her."
+
+"I'll go up in the afternoon then, when I take the Sanatorium. I'll see
+the people who are waiting now, and then have lunch, please, before I
+begin my round. Have you a watch, Mavis? That's right! Then run down and
+look at the sea, you two girls, and be back by one o'clock. Don't forget
+the time, because I shall have a long round to-day, and must make an
+early start."
+
+Dr. Tremayne disappeared into his surgery, and Mavis and Merle, after a
+few directions as to their route from Mrs. Penruddock, turned down the
+street that led towards the sea. Chagmouth was nothing more than a
+village, though its natives liked to call it a town. To enter it was
+like exploring a new world. The road to Chagmouth was happily too steep
+and narrow for charabancs, so that, even in summer, trippers, with their
+terrible train of sandwich-papers and cigarette-ends, had not yet
+discovered it and defiled its beauty. It was the most picturesque jumble
+of fishermen's cottages that could possibly be imagined; its narrow
+alleys, its archways, its flights of steps, its green half-doorways, its
+tiny windows and chimneys set at every quaint angle, its cobble stones
+and deep gutters, seemed a survival from old days of wrecking and
+smuggling, and transported one's charmed imagination back to the
+eighteenth century. Every corner was an artist's subject, the roofs were
+yellow with lichen, and many of them were covered with masses of ferns;
+fishing-nets hung out to dry over palings, and clumps of valerian and
+stocks and snapdragon grew in the crevices of the walls. Sea-gulls were
+everywhere, as tame as chickens. They sat in rows on the roof ridges,
+they perched on the chimneys, and flapped down into the streets to catch
+the bread the children threw for them, they swam with the ducks in the
+wide pool where the stream emptied itself into the harbour, and circled
+with loud cries round the jetty and the arcade where the fish was
+packed. Nobody in Chagmouth ever molested the gulls; they were the
+mascots of the village, and, according to all traditions handed down
+from time immemorial, to injure one of them would be to court instant
+bad luck and risk at sea. Even the naughtiest boys did not throw stones
+at them, and they were indeed considered almost as sacred as are the
+storks in some countries.
+
+Mavis and Merle, much thrilled with their surroundings, plunged down
+the narrow little street and along flights of steps and under a deep
+archway, till they found themselves by the harbour, where red-sailed
+fishing-boats were at anchor, and blue-jerseyed, bronze-faced men were
+sitting on casks or on coils of rope, smoking, and talking about
+prospects of future catches. It was such a picturesque sight that Mavis
+wanted to linger, but Merle, who could catch a glimpse of the spray
+beyond the breakwater, pulled her on towards the sea. So they climbed
+one flight of steps, and went down another on the far side of the jetty,
+finding themselves on a strip of sand and shingle with high rocks and a
+headland behind, and the stretch of green open channel in front.
+
+The midday February sunshine made gleaming, dancing lights on the
+water. Each wave as it rolled in showed a transparent window of amber,
+then fell in foaming white on the beach, carrying back with it a mass of
+grinding pebbles. The south wind was fresh, but not at all cold. Mavis
+drank in great gasping breaths of it, as if it were something for which
+she had craved and pined. A fortnight of Devon had already brought a
+pink tinge to her cheeks, and the sea air to-day was turning them rosy.
+The girls walked about on the shore, picking up shells, examining the
+great tangled pieces of seaweed, and peeping into the pools among the
+rocks. They would have liked to go round the point, but Mavis's
+wristwatch warned her that time was galloping, and that if they meant to
+climb back up the hill to Grimbal's Farm they must turn at once and
+hurry their steps; so, very reluctantly, they said a temporary good-bye
+to the beach, promising themselves many further visits there on future
+Saturdays, and each taking a cockleshell to carry in her pocket as a
+charm to lure her again to the domain of the sea-nymphs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+Fair Maids of February
+
+
+Mavis and Merle had lunch with Uncle David in the parlour at Grimbal's
+Farm. It was a quaint, old-fashioned house-place, with a horsehair sofa,
+a cabinet full of best china, some enlarged family photographs in gilt
+frames, a very ancient piano, and a round table. It had the faint,
+musty, shut-up scent that clings to a room which is used only once a
+week, but a blazing fire of logs, and a bunch of snowdrops on the table,
+helped to give it a more occupied air. To the girls it was all part of
+their delightful new experience at Chagmouth. Everything was different
+from home, and therefore interesting, and when Mrs. Penruddock brought
+in a bowl of Devonshire cream with the roasted apples they felt they
+were indeed in a land of plenty. When the meal was over, Dr. Tremayne
+retired into his dispensary to make up medicines, telling the girls to
+wait about for him and not go too far away, as he would soon be starting
+on his round, and would take them in the car.
+
+Of course they did not want to stay in the house, so, accepting Mrs.
+Penruddock's invitation "Go just wherever you like", they started to
+explore the farm premises. Clumps of snowdrops were growing among the
+grass in the orchard under old apple trees, some of whose branches held
+boughs of mistletoe. Bulbs were pushing up in the garden, and the daphne
+mezereon was out already in the warm corner near the bee-hives. Through
+the stackyard flowed the stream which was such a feature of Chagmouth,
+and here its glittering, tumbling waters had been harnessed to turn a
+waterwheel that worked a churn, a turnip-cutter, and other farm
+implements. The wheel at present was still, and the girls could go quite
+close and examine it. It was a picturesque affair, yellow with lichen
+and moss, and with green ferns growing on the wall against which the
+water dripped. It was so utterly different from the unlovely, whirling,
+modern machinery to which they were accustomed in Whinburn that they
+climbed down the steep, narrow steps to get a nearer view. Birds were
+flitting hither and thither like dainty water nixies, great sprays of
+periwinkle trailed down the banks, and the stream danced by with a
+gurgling murmur as if it were trying to put some story into words.
+Mavis, standing on the lowest of the steps, and leaning against a blade
+of the waterwheel, threw sticks on to its bosom and watched them as they
+bobbed along on their way towards the sea.
+
+"Hello!" called a voice from above. "If you don't want to get knocked
+into the water you'd better come up. The wheel will be turning in
+another moment. We didn't know you were down there."
+
+The girls made a hurried ascent of the steps, and came scrambling up
+into the stackyard. The stream might have its attractions, but they had
+no wish to try a February bath in it. At the top, by the door of the
+churning-shed, stood a boy of perhaps sixteen, a dark, good-looking boy,
+with clear brown eyes that sparkled and twinkled like the dancing water
+below. He held out a strong hand and helped them up the last of the
+awkward steps.
+
+"Dr. Tremayne sent me to look for you," he volunteered, "and a hunt I've
+had. I thought you must have gone down the town. I wouldn't have found
+you, only I heard your voices. He's ready to start, and in two minds
+whether to set off without you or not."
+
+"Is he waiting? Oh, I'm so sorry! Where's the car? On the road by the
+front door? Can we cut across the orchard here? Oh, thanks! We won't be
+two seconds," and Mavis, scrambling over a fence, made a bee-line for
+the house in hot haste.
+
+"We'd no idea it was so late," added Merle, scurrying after her with
+only half a glance at the knight who had come to their rescue.
+
+The boy stood watching their race across the orchard with an amused look
+in his dark eyes, then he picked up a piece of rope and went away down
+the stackyard to the stables, whistling softly to himself as he walked.
+
+The girls arrived at the front door of the farm at the very eleventh
+hour, for Dr. Tremayne had started the engine, and was on the point of
+setting forth for his visits. They scrambled into the car, pouring out
+breathless apologies.
+
+"You were nearly left behind," he commented. "I've a long round and
+couldn't wait, but I thought you'd like to come with me to the
+Sanatorium; there's such a glorious view up there. It would have been a
+pity to miss it. Yes, put that scarf round your neck, Mavis, certainly!"
+as a scrimmage went on between the two girls, Merle trying to force
+wraps upon her sister, which the latter fiercely resisted.
+
+"I hate to be eternally coddled," protested Mavis.
+
+"You know what Mother said. You must put on extra things in the car,
+especially when you're so hot with running. She told me to make you."
+
+"Right-o! only don't quite smother me, please," agreed Mavis, giving up
+the struggle and submitting to the warm scarf. "Anything for a quiet
+life. Do keep still, and sit more forward, can't you? Uncle David hasn't
+room to drive. Are you going straight to the Sanatorium now, Uncle?"
+
+"I must call at The Warren first to see Mrs. Glyn Williams. That's the
+house, the white one among the trees. They've a beautiful sheltered
+garden there. I wish I could grow early vegetables like they do. They
+seem to escape all the frosts. It's the most forward bit of land in the
+countryside."
+
+In another minute they had passed the great gates and were motoring up
+the laurel-bordered drive to the house. Dr. Tremayne stopped his car on
+the carriage sweep opposite the glass front door, drew off his thick
+gauntlet gloves, took his case of instruments, and rang the bell.
+
+"You'd rather stay with the car than come inside?" he asked the girls.
+"I shall probably be perhaps twenty minutes--not longer, I hope! Walk
+about, Mavis, if you feel chilly. I'm sure Mrs.----" but at that moment
+the butler opened the door, and the rest of the doctor's sentence went
+unspoken.
+
+For a space of five minutes the Ramsays stayed quietly in the car, then
+Merle began to grow restless. She amused herself by inspecting the
+various levers.
+
+"I could start as easily as anything," she announced airily.
+
+"Oh, Merle, _don't_! Uncle David will be so angry if you play any of
+your pranks with the car. Let us get out and walk about till he comes
+back. I'm tired of sitting still."
+
+Anxious to keep her sister away from temptation, Mavis hustled her out
+of the car on to the drive, and began to pace up and down the carriage
+sweep. But this did not content lively Merle. She wanted to sample the
+garden.
+
+"Uncle David was just going to tell us to go when he went indoors," she
+contended, and there seemed so much truth in her argument that Mavis
+yielded, though slightly against her better judgment.
+
+It was so warm that they took off their coats and left them inside the
+car, then they selected an interesting-looking path among the bushes,
+and started to explore. Certainly it was a delightful garden; it had
+lawns and shrubberies and flower-borders, and a brook with a rustic
+bridge over it, and a glade that looked a veritable fairies'
+dancing-place. Mavis and Merle were thoroughly enjoying themselves. They
+were in no particular hurry, because they thought when Uncle David came
+out of the house and missed them he would sound his motor-horn as a
+signal for them to return. They walked on, therefore, some considerable
+way along the course of the little brook. Quite suddenly they heard
+voices, and from a path slightly ahead two girls turned into the glade.
+The Ramsays remembered them instantly. They had been present at the
+dancing-class yesterday, and it was indeed the elder of them who had
+behaved with such extreme rudeness to Merle in the ladies' chain. The
+recognition seemed to be mutual. They came forward briskly towards Mavis
+and Merle, who stood still, feeling decidedly caught, but determined to
+hold their own.
+
+"Hello! What are you doing here in our garden?" began the elder girl
+inhospitably.
+
+"Looking at your flowers," answered Merle.
+
+"Well, I must say that's rather cool. Don't you know you're
+trespassing?"
+
+"No, I don't!"
+
+"Well, you are at any rate. These are private grounds."
+
+"So I suppose, but we're not doing them any harm by walking round them."
+
+"Oh, Merle, _do_ let us explain properly," put in Mavis, trying to stop
+this unseemly fencing. "We came with our uncle, Dr. Tremayne, and we got
+tired of sitting in the car waiting for him, so we took a walk. We
+didn't think anyone would mind."
+
+"Is Dr. Tremayne your uncle? Why didn't you say so before?"
+
+"You never gave us a chance!" snapped Merle. "Of course he's our uncle.
+There goes his hooter. We must scoot back, because he'll be in a hurry
+to start."
+
+"I can show you a short cut," volunteered the younger girl, speaking for
+the first time, and running in front she led the way, between bushes and
+through a vegetable garden, back to the carriage sweep opposite the
+front door.
+
+Here Dr. Tremayne was hooting loudly to recall his wandering nieces, and
+looked not a little relieved at their appearance.
+
+"I thought I'd lost you again," he said, as they came up. "So you've
+been making friends with Babbie? Where's Gwen? Is her wrist better? I
+wanted to look at it. Yes, fetch her, please, Babbie! I may as well see
+her while I'm here."
+
+Mavis and Merle, with eyes fixed on the distant landscape, sat in the
+car while Dr. Tremayne made a hurried examination of Gwen Williams's
+wrist. They did not look in her direction as they drove away, though
+they nodded a stately good-bye to Babbie.
+
+"Think of meeting _that_ girl here," whispered Merle to Mavis. "Isn't
+she odious?"
+
+"I wish we'd never gone into their garden," Mavis whispered back. "If
+there's anything in the world I hate it's being caught."
+
+The brief episode had upset them both. They did not care to explain it
+to Uncle David, and sat rather silent and glum as he drove up the road
+to the Sanatorium. It was not flattering to have been taken for
+trespassing trippers, which was evidently what Gwen had supposed them to
+be. Her reception had certainly been most impolite, and was calculated
+to hurt anybody's feelings. They cheered up a little when they reached
+the top of the hill, and began to forget about it, for in front lay such
+a view of cliff and sea and sky as to send all cobwebs flying away to
+the region where dismal things belong. The Sanatorium had been built in
+a glorious situation, and surely no place in Devon had a more beautiful
+prospect from its open windows. Dr. Tremayne halted outside the gate for
+a few moments, and pointed out to his nieces certain distant features of
+interest, such as the lighthouse, and Port Sennen harbour. He was
+expatiating upon the clearness of the afternoon, when a voice called him
+by name, and, turning round, the girls saw, hurrying along the road
+after them, the boy who had helped them up the steps from the waterwheel
+at Grimbal's Farm. His dark face looked hot. He had evidently been
+running fast.
+
+"I hoped I'd just catch you, Doctor," he exclaimed breathlessly. "You
+left this in the surgery, and I was sure you'd want it."
+
+"My stethoscope! Great Scott! I thought it was in my pocket. Thanks,
+Bevis! I should have had to go back for it. I suppose you came by the
+cliff path?"
+
+"Yes, it saves half a mile at least."
+
+"You're going home that way? I wonder if my nieces would care to go with
+you for the sake of the walk. Girls, would you rather wait in the car
+outside the Sanatorium or try the path along the cliffs to Chagmouth?
+Bevis would act guide."
+
+After their previous experience of waiting for Uncle David, Mavis and
+Merle did not hesitate a moment, and accepted their escort with
+alacrity. A ramble would be far more fun than sitting still in the car,
+or wandering surreptitiously round a strange garden. Dr. Tremayne was in
+a hurry, so the moment they had scrambled out he pulled his
+starting-lever and set off again.
+
+"We'll meet at the farm. Mrs. Penruddock will give you some tea. I shall
+be back by five, so be ready for me then," he called, as he drove away
+along the road through the Sanatorium grounds.
+
+Left behind, Mavis and Merle felt their first and most obvious duty was
+to make friends with the boy who was to act as their guide back to
+Chagmouth. Beyond the fact that his name was Bevis they knew absolutely
+nothing about him. They wondered whether he belonged to Grimbal's Farm,
+or was merely a visitor there. His dark, alert face and his speech and
+general bearing marked him as utterly different from homely Mr. and Mrs.
+Penruddock. Merle, calling up a mental vision of the stout, ruddy-haired
+woman who had charge of the surgery, and the slow, heavy-featured farmer
+whom she had seen in the stackyard, decided hastily, "They can't be his
+father and mother!" Whoever he might be he was a handsome boy, with a
+look of natural distinction about him, that "stamp of the gods", which
+is the hall-mark of a noble mind, quite irrespective of the accident of
+birth. His dark hair had a crisp curl in it, and his mouth held
+beautiful curves when he smiled. Merle, who had lately taken several
+violent prejudices, in this instance decided hotly in his favour. Merle
+never liked people by halves. All her world consisted of foes or chums.
+
+Bevis, who had readily accepted the office of guide, seemed doing his
+best to make himself agreeable. He led the way along a path across some
+fields and on to the headland that skirted the sea. There was a track
+here among the gorse and dead bracken, so faint indeed that the girls
+would not have found it for themselves, though Bevis walked along
+confidently. Below them lay the sea, and great jagged rocks, round which
+crowds of gulls were whirling and calling, and here and there flew a
+cormorant, like a black sheep among the white flock, diving occasionally
+under the waves in quest of fish. There could hardly be a pleasanter
+companion than Bevis. He knew the names of all the birds, and could tell
+where he had found their nests. He pointed out two distant black specks,
+that to the girls might have been anything, but which he assured them
+represented a pair of choughs that built every year on the cliffs.
+
+"We tried to get some eggs," he explained, "but the nest was in such an
+awkward place, we couldn't reach it even with a rope."
+
+"Do you mean to tell me you'd let yourself dangle over the edge there to
+collect eggs?" asked Mavis. "Don't you turn dizzy?"
+
+"Not a bit. As long as I know the rope isn't frayed, I'm all right.
+There's something rather jolly about hanging in mid-air. I feel like a
+bird myself. I once got a hooded crow's egg from that cliff over there.
+I gave it to our school museum."
+
+"Do you go to school near here?" asked Merle, hoping to draw some
+information. But Bevis shook his head.
+
+"I've left now," he said briefly, and changed the subject.
+
+As they neared Chagmouth the track they had followed led them down the
+side of the cliff to where some allotment gardens lay under the shelter
+of the headland. Many of these were neglected and uncultivated, but a
+few showed signs of recent digging. Bevis, pausing by a small wooden
+gate, pointed downwards.
+
+"That's ours," he explained, "and if you don't mind I want to fetch my
+knife. I believe I left it there yesterday when I was working. I won't
+be a minute if you can wait."
+
+"Oh, do let us come too, please!" urged the girls.
+
+So they all went down, scrambling along a kind of sheep track till they
+reached the level patch of rich soil below. The little plot of land was
+mostly devoted to vegetables, but it also held a few fruit-trees and
+some flowers. There was a fallen stump in its midst, which made a
+capital seat, and here the girls settled themselves to rest while Bevis
+looked for his knife. Snowdrops grew in profusion around them, lifting
+tall stalks and pure white heads above the herbage through which they
+had pushed. The late afternoon sun just touched the roofs of the little
+fishing-town below, though the beach lay in shadow. Up among the woods
+some glass windows gleamed like gold.
+
+"Is that The Warren, where we went with Uncle David?" asked Merle, as
+Bevis came back, pocketing his knife. "Whose place is it? It has lovely
+grounds."
+
+"Yes, that's The Warren sure enough. Whose place is it? Why, it belongs
+to General Talland. He's the landlord of most of Chagmouth."
+
+"I thought some people named Williams lived there?"
+
+"So they do, but they don't own the village, however much they may think
+it. They only _rent_ the house--it's not theirs. We Chagmouth folks
+don't want one of your fine society squires thrust down our throats.
+We'll manage our own affairs."
+
+Bevis spoke bitterly, with a look towards the house on the wooded hill
+that sent no goodwill towards its occupants. Merle, burning to relate
+her experiences at The Warren, was about to ask more, but Bevis turned
+abruptly away. He was friendly, but so plainly reserved that nobody with
+an ounce of tact would have tried to force his confidence. Even Merle,
+not usually over-discreet, had the sense to keep back the dozen
+questions that rose to her lips. Their companion was bending among the
+grass and brambles picking snowdrops. He gathered the finest ones, with
+the longest stalks, arranged them into two exactly equal bunches, then
+offered them shyly to the girls.
+
+"We call them 'Fair Maids of February' about here," he said. "It's the
+first of February to-day, and you're the 'fair maids', so you ought to
+have some of your own flowers if you care to take them."
+
+"Oh, thanks!" (Mavis and Merle were flattered by the compliment). "We'll
+love to have them. We'll take them home in the car. What beauties they
+are! I never saw such big ones before. Did you plant them here?"
+
+"I put a few bulbs down years ago, and they've spread. They will if you
+never touch them. Shall we go on now? Mother'll have some tea ready for
+you, I expect. The Doctor generally gets his at the Sanatorium. I
+promised to make up some medicines for him, so I must hurry back."
+
+The girls followed, considerably mystified. Bevis's connection with
+Grimbal's Farm was a puzzle. He left them in the stackyard and plunged
+into one of the barns, and later on they caught a glimpse of his dark,
+curly head through the door of the dispensary. They did not see him
+again before they left. Mrs. Penruddock, kind but too busy for
+conversation, brought the tray into the parlour and left them to have
+their tea, and they had scarcely finished eating saffron-cake and
+hard-bake when Dr. Tremayne arrived, in a violent hurry to get back to
+Durracombe. So they scrambled into their coats and wraps, picked up
+their bunches of snowdrops, and took their seats in the car, and next
+moment they were off up the steep hill that led out of the ravine.
+Before they whirled round the corner they turned their heads for one
+last peep at Chagmouth. The little town lay huddled in twilight, and the
+sea behind was dim as the sky, but the brook purred joyously on its
+pebbly course among the gardens, and the faint scent of burning
+driftwood was wafted up from below.
+
+"This day's going to be specially marked in my diary," murmured Merle.
+"It's been a day of days."
+
+"I feel somehow as if it were the beginning of something else," answered
+Mavis. "Uncle David, you'll bring us here again, won't you?"
+
+"Any Saturday that's fine."
+
+"Then I shall simply live for fine Saturdays and Chagmouth. It's the
+loveliest place I've ever seen. I don't believe there's anything else
+like it in the whole of the wide world, or anywhere else out of
+Paradise. That's how I feel about it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A Child of Misfortune
+
+
+Mavis and Merle were brimming over with curiosity about Bevis and about
+several other affairs in Chagmouth, but they had to keep their questions
+to themselves, for Dr. Tremayne considered that narrow Devon roads in
+the gathering darkness required his whole attention, and that
+conversation might mean an accident.
+
+"You're requested not to speak to the man at the wheel," he replied, in
+answer to Merle's first eager inquiry; "it takes me all my time to
+drive."
+
+So the girls subsided into quiet, and did not even speak to one another,
+but sat watching the glare of the headlights on the road and the dark
+outlines of the high hedges and banks above. They made up for their
+silence, though, after supper, for they found Jessop in the pantry, and,
+offering to wipe the silver for her as an excuse for their presence,
+they began a brisk catechism.
+
+Jessop was a kindly old gossip, a native of Chagmouth, and had all the
+affairs of the little town at her fingers' ends. She was nothing loath
+to discuss its inhabitants while she washed up the supper things.
+
+"To begin with, who is Bevis?" asked Mavis eagerly. "We can't make him
+out at all. He speaks and looks like a gentleman, and yet he talked
+about working in the fields. Does he live at Grimbal's Farm? What
+relation is he to Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock?"
+
+"He called Mrs. Penruddock 'Mother'," added Merle, "but he doesn't look
+the least bit like her son. Is he or not?"
+
+"Yes and no," said Jessop, wielding her dish-cloth as she talked. "Mrs.
+Penruddock has been a good mother to him for a matter of over fourteen
+years now, but his own mother lies in Chagmouth churchyard. She must
+have been a handsome woman from all accounts, though I never saw her
+myself. It was my cousin, Mary, who was barmaid at the 'King's Arms' at
+the time, who told me. It's a long story. There are many in Chagmouth
+besides you who've asked themselves if Bevis isn't a gentleman born. But
+nobody has ever been able to answer the question."
+
+"Why? Oh, do tell us!"
+
+"We want so immensely to know."
+
+Jessop wrung out her dish-cloth with rather irritating slowness, then
+hung it to dry on a nail. She seemed turning matters over in her mind,
+and her mental processes were apparently no swifter than her actions.
+
+"I don't see why I shouldn't. There's nothing you oughtn't to hear,"
+she replied at last, as if coming to a conclusion. "Everybody in
+Chagmouth knows about Bevis, and if I don't tell you somebody else will.
+It's nothing to the lad's discredit, I'm sure. I always say I've a soft
+corner for Bevis. Such a fine boy he always was, and he'll make a fine
+man yet--he's worth two of young Williams at The Warren in my opinion.
+But some folks are born with silver spoons in their mouths and others
+aren't. Bevis isn't one of the lucky ones, poor lad! Providence always
+seems to be taking him up and throwing him down again. What'll be the
+end of him goodness only knows!"
+
+The story which Jessop told to the girls, while she polished the silver
+in the pantry, was lengthy and interspersed with many comments and
+reflections of her own, and many quotations from what other people had
+said, but the main facts of the case, as related to Mavis and Merle,
+were briefly as follows.
+
+Rather more than fourteen years ago, on a stormy afternoon in late
+autumn, such inhabitants of Chagmouth as happened to be standing on
+their doorsteps, or looking out of their windows, noticed a closed
+conveyance from Kilvan station drive along the main street. The
+occurrence was sufficiently unusual to arouse comment. Except in the
+summer season tourists rarely came to Chagmouth, and if any stranger
+made his appearance during the quiet months of the year the villagers
+were naturally inquisitive as to his errand. In a small place every item
+of news is of interest, and those who saw the conveyance pass at once
+began to speculate whether the Rector's sister had come to pay him a
+visit, or whether old Mrs. Greaves's sailor son had returned home on
+leave. The bystanders near the market square had the opportunity of
+satisfying their curiosity, for the carriage stopped at the King's Arms
+Hotel, and from it stepped a lady, young, handsome, and well-dressed,
+and carrying a little child in her arms. She interrogated the landlord,
+who had come to the door at the sound of wheels, paid and dismissed the
+driver, gave one hasty glance round the square, then entered the hotel.
+
+Those inhabitants of Chagmouth who witnessed her arrival agreed
+afterwards that she was "a dark-eyed, smart-looking sort of person, with
+an air of London fashions about her", but their glimpse was a brief one,
+for next moment she and her child and her travelling-bag had disappeared
+inside the doorway of the little hotel, and the conveyance was toiling
+up the hill on its way back to Kilvan station.
+
+Inside the "King's Arms" the lady gave her name as Mrs. Hunter, and
+engaged a private sitting-room and a bedroom, explaining that she had
+heard of the mild climate of Chagmouth and wished to try the benefit of
+its sea air. With the help of the chambermaid she bathed her little boy
+and put him to bed. Later she was served with dinner. At about nine
+o'clock she rang the bell violently, and the servant, who came in
+response to her summons, found her huddled in an armchair, half fainting
+and fighting for breath.
+
+"My heart," she panted. "It's one of my heart attacks. Can you fetch a
+doctor? Oh, I am dying!"
+
+The terrified girl ran for the landlord, who hurried in with brandy. In
+the midst of the general panic someone was dispatched for the village
+nurse, and the ostler mounted a bicycle and rode away to Durracombe to
+summon Dr. Tremayne. The people at the "King's Arms" did their ignorant
+best. They laid the patient on the sofa, rubbed her hands, bathed her
+head, and tried to force brandy between her blue lips; but long before
+any medical aid could reach her, she gave one last shuddering gasp, and
+passed away beyond reach of human help. Dr. Tremayne had been paying a
+night visit to a farm on the moors. It was not possible for him to
+arrive at Chagmouth until the following morning. He found the place all
+agog about the tragic event that had happened. Mrs. Jarvis, the village
+nurse, had performed the last offices. Mr. Tingcomb, the landlord, had
+solemnly collected the poor lady's possessions and had locked them up in
+his safe, and his wife and the barmaid between them were trying to still
+the wails of the little, dark-eyed boy, who did not take readily to
+strangers and refused all their well-meant offers of comfort.
+
+Such a case had never been known in the neighbourhood, for not only had
+the stranger succumbed within a few hours of her arrival at Chagmouth,
+but the news soon leaked out that it was impossible to identify her.
+There were no papers of any kind either in her pockets or in her
+travelling-bag. Her purse contained six pounds in gold and a little
+silver, but no card or address to mark its owner. The police, called in
+to investigate matters, could obtain no clue. On hearing all the
+evidence they ventured the opinion that the lady had probably given a
+false name. London newspapers published an account of the romantic
+happening, and for perhaps a week the public wondered over it, then
+other and more important matters cropped up and it was forgotten.
+
+Meanwhile, in the absence of any information as to who she was or whence
+she had come, the stranger had been laid to rest in the little
+churchyard on the hill, and the rector, in charity, presuming her to be
+one of his flock, read Christian burial-service over her. Whatever her
+errand in Chagmouth her earthly body found its last home there, and most
+of the villagers, some in kindly sympathy and some in mere curiosity,
+attended the funeral and left flowers upon her grave.
+
+Naturally, amid the whole of the sad and perplexing business, the great
+centre of interest was the dark-eyed baby who was toddling about the
+passages of the "King's Arms". He had made friends with Mrs. Tingcomb
+and the barmaid, but resented being kissed by the dozens of women who
+came to see him and gossip over him. He was a bonny, sturdy, little
+fellow, possibly about two years old, who could walk, but beyond a few
+words had not mastered even the elements of speech. The chambermaid, who
+helped at his first bath, remembered that his mother had called him
+Bevis. The possession of his Christian name was felt to be something,
+though all other information about him was painfully lacking. For
+several weeks the police did their best to trace his relations, and Mr.
+Tingcomb lived in hourly expectation that somebody would arrive suddenly
+in a station conveyance to claim him and take him away. But nobody came.
+The excitement died down, and presently even the local newspapers ceased
+to refer to the case. People began to shake their heads and say it was
+plain the poor lamb wasn't wanted, or his friends would have turned up
+from somewhere to find him. Mrs. Tingcomb, very much occupied with her
+house and the bar, began to complain to her neighbours of the burden of
+her charge. It was nobody's business at the "King's Arms" to look after
+a lively boy whose toddling feet led him into every mischief. She even
+hinted that she considered the time had arrived when she could
+conscientiously hand him over to the Poor Law Guardians at the "Union",
+whose obvious duty it was to provide for him.
+
+At this point of the proceedings Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock had stepped
+into the breach. Eight years before they had lost their only child, a
+boy of three, and they now proposed to adopt little Bevis to fill up the
+empty gap in their household. They were kind, homely people, without
+much education, but thoroughly respected in the village, and everybody
+at once agreed that their offer solved the difficult problem. To save
+the child from the stigma of being brought up at the Union was
+everything. Even the poorest fisherman's home would have been preferable
+to that. So little Bevis, with the approval of the whole of Chagmouth,
+was formally adopted and transferred to Grimbal's Farm, where he grew
+apace and learnt to call Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock Father and Mother. If
+gossiping tongues could only have kept silent he might have continued to
+believe they were his parents, but one day, when he was about seven
+years old, he came back from school crying as if his heart was broken.
+Some of the boys had teased him and told him the story, with several
+exaggerations, of how he had been left at the "King's Arms" and never
+claimed. Mrs. Penruddock comforted him as best she could, but she
+acknowledged to her neighbours that he was never the same child
+afterwards. The knowledge had shattered his Paradise. He was a very
+proud, sensitive boy, and the taunts of his schoolfellows rankled.
+Henceforward he felt a sense of difference between himself and other
+children. He was quick to catch any allusions to his position, and a
+word or a glance was enough to bring the colour flooding into his
+cheeks. He fought many battles at school on this score, for he was hot
+tempered as well as proud, and for a year or two he was somewhat of an
+Ishmael, shunning his companions and hurrying home to the haven of
+Grimbal's Farm directly lessons were over.
+
+Then the fates, who seemed to use the boy as a shuttlecock, brought him
+an unexpected turn of good fortune. A lady, who was a summer visitor at
+the farm, took an interest in him, and was much touched by the romance
+of his story. She was well off, and she offered to pay for his education
+at a high-class school. So Bevis went as a boarder to Shelton College,
+where nobody knew anything about his antecedents, and he held his own
+among other boys, and only came back to Grimbal's Farm for holidays, and
+grew up so different from the fisher children of Chagmouth that he was
+less inclined than ever to make friends with them, and was a source of
+much gratification to Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock, who marvelled at his
+learning and his manners, and were as proud of him as a pair of robins
+who have hatched a young cuckoo.
+
+Mrs. Martin, the lady who had provided for Bevis's education, threw out
+hints of Cambridge, and of training him for one of the professions, a
+goal which had spurred his ambition and caused him to work his hardest.
+He was making most satisfactory progress at Shelton College, and was
+already beginning to look forward to choosing a career, when fickle fate
+again interfered, and toppled over all his castles in the air. Mrs.
+Martin died suddenly and left no will. Her heirs-at-law took over her
+estate, and paid any outstanding debts, but they saw no necessity for
+continuing her charities. Bevis's schooldays, therefore, came to a brief
+end, and he returned to Grimbal's Farm with no prospect of ever
+realizing the hopes that tantalizing Fortune had dangled before his
+longing eyes.
+
+"I do say it's hard on him," finished Jessop, as she told the tale to
+Mavis and Merle in the pantry. "He's been educated a gentleman as much
+as young Williams at The Warren--and my cousin, Mary, who saw her,
+sticks to it his mother was a lady born!--yet there he is, working on
+the farm like any labourer, and it's not his job. A head-piece like his
+was meant for book learning and college."
+
+"Can't Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock send him back to school?" asked Mavis.
+
+"No; the farm's not been doing over well lately. They want his help on
+the land, too, and, fair play to the lad, he's giving them of his best.
+It's a poor look-out for him, though, just to carry on at the farm. The
+doctor has been teaching him to dispense, but that's only a step towards
+medicine, and won't do much for him in the long run, I'm afraid. Some
+say it was foolish kindness of Mrs. Martin, and his schooling will have
+done him more harm than good, but you know how folks talk. They're all a
+bit jealous of him really, down Chagmouth way, if the truth be told.
+He's a fine lad, and he sticks to his foster-parents right loyally, but
+you've only to look at him to see he was made for something different
+from farm life, and if ever he gets the chance he'll be off and away, or
+I'm greatly mistaken. There, I've told you all about Bevis, and a little
+too much perhaps, though there's no harm in your knowing, that I can
+see."
+
+"Thank you!" said Mavis. "We're so glad to know. It explains so very
+much that we thought queer about him. I understand it all now. Poor
+Bevis!"
+
+"Yes, poor Bevis, indeed!" echoed Merle. "We'd no idea he had all that
+romantic story behind him when we walked down the cliffs with him this
+afternoon. What you say is just right--he's different altogether from
+other people, and you wonder how it is until you really know the reason
+why."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+The Innovators
+
+
+Mavis and Merle had been so tremendously interested in the romantic
+story of Bevis, as related by Jessop, that it had almost wiped from
+their minds the meeting with Gwen Williams and the rather unpleasant
+episode in the garden at The Warren. On the two occasions that they had
+encountered her she had made a very unfavourable impression upon them,
+so they were more surprised than pleased when on Tuesday morning she
+turned up at the French class. She walked into the room as if her
+presence were a favour, nodded to Opal Earnshaw, gave a half recognition
+to Edith and Maude Carey, but took no notice of anybody else, indeed she
+conspicuously turned her back on Aubrey Simpson and Muriel Burnitt.
+
+"What's Miss Conceit doing here?" Merle whispered to Iva. "I hope she's
+not going to come every day."
+
+"Gwen? Oh no! She and Babbie only come for French twice a week, and on
+dancing afternoons. They have a governess at home, and motor over here
+for special lessons. You don't like her? I don't think any of us do
+much, except Opal, who toadies to her most fearfully. She's always
+fishing for invitations to The Warren."
+
+"It's a matter of taste," replied Merle. "I'm sure I wouldn't want to go
+to The Warren if I was asked."
+
+But at that moment Mademoiselle, who had entered the room and taken her
+seat, glared at Iva and Merle for silence, and the lesson commenced. The
+class lasted from 2.30 to 3.30, after which the Williams's car was
+supposed to be in waiting to bear them back to Chagmouth, and the girls
+at The Moorings were due at a hockey practice. To-day, however, fate
+interfered with both of these events. The chauffeur sent a message to
+Gwen and Babbie that the car was undergoing some necessary repairs at
+the garage in Durracombe and would not be ready for at least an hour,
+and pouring rain put a stop to all plans of hockey.
+
+Boarders and day-girls alike collected disconsolately in the playroom.
+Miss Pollard had given orders that nobody was to go home until the heavy
+shower was over, so the whole school were temporary prisoners.
+
+Mavis, sitting on one of the lockers, and listening to the general
+grousing going on around her, shook herself impatiently.
+
+"What a set of stupids they are," she whispered to Merle. "Always down
+in the dumps about everything. Can't we wake them up somehow? I vote we
+get up an impromptu stunt. It would be more fun than sitting grumbling.
+Why shouldn't we do that scene we had at the Whinburn High last term?
+You remember? _Aunt Laetitia_, I mean. You take the aunt, and I'll take
+Adelaide, and Iva and Nesta could be Dora and Marjorie. We'd explain
+their parts to them directly, there isn't much for them to do except
+back up Adelaide."
+
+"Topping!" agreed Merle. "There'll be heaps of time. Here come Iva and
+Nesta. I'll take them into the cloakroom and coach them while you
+suggest the idea. It ought to catch on surely. I'll leave you to
+explain."
+
+Merle secured Iva and Nesta and bore them off to give them a hasty
+outline of the sketch which they were to produce. Mavis meantime mounted
+a chair, and, clapping her hands to secure attention, made her proposal.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," she started humorously. "I always begin 'Ladies
+and Gentlemen', even if there aren't any gentlemen present, because it's
+the proper thing to say and sounds nice. If you don't mind listening to
+me for a moment there's something I want to suggest to you. This rain is
+the absolute limit, and it's rather grizzly we can't go out to hockey.
+As we're all boxed up here, how would you like a ten minutes' stunt?
+Merle and I and two others can give you a short sketch if you care to
+listen. Anybody who wants to act audience, please squat on the floor."
+
+[Illustration: BOTH MAVIS AND MERLE LET THEMSELVES GO _Page 89_]
+
+The girls looked considerably astonished, but nevertheless seemed to
+welcome Mavis's proposal. They sat down as requested, most of them on
+the floor, but a few on chairs or lockers, seemingly prepared to listen
+to anything that was provided for them. They had not to wait long.
+Mavis and Merle were adepts in arranging lightning changes of costume,
+and could assume a character in a moment by the addition of a hat,
+a coat, or a handkerchief. Acting came naturally to them, and they
+loved nothing better than impromptu performances. They walked in now,
+attired, the one as a straight-laced, elderly lady, and the other as her
+ultra-fashionable niece, and supported by Iva and Nesta, whose speeches
+consisted mostly of "Yes" and "No", commenced a brisk and most amusing
+dialogue, in which the aunt deplored the attitude of the modern girl,
+and contrasted her with the maiden of mid-Victorian days, while the
+niece held a brief for present-day damsels, and gave a lively defence of
+their doings.
+
+Both Mavis and Merle thoroughly let themselves go. They threw themselves
+entirely into their parts, and by speech, manner, and action reproduced
+the characters they represented, quite carrying the audience with them.
+When they stopped at the end of their little sketch they were greeted by
+a storm of clapping. The girls at The Moorings had never seen acting
+like that before and were most enthusiastic over it.
+
+"It was ripping!" approved Opal. "I say, we must have some more of this
+sort of thing. I call it A1."
+
+"I don't know however you did it!" exclaimed Babbie Williams. (She had
+been standing open-eyed during the performance and was now gazing at
+Mavis and Merle as if she considered them geniuses in disguise.) "I'm so
+glad our car wasn't ready. I wouldn't have missed this for anything,
+would you, Gwen?" (turning impulsively to her sister).
+
+Gwen, who had clapped with the rest, did not answer. She too was staring
+at Mavis and Merle, looking at them as if they were some strange new
+creatures whom she could not yet comprehend. Apparently they did not fit
+in with any of her preconceived standards. Meeting Merle's eyes, she
+turned hastily away. A boarder brought a message that their car was at
+the door, so, summoning Babbie, she made a hasty exit without bidding
+good-bye to anybody, even to Opal.
+
+On the strength of the very favourable reception accorded to their first
+venture in the line of drama, Mavis and Merle held a long private
+confabulation, and decided to try and start a society to stir up the
+school.
+
+"They've nothing," said Mavis, "absolutely nothing! And I see
+possibilities of _such_ fun! We ought to get up sing-songs and plays,
+and ten dozen other things. I call it an opportunity."
+
+"Yes, if Opal doesn't butt in and turn everything upside down. We shall
+have her to reckon with I expect."
+
+"Oh, bother Opal! She's not the only girl in the school."
+
+"No, but she thinks she is."
+
+"Give her a decent part and she'll like it as much as anybody."
+
+"She's not going to be top-dog all along the line, though."
+
+"Well, we can't leave her out of it. I suppose she'll have her turn just
+the same as other people, and we'll leave it at that."
+
+Next day, therefore, the Ramsays went to school bristling with ideas,
+and, calling a mass meeting in the playroom, made their proposals. The
+girls, who were ready for anything in the way of variety, accepted the
+innovations with alacrity, and in the course of the quarter of an hour
+allotted to lunch they formed a society, the object of which was, as
+Mavis expressed it, "to stir things up a little and have acting and
+sing-songs and any other fun that comes along". They fixed Wednesday
+afternoon from 4 o'clock to 4.30 for their first meeting.
+
+"Miss Pollard won't mind our staying half an hour after school when she
+knows what it's for," declared Opal. "We'll have our--what did you call
+it?--symposium, then, and I dare say she'll give us other times too if
+we want to rehearse for a play. It would be prime to get up something
+big for the end of the term, wouldn't it? Who's going to read papers on
+Wednesday? Hands up those who'll volunteer?"
+
+"Not much time to write anything before then," grumbled Nesta.
+
+"It needn't be original unless you like," put in Mavis. "For this first
+time you may recite some poetry if you want. It's just to get us all
+together and make a start."
+
+"Are those kids going to be in it?" objected Muriel, with a baneful eye
+on the juniors.
+
+"There's no harm in their coming to listen. It's really more fun if
+there's an audience. In a thing like this it's a case of 'the more the
+merrier'. I vote the whole school turns up on Wednesday at four."
+
+"Yes, yes! Don't leave us out of it!" squeaked the small fry, in much
+terror lest they should be excluded from the delightful ceremony.
+
+"Will you promise to sit as mum as mice and not interrupt?"
+
+"We'll be absolute mascots!"
+
+Mavis and Merle, as originators of the innovations, felt a little
+anxious when Wednesday afternoon arrived. It is one thing to carry on
+old-established societies, where you can quote the traditions of years
+and the opinions of many past head-girls, and quite another to float
+them in a school where nothing of the sort has ever been formulated
+before. Opal's high-handed ways would probably be the main obstacle, but
+Mavis thought that with tact even Opal might be managed. As soon as ever
+afternoon classes were over every girl at The Moorings crowded into the
+playroom. There was a considerable amount of giggling and chattering,
+especially among the younger ones, but Merle, who was accustomed to
+public meetings, called out "Sh-sh!" in loud tones, and, mounting a
+locker, took advantage of the gap of silence to make an announcement.
+
+"The first business of the meeting is to elect a chairwoman. Will one
+of you please nominate somebody and we'll put it to the vote?"
+
+The girls looked at one another, and out of sheer force of habit began
+to murmur "Opal", but Iva Westwood stood up, and, turning rather pink,
+proclaimed:
+
+"I should like to nominate Mavis for the chair. She knows more about it
+than any of the rest of us; and she'll show us what we ought to do, and
+put us in the way of running the society properly."
+
+"And I've much pleasure in seconding her," said Nesta eagerly. "Hands up
+all in favour of Mavis!"
+
+The vote was unanimous. Even Opal held up her hand quite readily. She
+would yield place to Mavis, though she would not have transferred an
+ounce of authority to Merle. Mavis was hustled forward into the seat of
+honour and took her place amid applause.
+
+She made a winsome little president, with her blue eyes and her
+dull-gold hair, and everybody looked at her in expectation.
+
+"As this is our first symposium," she began, "I want to explain that
+it's a meeting partly to have fun and enjoy ourselves and partly to give
+all members an opportunity of showing what they can do. Did I hear
+somebody say 'showing-off?' That's a nasty way of putting it! We want
+everybody to do something to entertain the meeting. Of course there
+isn't time in one afternoon for you all to have turns, so I shall only
+call upon a few, and the rest must wait for another time. I'll now ask
+Opal Earnshaw to read us her contribution."
+
+It was tactful of Mavis to give Opal the first innings. She stood up at
+once, looking quite pleased. She had spent more than an hour the evening
+before writing a story, and was rather proud of her first-born literary
+bantling. Her tastes inclined towards melodrama, so she had chosen a
+scene allowing full scope for romance. She unrolled her manuscript,
+cleared her throat a trifle nervously, and began:
+
+    COUNT BERTINO'S BRIDE
+
+    It was a glorious moonlight night in the fair Island of Corsica.
+    Outside in the garden the air was heavy with the scent of
+    southern flowers, and nightingales warbled in a concert of joy.
+    The lovely Lady Elvira, only daughter and heiress of the Duke of
+    Alezzo, leaned over the marble balustrade of the piazza,
+    pensively gazing at the beauty of the scene before her. A
+    scarlet camellia adorned her dark tresses, and round her
+    swan-like neck was wreathed a rope of priceless pearls. She
+    sighed as she gazed at the calm and peaceful landscape, for red
+    riot raged within her heart.
+
+    "Francesca!" she called to one of her maidens, "has Bernardo not
+    yet returned? I pray you send a page in search of news. 'Tis
+    seldom he tarries so late."
+
+    "I go, my lady!" and Francesca sped on her errand.
+
+    Left alone, Elvira paced the piazza with impatient footsteps. A
+    dark figure moving among the flowers below was suddenly seen in
+    the pale moonlight. The lady sprang to the balustrade.
+
+    "Bernardo! Bernardo! Is it thou?" she whispered in tones
+    tremulous with agitation. But her cheeks blanched, as instead of
+    the longed-for features of her lover appeared the hated visage
+    of her arch enemy Count Bertino.
+
+    "Ha, ha, lovely lady, at last I have found thee alone! Time
+    allows me not to beat about the bush, and, rough warrior as I
+    am, my suit must be brief. Too long hast thou trifled with me.
+    Redeem thy promise and wed me!"
+
+    "Never!" moaned Elvira. "My heart is given to another!"
+
+    "And that other," triumphed the Count, "is now in my power. He
+    lies in my darkest dungeon loaded with chains. Wed me, and he
+    will be restored to liberty. Refuse, and by the tombs of my
+    ancestors he dies the death!"
+
+    "Wretch!" panted Elvira, "you have trapped me! But have a care!
+    I may yet escape from your toils. Swear, by all you hold sacred,
+    that at the hour of our nuptials Bernardo will be released and
+    sent with a safe convoy to Rome."
+
+    "I swear! Yet thou shalt not escape!"
+
+    Great were the preparations for the wedding of the powerful
+    Count Bertino and the heiress Elvira, yet of all the gifts
+    showered upon her the one treasured most by the bride was an
+    emerald ring sent by Albaro, the Moorish alchemist. As she
+    turned it upon her finger she murmured, "'Tis my gate to
+    freedom".
+
+    Beautiful in her bridal jewels, but pale as a lily, she
+    approached the altar, and uttered the fateful words which bound
+    her to the Count, but as he turned to lift her veil and claim
+    her as his wife--
+
+    "It is enough!" she cried, "I have freed him and I pass onward
+    to my rest," and, falling backward to the ground, she expired.
+    Her emerald ring was a poisoned one, and by pressing its points
+    into her fair white hand she had placed herself for ever beyond
+    the power of the cruel and revengeful Count Bertino.
+
+Opal sat down, out of breath but covered with glory. Quite a thrill
+passed round the room at so romantic a story.
+
+"O-o-h! It ought to be put on the cinema," suggested Maude Carey. "I can
+see it all--the balustrade and the moonlight and the count coming, and
+then the wedding scene. How _did_ you think of it?"
+
+"Oh, it just came somehow," admitted Opal modestly.
+
+"Well, it's ripping anyway."
+
+"Only very sad," objected Muriel.
+
+"Tales like that nearly always are sad," put in Mavis; "it wouldn't be
+so romantic somehow if it turned out happily."
+
+"Couldn't the lovers have run away?"
+
+"Of course not," said Opal sharply. "Bernardo wasn't to be released
+until the wedding was over."
+
+"Did he get off after all, or did Bertino break his word?"
+
+"Look here! you mustn't ask so many questions," interrupted Mavis. "If
+we don't hurry on we shall never finish our programme. Perhaps we'd
+better take a comic turn next. Merle, will you give us 'The Dandy
+Musician'?"
+
+There was a piano in the playroom, and Merle moved forwards towards it.
+Her contribution was in the nature of a humorous entertainment.
+
+"I'm going to show you," she explained, "how Professor Vladimir
+Limpidimpidumpski gave a recital in the Town Hall of Gapeford before an
+audience of the most distinguished people in the neighbourhood."
+
+Merle was a capital little actress, and she took off the ways of a
+conceited pianist in a most amusing fashion. She twirled the music-stool
+energetically, sat down with great pomp, threw back her hair, flung her
+hands in the air, touched the keys with much affectation, thumped a
+growling bass, and ran a finger up and down the treble, gazing meanwhile
+at the ceiling with an air of intense sentiment. Then she hunched up her
+shoulders and made a violent and wild onslaught on the instrument,
+banging chords furiously with the weight of her whole arms, and rolling
+her head as if in frenzy; a sudden pause was followed by a faint tinkle
+in the treble, then up went the arms again, her head went down in the
+middle, and she finished by a tremendous thump at either end of the
+piano, while her nose played the central C.
+
+The tremendous bows which she returned in answer to the applause were
+part of the performance, and provoked more clapping. The girls clamoured
+for an encore, but at that she shook her head.
+
+"Professor Vladimir Limpidimpidumpski never gives encores," she
+declared. "He says it takes it out of him, and he can only do it once."
+
+"Poor, frail flower," laughed Nesta. "Send him to a nursing-home for a
+rest cure."
+
+"Right-o! And we'll have your contribution while he goes."
+
+"Oh no!"
+
+"Yes, yes! Don't be bashful! Come along!"
+
+"It's your turn, Nesta, really," urged Mavis, as chairwoman of the
+proceedings.
+
+So Nesta, protesting but rather pleased all the same, was pushed forward
+and volunteered to give a recitation. It was quite a good one too,
+spirited and amusing, and fortunately not too long to hold the engrossed
+attention of the listeners. They clapped it warmly, and Nesta bowed,
+but, following Merle's example, declined to give an encore.
+
+"We'd better scoot on with the programme or we'll never get through till
+next week," she declared.
+
+Maude had brought a piano solo, which the girls received politely but
+coldly, evidently considering it was not the sort of contribution they
+wanted. Muriel warbled a song in a rather weak, thin voice. Edith was
+known to have a manuscript in her pocket, but blushed scarlet and
+utterly refused to produce it, giving up her turn to Iva, who tried a
+recitation but broke down in the middle. Things were getting a little
+slack, and time was running on very fast, so Merle, who knew Mavis had
+prepared a literary contribution, called for an item from "The Chair".
+
+"Yes, yes!" squealed everybody. "Go on, Mrs. Chairwoman. It's your turn
+now. We're not going home without your piece. Hurry up before Miss Fanny
+comes worrying in. She said we might have half an hour, but she should
+break up the meeting if we went on any longer than that. Chair, please!"
+
+So Mavis, who had produced a manuscript the evening before, considerably
+at the cost of her preparation, and was secretly dying to read it,
+though she did not wish to push herself unduly, gave a hasty glance at
+her watch, reduced some giggling youngsters to silence, and commenced to
+read.
+
+    THE SPOOK HUNTERS
+
+    A TALE OF YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
+
+    It had always been the ambition of Tom and Morris to see a good
+    old-fashioned genuine specimen of a ghost or spectre; but though
+    they had visited houses bearing a reputation of being haunted,
+    and had hung about churchyards at midnight, and had even
+    attended seances, their innocent and perfectly natural wish had
+    never been gratified. They were beginning to come to the
+    regretful conclusion that they were not psychic subjects, and
+    therefore incapable of seeing spirits, when once more their
+    hopes rose with a bound. They received an invitation to stay at
+    Cawdor Castle, an ancient building which on really reliable
+    evidence possessed no less than six resident family ghosts, and
+    a few extra visiting spectres as well.
+
+    After begging for the most haunted of all the haunted rooms,
+    Tom and Morris retired to bed with very reasonable expectations
+    of at last obtaining a peep of a real old-world spook. For some
+    time they tried to keep awake and on the look-out, but in spite
+    of their efforts their eyes closed, and they slept and snored.
+    The clock was striking the hour of midnight when Tom suddenly
+    awoke. The moonlight, in orthodox fashion, was streaming into
+    the room, and by his bedside stood a queer, half-transparent old
+    gentleman in a court costume.
+
+    "Hello! Who the dickens are you?" exclaimed Tom. "You don't mean
+    to tell me you're actually one of the family ghosts?"
+
+    "The same--at your service!" replied the old gentleman with a
+    stately bow. "I am Sir Rupert, the second of that name, who
+    lived in the reign of Queen Anne, of blessed memory!"
+
+    "Pleased to meet you, I'm sure!" replied Tom heartily. "Can you
+    introduce me to any more of the family?"
+
+    "With pleasure, if you don't object to accompany me into the
+    picture gallery. We are celebrating an anniversary to-night, and
+    you would find us all at home."
+
+    "Right-o!" agreed Tom, jumping out of bed and following the
+    ghost.
+
+    His spectre friend led him upstairs and into the big gallery of
+    the castle, where quite an assemblage of spirits of various
+    periods was collected, some in armour, some in silks and satins,
+    and some in shrouds. On a dais sat a magnificent individual in a
+    coat of mail, holding a shield emblazoned with the royal arms.
+
+    "King Edward I, the founder of the family!" explained Sir
+    Rupert, taking Tom to be introduced. "Don't be frightened at his
+    Plantagenet manners! He means no harm!"
+
+    "Thanks for the hint!" returned Tom, bowing politely towards the
+    dais as he approached.
+
+    "What, Sirrah! Hast thou no knee for thy Prince?" exclaimed the
+    King angrily. "Make thy obeisance instantly, or by the sprig of
+    broom in my helmet I'll clap thee in prison and torture thee!"
+
+    "Come, come, Edward my boy," murmured a fatherly-looking ghost
+    at his elbow. "How often have I to tell you that these things
+    really aren't done nowadays! You must adapt yourself and learn
+    to march with the times. A court bow is really all that can be
+    required from him, and if you----"
+
+    "Oh, please don't worry," interrupted Tom. "I'll adapt my
+    manners to any period that pleases him if you'll kindly coach me
+    as to exactly what he wants me to do. I take it he wishes me to
+    kneel."
+
+    And down went Tom on his knees, anxious to oblige, but, to his
+    great surprise, as he touched the floor he fell completely
+    through, and found himself back in bed with the sun streaming
+    through the window, and Morris, whom he had quite forgotten to
+    introduce to the ghosts, snoring comfortably by his side.
+
+Some of the girls sniggered at Mavis's story, a few timorous ones
+shuddered at the bare idea of ghosts, and some of the small fry asked if
+it were true; but just as Mavis was comforting them with the assurance
+that it was absolute fiction, Miss Fanny opened the door of the playroom
+and brought the symposium to an end.
+
+"You day girls must go home at once," she decreed. "I gave you half an
+hour, but I can't have you lingering here any longer. Iva, you ought to
+be practising. You little ones must go and wash your hands!" and,
+separating her flock like sheep and goats, she swept the boarders away
+to their various duties or occupations, and sent the rest to their
+several homes.
+
+"I don't think Miss Fanny altogether likes our society," ventured Merle,
+as the Ramsays walked down the High Street.
+
+"She's afraid of anything new, that's evident," said Mavis. "She's lived
+in an out-of-the-way corner of the world and doesn't know what goes on
+in other schools. Well, we've made a beginning and had our symposium!"
+
+"And a jolly good one too! The girls said it was topping, and they're
+just clamouring to have another."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+The Warren
+
+
+Mavis and Merle went to Miss Crompton's class on Friday afternoon in
+their dainty best dresses, silk stockings, and dancing sandals. Their
+appearance was certainly very different from what it had been last week
+in their brown jerseys and school shoes. They noticed Gwen Williams look
+them up and down, but she did not speak to them or give them any sign of
+recognition. Beyond an occasional word with Opal, Iva, or the Careys,
+she would not be expansive with any of the girls at The Moorings,
+holding aloof in a rather obtrusive fashion, and giving them to
+understand that though she might attend their French and dancing classes
+she must not be regarded as a member of the school. Babbie, who was of a
+much more sociable disposition, would often try to linger to talk with
+companions of her own age, but Gwen invariably interfered, and would put
+a stop to the incipient friendships, giving her younger sister glances
+of very plain reproof.
+
+"Why are those Williams girls so dreadfully conceited?" Merle asked her
+partner, as they practised a two-step. "I can't see that they're
+different from other people, but Gwen behaves as if she were a princess,
+and it was hardly etiquette for the rest of us to speak to her. It's
+perfectly absurd!"
+
+"Well, you see, the Glyn Williamses think themselves 'county' and won't
+visit with anybody else. They've a beautiful place at Chagmouth, The
+Warren."
+
+"I know. I've seen it. But does it really belong to them? I somehow
+thought it didn't."
+
+"Well, you're right, and I believe it's rather a sore point. The Glyn
+Williams only rent The Warren. They've plenty of money and they'd like
+to buy it, but General Talland, to whom it belongs, won't sell it at any
+price. It has been in his family for hundreds of years."
+
+"Why doesn't he live at it himself, then?"
+
+"He hasn't been home for years and years. He's governor of a place
+called San Benito in the West Indies. He left England after his only son
+died, and he has never been back since. I should think Chagmouth people
+have almost forgotten him. The Glyn Williams are everything there now,
+or think they are at any rate."
+
+"That I can very easily believe," said Merle, with a glance at Gwen,
+who, apportioned by Miss Crompton to dance with Aubrey, was circling
+round without deigning to bestow a single word upon her unwelcome
+partner.
+
+To Mavis and Merle, Chagmouth, where so far they had only spent a
+single day, had become the very hub of the universe. They wanted to see
+its quaint streets again, and to revisit the beach and to explore the
+woods. More than anything they wished to renew their brief acquaintance
+with Bevis. His personality had attracted them, and his romantic story
+appealed to their imaginations. They ventured to say something about him
+to Uncle David.
+
+"Bevis? Oh, he's a fine lad!" replied Dr. Tremayne. "He's rather out of
+his element on the farm, but there seems nothing else open to him at
+present. I wish I could see him doing something better. He'd make a
+splendid doctor. The way he has picked up dispensing is simply
+wonderful. I can trust him to make up prescriptions now, and it's the
+greatest help. He loves pottering about the surgery. It's far more in
+his line than hedging or ploughing. But he doesn't spare himself on the
+land; I'll say that for the lad. By the by, are you two coming with me
+to Chagmouth to-morrow? I believe the sea air did Mavis good. She's
+losing that transparent look, and getting a tinge of colour in her
+cheeks."
+
+"I haven't had a cold since I came to Durracombe," boasted Mavis.
+
+"Touch wood or you'll be catching one to-morrow," put in Merle hastily.
+"Uncle David, we'd go to Chagmouth every day if you'd take us."
+
+"Oh, I dare say! And what would happen to your lessons, Miss Lazybones?"
+twinkled the doctor. "One holiday a week is quite enough for you."
+
+The girls were growing to love Uncle David. He was so kind, and genial,
+and pleasant, and had always some little joke or funny story for them.
+Half of the pleasure of the day at Chagmouth would be the drive there
+and back in his company. There was a broad restfulness about him that
+was like a mental tonic. It was as if he had learnt the secret of
+outliving all unnecessary cares and worries, and could radiate his
+peaceful atmosphere into the auras of others. Perhaps it was this
+quality of unconscious healing that gave him such skill and favour as a
+physician. Certainly patients would begin to brighten up when he merely
+stepped into the sickroom. "The dear old doctor", as he was generally
+called, was a figure in the country-side, and a source of moral as well
+as physical good in his practice.
+
+It was with absolutely beaming faces that the girls set out with him in
+the little yellow Deemster car the following Saturday morning. They
+started earlier than the week before, for there were several visits to
+be paid at farms or cottages on the way, all of which took considerable
+time, but by exceeding the speed limit on level stretches of road the
+doctor reached Chagmouth at noon, to find the usual crowd of patients
+waiting at his rooms. Judging that he would be boxed up in the surgery
+for more than an hour, and that they would therefore have ample leisure
+for a stroll before lunch, the Ramsays decided to explore some of the
+fields that lay round Grimbal's Farm, and selected a path that seemed to
+lead in the direction of the cliffs and the sea. They looked about for
+Bevis in the stackyard, but he was nowhere to be seen. Probably he was
+working on the land, or possibly he might even be at sea, for Mr.
+Penruddock was part owner of a trawler, and as much fisherman as farmer.
+
+They walked across two meadows, went through a little spinney where
+hazel catkins were opening fast, and actually a few primroses were
+peeping through the carpet of dead leaves; then came to a stile which
+led down into a deep lane. Mavis went first, and was in the very act of
+stepping cautiously over, when suddenly through a hole in the opposite
+hedge dashed a fox terrier and seized her by the skirt. It was just
+enough to destroy her balance, and she fell forward on to her hands and
+knees. Merle, hurrying after her, attacked the dog with a stick she was
+carrying, and for about three moments there was a wild scrimmage, Mavis
+shrieking with fright, the fox terrier yapping and yelping, and Merle
+laying on blows. They had imagined themselves alone, but the
+country-side is more full of ears than we generally know, and at the
+same instant two people came running from opposite directions, one from
+the lane and the other from the fields. The first, a tall boy carrying a
+gun, was evidently the owner of the dog, for he called it angrily away,
+and after a final snarl it ran towards him, helped in its progress by a
+hearty kick from Bevis, who had jumped over the opposite hedge. Mavis
+picked herself up, and the four young people stood together in the deep
+lane. It was Merle, of course, who spoke first.
+
+"Look what your brute's done!" she said indignantly, turning to the
+dog's owner, and pointing to a rent in Mavis's skirt. "You ought to be
+ashamed of yourself to let him attack people like this. Why don't you
+muzzle him?"
+
+The boy regarded Mavis and the damage to her apparel rather coolly.
+
+"You must have done something to make him fly at you," he replied. "Of
+course he'll go for people if they throw stones at him."
+
+"I didn't throw stones." Mavis's voice quivered with injured annoyance.
+
+"Well, you're not much hurt anyway! If you'd keep to the roads instead
+of wandering about people's fields you wouldn't get into trouble."
+
+"She's a perfect right in our fields," broke in Bevis hotly. "If she
+wants to go there why shouldn't she? It's no business of yours."
+
+The boy lifted his eyebrows as if amazed at the outburst.
+
+"Oh, certainly not! None at all!" he replied in supercilious tones.
+"Have anybody you like in your own fields. It doesn't concern me. What a
+fuss about nothing."
+
+And, shouldering his gun, he turned back up the lane with the fox
+terrier at his heels.
+
+"You might at least apologize," Merle shouted after him, but he took not
+the slightest notice and did not look behind. In another moment the
+hedge had hidden him from their view.
+
+"What an absolute bounder!" fumed Merle. "He ought to have said he was
+sorry instead of walking off like that. Who is he?"
+
+Bevis was standing staring up the lane with a frown on his dark face.
+
+"It's young Williams from The Warren," he replied. "He thinks himself
+cock-of-the-walk in Chagmouth, but he'd better not try on any of his
+airs with me. He might own the place by the way he behaves. If I catch
+him with that gun rabbitting in any of our fields I'll let him know."
+
+"Does he go into your fields?"
+
+"He goes anywhere he likes about Chagmouth, and I've heard many people
+grumble. He may take his own advice and keep to his own property.
+They've all the shooting on the moors above, and that ought to be enough
+for him! I've no patience with young sparks like he is."
+
+Mavis was not really hurt by her adventure, but she had been frightened,
+and was still feeling upset and disinclined to continue their walk. With
+Bevis for protection the girls turned back towards the farm, where Mrs.
+Penruddock, who was loud in her indignation and sympathy, took out her
+thread-basket and hastily caught together the rent in Mavis's skirt.
+
+"That'll keep for this afternoon, and Jessop can darn it properly when
+you get home," she declared. "Folks ought to pay for the damage their
+dogs do. And clothes at such a price now! It was a mercy you weren't
+bitten I'm sure. I'd have had something to say to young Williams if I'd
+been there. I wouldn't have let him walk away as if it was nothing!
+He'll have to be taught a lesson some day, if I'm not mistaken. And
+serve him right too, with all his airs and his impudence."
+
+In the short interval that remained before lunch the girls made a tour
+of the stackyard and farm buildings. They wanted to see the waterwheel
+again, and it was fun to climb up ladders and peep into lofts, to
+explore the dim recesses of barns, or inspect the poultry runs, where
+fussy hens, shut up inside coops, were clucking to adventurous little
+families of downy chicks or ducklings. But the crowning place of all was
+the shed where Bevis kept his carpenter's bench. The boy was very natty
+and clever at joinering, wood-carving, and mechanics. He had several
+model boats and a toy engine, which he had constructed himself, to show
+them, and he volunteered to make them a little grindstone upon which
+they could sharpen their penknives.
+
+"How topping! We'll come and watch you while you do it," declared Merle.
+
+"If you don't mind our looking on," added Mavis.
+
+But alack! shortly after lunch a most untoward thing happened. Dr.
+Tremayne had brought the car round from the yard into the road opposite
+the front door of the farm, preparatory to paying his usual weekly visit
+to the Sanatorium. He was pottering about inspecting various valves and
+nuts, in the manner of motorists, and Mavis and Merle, who had
+constituted themselves assistant chauffeurs, were armed with dusters and
+were trying to clean the splashboards, which had been much spattered
+with mud on the journey from Durracombe that morning. Uncle David prided
+himself upon a spick-and-span car, and liked to turn up at the
+Sanatorium with the little Deemster looking its best. Both girls were
+working away energetically, when round the corner from the village there
+suddenly appeared the whole of the Glyn Williams family, heading
+straight up the road towards Grimbal's Farm. Merle spied them first. She
+was on the side of the car nearest the house, and, with a presence of
+mind that amounted almost to instinct, she bolted inside the door like a
+rabbit into its burrow. Mavis, whose back was towards the village, was
+quite unaware that anyone was near till she heard Dr. Tremayne's
+greeting, and, turning round, found herself face to face with Gwen,
+Babbie, their mother, their brother, and the fox terrier. If she could,
+with any decency, have fled after Merle she would have done so, but
+there was no possibility of escape. She was already in their midst, and
+Uncle David--dear, tiresome man--was saying: "You know my niece?"
+
+Mrs. Glyn Williams, a portly, rosy-faced lady, with a kind but rather
+patronizing manner, held out a white-gloved hand.
+
+"Of course! You go to school at The Moorings, don't you? How nice for
+you to motor over to Chagmouth with your uncle on Saturdays. Are you
+going with him to the Sanatorium? What is it, Babbie, dear?" (for her
+younger daughter was whispering eagerly in her ear) "Oh yes, my
+precious! Doctor, won't you leave your niece on your way, and we'll show
+her round The Warren and keep her for tea? You can pick her up as you
+drive back."
+
+There are some invitations which it is utterly impossible to refuse.
+Mrs. Glyn Williams had, to use a sporting term, "caught her bird
+sitting". Mavis glanced at Uncle David with mute appeal in her blue
+eyes, but he quite mistook her dismay, and instantly accepted on her
+behalf.
+
+"We're going straight home now, through the woods, so come as soon as
+you can," urged Babbie, following the family as they turned up the road.
+
+Could anything have been more utterly and entirely aggravating?
+
+"Oh, Uncle David! How _could_ you?" exclaimed Mavis reproachfully. "I'm
+not dressed to go to tea at The Warren. I only came in my school skirt
+and jersey. We meant to scramble about the farm this afternoon."
+
+Dr. Tremayne focused his eyeglasses on his niece's attire. Such an
+aspect of the visit had never occurred to his innocent masculine mind.
+
+"Bless my life! You look very nice, both of you," he decided.
+
+"Both of us? _I'm_ not asked, thank goodness," declared Merle, who had
+overheard the interview and emerged from the sanctuary of the doorway
+now the coast was clear.
+
+"It wouldn't matter, child. I'm sure Mrs. Glyn Williams would be
+pleased to see you. It was stupid of me not to mention you were here
+too."
+
+"I'm so _thankful_ you didn't."
+
+"Am _I_ to be the solitary victim?" asked Mavis's plaintive voice in its
+most injured tone.
+
+"Go with your sister, Merle," urged Dr. Tremayne, who felt rather in a
+quandary.
+
+"No, Uncle David, dear," replied Merle firmly. "If I wasn't invited I
+wasn't, and it wouldn't be manners to turn up. I'll go with you to the
+Sanatorium if you'll take me," and she added privately to Mavis:
+
+"If one of us had to be asked to tea at The Warren I'm glad it's you.
+Gwen can't bear me, and it was I who said the nasty things to that boy
+in the lane. What's his name? Tudor! He deserved them, of course, but it
+would make me shy to meet him again. You always get on much more
+pleasantly with people than I do."
+
+"We shall have to tell Bevis we're off in the car," said Mavis
+disconsolately.
+
+They found Bevis already at his bench in the tool-shed and evidently
+expecting them. His face fell at their news, and, though they both did
+their very best to explain the situation, he remained glum, and seemed
+to think they wished to avoid his company.
+
+"Oh, it's quite all right!" he remarked, and that was all they could
+get out of him. He took up his mallet, and commenced to hammer so
+vigorously that they fled from the noise.
+
+"He says it doesn't matter, but he's fearfully huffy and offended,"
+whispered Merle.
+
+"Well, we can't help it. Everything has gone wrong to-day," sighed
+Mavis.
+
+There was no time to put things right with Bevis, for Dr. Tremayne was
+hooting for them to start at once. He set Mavis down at the great gate
+of The Warren, and took Merle on with him to the Sanatorium. Mavis
+walked very solemnly up the laurel-bordered drive. She seldom went
+anywhere without her sister, and hated paying this stately visit alone.
+She rang the bell, feeling shy and frightened, and painfully conscious
+of the conspicuously darned rent in her skirt. She wondered if Tudor
+would have explained its origin.
+
+The butler admitted her into a lovely conservatory, then through a large
+hall into the drawing-room. Certainly it was a beautiful house, and
+Mavis might have enjoyed herself if only Merle had been with her. Her
+greeting by the young people was far pleasanter than she had
+anticipated. Babbie was frankly cordial, Gwen unwontedly courteous, and
+Tudor went so far as to accompany his sisters when they took their guest
+for a stroll round the grounds. He walked a little behind, and made no
+attempt at conversation, but she could see him eyeing the darn in her
+skirt. Later on, while Gwen and Babbie were speaking to a gardener, and
+for the moment he was alone with Mavis, he mentioned their meeting in
+the lane.
+
+"I say, you know," he began, "I'd no idea you were Dr. Tremayne's niece
+when I saw you this morning. Did Jim scare you? He's rather a young
+dog!"
+
+It was exactly the same excuse that Gwen had urged in defence of the
+rude reception she had given them in the garden. Mavis wondered
+privately whether the Williamses only kept their good manners for their
+friends, and meted out less civil treatment to strangers. But aloud she
+answered:
+
+"He did rather frighten me, but I wasn't hurt."
+
+"He bolted out of the hedge before I'd time to stop him. I say, you
+know, I'm sorry if he scared you. He's only a young dog and means no
+harm."
+
+His tardy apology was evidently mainly due to the fact that she was Dr.
+Tremayne's niece, but Mavis had the grace to accept it politely, after
+which the atmosphere seemed to thaw, and Tudor exerted himself to
+entertain the visitor, offering to take her to the stables and show her
+the horses. Gwen expanded at this, being very proud of her own little
+cob, Taffy, and delighted to exhibit him to anybody who would appreciate
+him.
+
+"Do you hunt?" she asked airily. "I'd live on horseback if I could. Cars
+are all very well in their way, and get you over the ground, but
+motoring's nothing to riding. Taffy nips over fences like a bird. I'd
+ride him to Durracombe when I come for the French class if it weren't
+for Babbie. It's too far for her pony, so we have to go in the car."
+
+Gentle Mavis invariably made friends, and before her visit at The
+Warren was over she was on quite pleasant terms with Tudor, Gwen, and
+Babbie.
+
+"You must come again sometime," said Gwen graciously, accompanying her
+to the door, when Dr Tremayne called for her with the car.
+
+Merle, who had been temporarily left at the bottom of the drive, was
+waiting for them, and took her place for the homeward journey.
+
+"Well?" she asked eloquently.
+
+"Better than I expected. Babbie's really rather sweet. Gwen showed me
+her horse, and Tudor actually apologized. I don't dislike him _quite_ as
+much as I did this morning. He goes to Eton, but he's at home this term
+because he has been ill. He taught me to play bagatelle after tea, and
+was wonderfully decent--but, oh no! of course not _nearly_ so nice as
+Bevis."
+
+"And Bevis, to judge from the way he banged with that mallet, is in a
+thoroughly bad temper."
+
+"Oh, surely he's got over it by this time?"
+
+"I don't know. I'm afraid he thought us a couple of utter sneaks,"
+grunted Merle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A Question of Honour
+
+
+For the last five years Mr. Glyn Williams, a prominent London financier,
+had rented The Warren from General Talland. He liked the place, and
+would gladly have bought the whole property had it not been entailed. He
+still lived in hopes that it might ultimately become his own, and
+periodically made offers to the owner and heir to effect a settlement.
+Meantime, failing absolute possession, he posed to his city friends and
+to his neighbours in the county as the squire of Chagmouth. He was a
+well-disposed man, according to his lights, and in his own way he had
+done a good deal for the place. He had built a reading room and
+institute, had helped to renovate the church, had contributed largely to
+the war memorial, and headed the list of all local subscriptions. His
+wife was on numerous committees, had organized many charities,
+entertained the Sunday School children in her garden, got up concerts or
+tea-parties, attended mothers' meetings, opened bazaars, and distributed
+prizes.
+
+Yet all the same Chagmouth was not as grateful as perhaps it ought to
+have been, and the family at The Warren were by no means favourites in
+the little town. The root of the trouble was that Mr. and Mrs. Glyn
+Williams made the common mistake of thinking that because they rented
+the Hall, and dispensed large sums in subscriptions, they had the right
+to order the affairs of their less wealthy neighbours, and to have the
+first say in everything that was to be done in connection with the
+place. Chagmouth people greatly resented being patronized. They were
+born of the good old sturdy, self-reliant stock that furnished Drake and
+Raleigh and other half-forgotten heroes, and they had been accustomed in
+their slow independent fashion to manage their own business to their own
+satisfaction. For General Talland, whose family link with the parish
+dated from the time of the Armada, they had held a respect based partly
+on his birth and partly on personal appreciation, but they saw no reason
+to offer any undue deference to his tenant at The Warren. Money alone
+cannot purchase favour, and the unfortunate attitude of superiority and
+fashionable aloofness adopted by the whole of the Williams family had
+created a considerable atmosphere of prejudice against them. To many of
+the Chagmouth people they were a sore trial, and the haughty manners of
+the young people were voted insufferable in the village.
+
+Dr. Tremayne, however, who had been medical adviser at The Warren for
+several years, always met with a happy reception. He was a favourite
+with rich and poor alike, for he gave equal attention to all his
+patients, whether their incomes were small or great. He held those wide
+views of life which estimate people at what they are and not at what
+they possess, and he always seemed to have the happy knack of bringing
+out the best in those whom he met. Mrs. Glyn Williams had perhaps taught
+her daughters many foolish and unworthy lessons, but in the presence of
+the unworldly old doctor the little snobberies melted away and the
+higher standards prevailed.
+
+It was for the sake of Dr. Tremayne that Gwen, when she next appeared
+at The Moorings, bestowed a grudging recognition on Merle and extended a
+rather patronizing friendship to Mavis. The latter was not specially
+attracted, though she received the advances politely. Most of the girls,
+however, seemed to think her only too lucky to be thus noticed. Opal
+worshipped openly at Gwen's shrine. She copied her frocks, her manners,
+and her style of hairdressing, and offered up much incense before the
+altar of fashion. The Ramsays, who were accustomed to the democratic
+atmosphere of a big high school, fretted at the narrowness of the
+outlook. They disliked the days when the Williamses attended the French
+class, for Opal always put on absurd airs and was particularly "high and
+mighty" and aggravating. She had not improved as the term went on.
+Indeed, a new and most unpleasant aspect of her had lately revealed
+itself. She was not altogether fair over her work. On several occasions
+Mavis and Merle suspected her of cheating. They could not absolutely
+convict her of it, but the circumstances seemed very incriminating. They
+mentioned the matter to Iva, who shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Of course Opal cheats when she gets a chance. We all know that. But how
+are you going to stop it? If you told Miss Fanny she wouldn't believe
+you."
+
+"I hate sneaking," said Mavis. "But couldn't we do something with Opal
+herself?"
+
+"You'd have to catch her first."
+
+"Yes, that's the difficulty."
+
+It is not at all an easy matter to convict a girl who cheats on the sly.
+Several times Merle, who sat just behind, thought she saw Opal make
+hasty corrections as Mademoiselle revised the French dictation, but when
+she taxed her with it afterwards Opal denied flatly, and with huge
+indignation.
+
+"As if I should," she fumed.
+
+"Seeing is believing," maintained Merle.
+
+"Do you mean to accuse _me_--the head girl--of cheating! I wish you'd go
+and tell Miss Pollard or Miss Fanny. They know me too well to listen to
+a word you'd say. Why, I'm their own god-daughter!"
+
+"Unfortunately that doesn't make you immaculate."
+
+"Though it ought to, when they trust you so," added Mavis.
+
+Discussing the matter between themselves, the Ramsays decided that in
+this very point lay all the trouble. The Misses Pollard, in their
+foolish fondness for Opal, were making a grave mistake. They
+deliberately shut their eyes where she was concerned, and were always
+biased in her favour.
+
+"It's such an amateur little school," sighed Merle. "I don't mean the
+lessons, because those are really rather good, but the discipline is
+horribly slack."
+
+"Hardly exists," agreed Mavis. "Miss Fanny says easily, 'Now, get along,
+girls!', and a few try to work and the rest don't, and she never _makes_
+them. I hate a slack teacher, however clever she is."
+
+"Everything is so casual," groused Merle. "There's no proper order even
+in answering questions. Opal raps out the answers if she knows them, and
+gets all the credit. It's most unfair. I should like to send Miss Fanny
+for a term to Whinburn High, and let her see how things are managed at
+other schools. It would be an eye-opener for her."
+
+"And for Opal too, if she could go as well. It would just do her all the
+good in the world."
+
+Evidently the only thing to be done was to keep a careful eye upon the
+delinquent, and bring her to book at the first opportunity that offered
+sufficient private evidence without taking the affair to the teacher's
+notice.
+
+Now it happened that one afternoon Gwen Williams left her French
+dictionary behind her in the classroom and went home without it. It was
+found in due course by Muriel Burnitt, who flung it into the school
+"pound", a lost-property basket from which objects could be redeemed by
+the payment of a penny into the missionary box. Both Mavis and Merle
+witnessed the placing of the book in this receptacle, though they gave
+no particular thought to the matter at the time. On the next French day
+Gwen came fussing into the classroom asking for her missing dictionary,
+and was much put out to find it was not forthcoming.
+
+"I _know_ I left it on the desk," she maintained.
+
+"So you did, and I popped it into the pound," said Muriel. "Pay your
+penny and you'll get it out. It's perfectly simple."
+
+But when Gwen walked over to the lost-property basket, and inspected its
+contents, she found an assortment of pencils, india-rubbers, and
+pen-holders, but certainly no dictionary. She was loud in her wrath, and
+the girls immediately round her began to offer comments and advice.
+
+"It was there yesterday."
+
+"I saw it myself."
+
+"Opal redeemed a penknife this morning."
+
+"You'd better ask her if she knows where it has gone."
+
+"Here she comes!"
+
+Yet at that exact moment Mademoiselle entered also, and the girls took
+their places. In the course of the lesson she gave her pupils a piece of
+unseen translation. It was a difficult passage, and to many of them an
+almost impossible one to render into English. Each had her closed
+dictionary placed on the desk in front of her, and cast longing looks at
+its covers, but to open it was, of course, not permitted. Now Merle was
+sitting just behind Opal, and she noticed the latter glancing constantly
+down on to her knee. Merle could not see the object of this close
+attention, but her suspicions were aroused. She dared not speak, but she
+scribbled a little note on a piece of waste paper:
+
+"Keep an eye on Opal's knee, and see if she hasn't got your dictionary."
+
+This she addressed to Gwen and handed it surreptitiously along by Nesta
+and Iva.
+
+Gwen read it, and gave a nod of comprehension while Mademoiselle was
+looking the other way. The moment the lesson was finished she stood up,
+moved along the desks, and made a sudden grab on to Opal's lap.
+
+"Hello! What are you doing with my dictionary?" she asked.
+
+Opal turned white and then scarlet, but she was ready with a plausible
+excuse.
+
+"I--I found it," she stuttered. "I was going to give it back to you."
+
+"Indeed!" Gwen's tone was scathing. "I happen to know it was put inside
+the pound. Why did you take it out? It's extremely kind of you to have
+put a brown paper cover on it. If you intended to give it back to me why
+didn't you hand it over before the class began?"
+
+"There--there wasn't time!"
+
+"Oh, good gracious, don't tell me any more fiblets! You meant to stick
+to it, and you were cribbing from it on your knee. Nice thing for a head
+girl to do, I must say. I've not much opinion of you here at The
+Moorings."
+
+Opal protested, but Gwen would not listen to a word she had to say,
+and, pulling the paper cover off the dictionary, stalked out of the room
+with the air of an offended queen. The girls sniggered openly.
+
+It was so seldom Opal met her match. To have drawn down the wrath and
+displeasure of Gwen was a particular humiliation to her.
+
+"Rather priceless, wasn't it?" chuckled Merle to Iva. "Hope it will
+teach her not to cheat in future."
+
+"Don't flatter yourself. She will directly she gets the chance. She's
+done for herself with Gwen though for the present."
+
+Iva's opinion of Opal was founded on experience. There was an
+unfortunate moral kink about the head girl that often involved her in
+very shady transactions. It was a deplorable thing for the school, as
+instead of upholding the tone she lowered it. Mavis often wondered how
+Miss Fanny could be so foolish and weak as not to see for herself that
+her favourite evaded rules. Out of sheer bravado Opal would often do
+forbidden things, and would boast that she could venture on them with
+impunity where others would surely get into trouble. One mean dishonesty
+above all others aroused the Ramsays' indignation.
+
+The top form took arithmetic with Miss Fanny. It was a subject which
+Opal disliked, but for the last two or three lessons she had worked all
+her problems correctly. Miss Fanny, who ought to have known better, left
+her Key to the arithmetic on the mantelpiece of the classroom, and one
+morning Mavis, coming in early, caught Opal in the very act of copying
+the answers to the next set of questions.
+
+"Well!" she exploded. "Of all mean sneaks you're the biggest I've ever
+met. No wonder you get all your sums right if you write down the answers
+beforehand. How _can_ you?"
+
+Opal tried to laugh the matter off.
+
+"Why don't you do it yourself, my dear?" she answered. "If Miss Fanny
+_will_ leave her book about, of course we look at it. That's human
+nature!"
+
+"It's not my way," said Mavis gravely. "And if Miss Fanny trusts us so
+much that she leaves her Key here, we ought to be worthy of her trust.
+It's shameful to deceive her."
+
+"Oh, Jonathan! Go and tell her, then."
+
+"You know I never tell tales."
+
+That day, however, Opal was unexpectedly overtaken by Nemesis. Miss
+Fanny was suffering from a severe headache, and Miss Pollard came to
+take the arithmetic class in her stead. The girls told her the number of
+the exercise they had reached, and she wrote the questions upon the
+blackboard. For some reason of her own she reversed their order. When
+she called for the answers, Opal, with great assurance, read hers out,
+and, of course, as she had copied from the book, No. 6 came instead of
+No. 1, and vice versa. Miss Pollard stared at her in much amazement, and
+told her to come and work them upon the blackboard, a process of which
+she made a conspicuous bungle. Miss Pollard made no special remark, but
+possibly her suspicions may have been aroused, for she carried away the
+Key, and it was never again left in the classroom. Whether her affection
+for Opal prevented her from making a closer inquiry, or whether the
+affair was merely a coincidence, and she still preserved her faith in
+the integrity of her pet pupil, it was impossible to tell.
+
+"All the same I call it the limit for her to shut her eyes to things in
+the way she does," commented Mavis to Merle. "Both Miss Pollard and Miss
+Fanny are dears, but a teacher ought to know something of what goes on
+in a school, and not leave it just to luck. What are we to do? We can't
+go sneaking and telling, and yet I feel we ought to make a stand. It
+doesn't seem right to let Opal behave like this and do nothing. She
+hasn't the slightest idea of honour."
+
+"That's what most of them need here," snorted straightforward Merle.
+
+"I know. But what can you expect with such a slacker as head girl? If
+only Mother were here I'd ask her, but I'm so stupid at explaining
+properly in a letter it's no use to write."
+
+"Not a bit. She wouldn't really understand. Seems to me there's nothing
+for it but just to worry on as best we can. They're a queer set, but we
+can't help it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Among the Boarders
+
+
+Mavis and Merle, being day girls at The Moorings, have occupied so much
+of our attention that we have somewhat neglected the boarders. In their
+own estimation, however, they were a very important part of the
+community. There were twelve of them altogether, and though, during
+classes, they mixed with the rest of the school, they were rather proud
+of the fact that, as far as possible, they "kept themselves to
+themselves". They had all sorts of little secrets that day girls might
+not share, signs and passwords and mysterious references, which gave
+them great satisfaction, and were calculated to provoke envy, hatred,
+malice, and all uncharitableness in the breasts of those who did not
+understand the allusions, and whom they sternly refused to initiate.
+
+Many of the boarders were the children of parents who were out in
+India. Some of them had been born there, and could remember burning
+skies and temples and native bazaars and elephants, and many other
+un-English things. Mamie and Jessie Drew could even speak Hindustani, a
+language which all the Indian-born children had talked in their infancy,
+though most of them had forgotten it in a very short time after landing
+in Britain. With the exception of Iva Westwood, Nesta Pitman, and Aubrey
+Simpson, the boarders were all juniors, and an uncommonly lively little
+crew, who sometimes led their seniors a dance, and were capable of a
+considerable amount of ragging among themselves.
+
+The two who were generally at the bottom of most of the mischief were
+Winnie Osborne and Joyce Coleman, nicknamed by Iva "the firebrands".
+Under Miss Pollard's gentle rule their escapades sometimes got rather
+out of bounds, but they had a wholesome respect for Miss Fanny, who did
+not often interfere with the management of the boarders out of school
+hours, but who dealt out discipline if she happened to catch anybody
+tripping.
+
+Among the silliest of the boarders was Nita Howard, a child who was a
+born gossip, and who sometimes made trouble by repeating conversations
+or remarks which she had overheard, and which she had very much better
+have kept to herself. Nita had no discretion. Miss Pollard often told
+her her tongue was too long, and certainly on many occasions it got
+herself and her chums into scrapes. One evening, just after it grew
+dark, she came running into the recreation-room in a state of much
+excitement.
+
+"I've got news for you, girls?" she chirped.
+
+"No! What?" exclaimed Mamie and Alison, her particular friends, looking
+up with interest from the scrap-books that they were engaged in making.
+
+"Well, I'll tell you then," said Nita, sitting down by the table and
+lowering her voice. "The ghost has been seen again in Poplar Lane!"
+
+"I say, shut up there, Nita," murmured Nesta, who was painting at the
+same table. "Do you want those kids in umpteen fits?"
+
+Nita beckoned her chums away from the vicinity of the smaller children
+in question, so that she might continue her thrilling story in private.
+
+"It has really!" she assured them in a whisper.
+
+"O-o-h!" came in a horror-stricken chorus. "How do you know?"
+
+"I've just heard Bella telling Cook. It's Bella's evening out, and she
+went down the back carriage drive into Poplar Lane to take a short cut
+to meet a friend, and just when she got under the shade of the trees she
+saw something all in white coming towards her. She shrieked and ran
+straight back to the house, and she says she daren't go out again, even
+though her own cousin is waiting for her at the other end of the lane."
+
+"Bella's rather a goose," put in Nesta, who had moved to the end of the
+table so as to overhear. "I shouldn't believe a word she says."
+
+"It's quite true though. She saw it with her own eyes."
+
+"She certainly couldn't see it with anybody else's," retorted Nesta
+scornfully. "It was probably a white cow coming down the lane."
+
+"No, it wasn't. It was really the ghost. Bella felt a most extraordinary
+feeling as if the blood was freezing in her veins. She says she never
+remembers anything like it since the night a dog howled under her window
+and her grandmother died. Her heart stood absolutely still for two whole
+minutes."
+
+"Bunkum! Bella hasn't had physiology lessons or she'd know that's
+impossible. Why she wouldn't be alive to tell the tale!" snorted Nesta.
+"How can you swallow such precious stuff, you little silly?"
+
+"It's not stuff."
+
+"Indeed it is."
+
+"Then don't listen."
+
+"I certainly shan't," and Nesta, moving her painting things along the
+table, went back to her original place.
+
+Her curiosity, however, got the better of her. She had sharp ears and
+she caught most of what followed, losing a few details, for Nita was
+whispering and Nesta was too proud to move nearer. The other two put
+their heads very close to Nita's in order to hear the interesting
+particulars.
+
+"I didn't know Poplar Lane was haunted," said Mamie.
+
+"Yes, it is, by a woman in white. She appears quite suddenly standing
+near our gate. But she hasn't been seen for a long time."
+
+"I thought only old houses had ghosts," ventured Alison. "The Moorings
+isn't so very old, is it?"
+
+"It's quite old enough to have a ghost. There's a story about it--an
+_awful_ story! Bella told it to me."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I don't know whether I ought to tell it to you."
+
+"Oh, go on!"
+
+"Well, a gentleman used to live here once," began Nita, in tones of
+delighted importance. "His name was Mr. Morrison. Late one night--it was
+exactly at midnight--he happened to look out of the window, and he saw a
+white carriage with a pair of white horses drive up to the door, but it
+didn't make the least sound of wheels or hoofs. And, do you know, he
+died afterwards."
+
+"Of course he died afterwards," was heard from Nesta's end of the table.
+"He couldn't very well die before, could he? Perhaps it was twenty years
+afterwards."
+
+"I thought you weren't listening. No, it was quite soon afterwards.
+Wasn't it horrible?"
+
+"What's the white lady got to do with the carriage?" asked Alison. "Was
+she sitting inside?"
+
+"I'm coming to that presently. Mr. Morrison had a son called Meredith,
+who did all kinds of wicked things. When his father died this son was
+worse than ever, and spent both his mother's money and his own on
+gambling. He used to ride away on his horse at night and not come back
+till very, very late, and his mother used to go and stand in Poplar Lane
+to watch for him. She told him that when she died her spirit would stand
+there still. But he didn't care in the least what she said. On the night
+after her funeral he rode off on his horse just as usual, and when he
+came back, there was her ghost all in white, waiting by the gate for
+him. He gave a fearful cry, and fell from his horse--dead!"
+
+"O-o-o-h!" came from Mamie and Alison.
+
+"Rubbish!" grunted Nesta from the other end of the table.
+
+Nita felt she had scored a success. She could seldom get the girls to
+pay any attention to her, but they were certainly listening now. The
+four smaller ones, who were supposed not to overhear, had, of course,
+had their ears wide open as little pitchers always will. Doreen had
+turned quite white, Prue was clutching Elsbeth's hand, and Jessie, after
+a surreptitious glance at Nesta, had crept nearer and asked under her
+breath who had told Bella.
+
+"I don't know," answered Nita, "but somebody who knew all about it. The
+house was to let for a long time before Miss Pollard took it. Bella says
+she'd never have come here if she'd known there was a ghost. She means
+to give notice and get another place as soon as she can."
+
+"Does it ever come indoors?" gasped Elsbeth.
+
+"I don't think so," replied Nita, keenly enjoying herself, "but, of
+course, you never can tell. When a place is haunted it's haunted, and
+you must be ready for anything."
+
+"I shan't dare to go to bed," wailed Elsbeth.
+
+"No more shall I," moaned Jessie. "I don't believe I shall even dare to
+practise in a room by myself. Suppose I saw it standing by the piano?
+What _should_ I do?"
+
+"Ask it to sit down and play you a tune," said Nesta, shutting her
+paint-box. "Nita, how can you frighten them in this silly way with your
+precious ghost tales? You oughtn't to talk to the servants if Bella only
+tells you such whoppers. Doreen's eyes are nearly dropping out of her
+head. By the by, what's become of Winnie and Joyce?"
+
+"I haven't seen them. I thought they were practising. Do they know?"
+asked Mamie.
+
+"Not yet," replied Nita mysteriously, "but, of course, we shall have to
+tell them. Oh, here they are now!"
+
+"What's the matter?" cried the pair in question, seating themselves at
+the table.
+
+"The ghost has been seen in Poplar Lane!" exploded Jessie, before Nita
+had time to get the words out herself.
+
+A look of intelligence passed between Winnie and Joyce.
+
+"Hold me up! When?"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"To-night. Just by the gate. Bella saw it herself."
+
+"If Bella saw it herself it must have been there!" burbled Winnie.
+
+"Or some other thingumbob very like it," piped Joyce, who seemed on the
+point of adding more, only Winnie trod on her toe, so she stopped short.
+
+"And it _may_ come inside the house," volunteered Doreen with a shiver.
+
+"What a blossomy prospect! I should think it very probably will," said
+Winnie.
+
+"Ghosts generally like houses better than lanes," echoed Joyce.
+
+"Isn't it dreadful, though?" said Nita, who felt that neither was
+sufficiently impressed, and was anxious to keep up the full horror of
+the situation.
+
+When bedtime arrived the younger children were in a state bordering on
+panic. Mademoiselle could not understand why they insisted upon going
+upstairs so very close together, why they shot past the dark doorways of
+other dormitories, nor why Elsbeth begged her almost in tears not to
+turn the light out, and to leave the door open so that they could hear
+the elder girls come to bed. Mamie and Alison were in hardly better
+case. They had retailed all the ghost stories they had ever heard, and
+had worked themselves into a thoroughly nervous condition. At the return
+of daylight, however, they were inclined to laugh at their fears and
+agree with Nesta that it was silly nonsense.
+
+"I don't think Winnie and Joyce minded in the least," ventured Alison.
+
+"No, I couldn't quite make them out," replied Mamie. "They were so queer
+over it and kept looking at each other. Didn't you notice?"
+
+"I never thought about it," said Nita. "They're always having private
+jokes. You can hardly say anything without Joyce poking Winnie or Winnie
+nudging Joyce. I get sick to death of their precious secrets."
+
+Everybody seemed ready that morning to make fun of the ghost, but when
+evening came again, superstitious terrors revived in full force. Jessie
+Drew spent a miserable half-hour practising with one eye on the window,
+having an uneasy sensation that the spectre would probably be gliding
+about the garden. She had not the strength of mind to draw down the
+blind, and so shut out the chance of the vision, and in consequence made
+such a peculiar rendering of her piece that Miss Fanny came in herself,
+scolded her sharply, and sat down by her side to insist upon her playing
+it properly.
+
+"I didn't mind the scolding in the least," Jessie told her chums
+afterwards. "I was so thankful to see anybody I'd have been glad if
+she'd boxed my ears. I was so afraid she'd go away again I played wrong
+notes on purpose. She said she'd never known me so stupid."
+
+"Miss Pollard sent me to her bedroom to fetch a book," said Nita. "I
+was simply shaking all over. That long passage is so dreadfully dark,
+and I saw something white at the end of it. It was only Bella's apron,
+though, that she'd hung over the banisters. The moonlight was coming in
+through the landing window, and, it looked so like ghosts I daren't go
+by, so I went down the back stairs and through the kitchen. I asked
+Bella if she'd seen anything more, and she said a big bird had flown
+against the window, and that's always a bad omen. Miss Pollard asked me
+why I'd been so long fetching the book, but I didn't dare tell her. I
+wonder what the bird was an omen of! I forgot to ask Bella."
+
+Evening preparation went on as usual, after which most of the boarders
+collected in their own recreation-room to read or paint or otherwise
+amuse themselves. Iva and Aubrey were practising, but Nesta was sitting
+with the juniors, of whom only Winnie and Joyce were missing. These two
+seemed to have mysteriously disappeared. Joyce came back after a short
+time, looking rather red and excited, but she made no remark, and taking
+a book began to read.
+
+"I can't find my post-card album anywhere," complained Nita, hunting
+disconsolately round the room, "and I did so want to put in those extra
+cards I got last week. I'm sure I left it on the bookcase."
+
+"I saw it in the cloakroom on the boot-rack," volunteered Joyce.
+
+"However could it get there?"
+
+"I don't know, but I saw it."
+
+"Miau! I daren't go and fetch it. I simply daren't. The cloakroom will
+be quite dark. Won't somebody go with me? Alison, be a mascot!"
+
+"No, thanks! You won't stir this child."
+
+"I'll go," proclaimed Joyce, jumping up briskly. "I don't mind at all.
+Come along Nita!"
+
+"Oh, you saintly girl!"
+
+The two went out of the room, Nita clutching tightly to Joyce's arm and
+volunteering gasping little remarks.
+
+[Illustration: IT CERTAINLY WAS A MOST ALARMING SPECTACLE _Page 137_]
+
+"The others are piggy to-night!--Mother always says I'm so nervous!--I'm
+really afraid of the dark, even when there are no ghosts!"
+
+The rest of the boarders went on with their various occupations, but in
+a few moments they were interrupted by the sudden opening of the door,
+and Nita burst in with a white face.
+
+"Girls! Oh, I say! I've seen the ghost! It's in the cloakroom! Oh, it's
+too awful! I'm ready to faint. Don't go, Nesta, don't!"
+
+"Of course I'm going," said Nesta. "We've had enough of this nonsense,
+and it's time it was put a stop to. Come along, everybody. We'll take a
+look at this ghost."
+
+She valiantly led the way, and the juniors followed more timorously,
+Elsbeth and Doreen, in the rear, giving squeals of terror, across the
+hall and past the dusky corner where the croquet-box was kept, then down
+the steps to the cloakroom door. They peeped in fearfully. At the sight
+they saw most of them backed with shrieks. The room was in complete
+darkness, but at the far side stood a figure which seemed to be shrouded
+in white, its face and uplifted hands shining with a brilliant light
+that gave it a most unearthly and uncanny appearance. It certainly was a
+most alarming spectacle, and enough to strike horror into any breast.
+Alison and Nita were almost in hysterics, and the rest would have run
+away if Nesta had not stopped them.
+
+"Don't be a set of sillies," she commanded. "I'll soon show you who it
+is."
+
+She dived into the cloakroom, and, after a sharp scuffle, came back
+hauling a kicking, struggling, protesting spectre that could evidently
+use both arms and legs in a particularly human fashion.
+
+"Winnie!" exclaimed the girls, as, in the light of the hall, Nesta
+pulled off the sheet and disclosed the well-known blue-serge dress and
+short lank hair of the champion ragger of the school.
+
+Everybody burst out laughing, even Nita and Elsbeth.
+
+"You absolute blighter!"
+
+"How priceless!"
+
+"Win, you're the limit!"
+
+"How did you manage to make your face and hands shine? They looked too
+awful."
+
+"I wet them and rubbed them with matches. Look! If I hold up my hand in
+the dark it's all steaming and glowing with phosphorus yet."
+
+"What a beastly trick."
+
+"You did give us spasms."
+
+"Come along and tell us about it."
+
+"Where's Joyce?"
+
+Joyce had been close by, enjoying the fun, and now joined with her chum
+in relating the story of their rag.
+
+"Of course we were the ghosts all the time," began Winnie. "Last night
+Joyce and I went to the side door. It was lovely moonlight, and we dared
+each other to run down the back drive. We'd got as far as the gate when
+we heard somebody behind us. It was Bella, so we dodged out into the
+road and a few yards up Poplar Lane. We thought Bella was going the
+other way. She stood still a minute and waited, then she turned and came
+straight towards us. I thought if she saw us she'd report us to Miss
+Fanny, so I whispered to Joyce, 'Get behind me and I'll act ghost!' and
+then I held my dress high above my head with both hands, and began to
+bow myself up and down and moan."
+
+"Bella yelled," explained Joyce, taking up the tale. "She ran back up
+the drive as fast as she could, and rushed round to the kitchen door. We
+were going to tell you about it, but when we got in you were full of
+Bella's story of having seen the ghost in Poplar Lane. So we thought we
+might as well have some fun out of the thing, and play a rag on you."
+
+"It was ever so difficult, though," continued Winnie. "We couldn't do it
+anywhere else except in the cloakroom, and we didn't know how to get you
+there. It was Joyce's idea to take Nita's post-card album away. Oh, how
+she and Alison screamed! I haven't got over it yet."
+
+Winnie was still hinnying and dabbing her eyes with a rather
+phosphorousy pocket handkerchief.
+
+"Look here, now," said Nesta, "we've had enough of this. You mustn't try
+any tricks on the maids."
+
+"Oh, just on Bella! It would be such a stunt to stand in the housemaid's
+cupboard and let her find me when she goes upstairs."
+
+"No!" decreed Nesta. "It's dangerous to frighten people. Bella may
+have a weak heart, and in any case she'd be certain to drop her jug of
+drinking-water. I'm a senior and you juniors have got to do what I say.
+No, Winnie! It's no use pulling faces and nudging Joyce. I mean it. I'm
+no tell-tale, but if I find either of you trying on this rag again I
+shall just march straight off and fetch Miss Fanny. So you know what to
+expect. There!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Round the Fire
+
+
+Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny liked to have an individual knowledge of
+each of their pupils, and as they did not yet know the Ramsays very well
+they asked them to tea one day. So after school Mavis and Merle stayed
+behind and washed their hands, and went with the boarders into the
+dining-room, and ate scones and honey and home-baked cake, and felt
+rather shy and hardly spoke at all, although they were both sitting
+close to Miss Pollard, who made most noble efforts at conversation. When
+tea was over, those girls who were due to practise departed to the
+several pianos, and began a kind of musical combat of scales and
+studies. The others collected round the fire in the recreation-room.
+Preparation had been put off on account of the visitors, and Miss
+Pollard had announced that she and Miss Fanny were coming in for half an
+hour's chat or fun.
+
+"You must decide what you'd like to do," she said. "Ask Mavis and Merle
+what are their favourite games. Do they know 'adverbs'? It must be
+something you can all play."
+
+Standing in front of the fire everybody proposed something different,
+and nobody wanted anybody else's suggestion. Matters seemed likely to go
+rather lamely till Mamie had a really sensible idea.
+
+"Let's ask Miss Pollard to tell us a Devonshire story instead of playing
+games."
+
+"Does she know any Devonshire stories?" said Merle quickly.
+
+"Heaps and heaps. She says she learnt them from the old people about
+Durracombe, when she was a little girl, and her father was vicar. She's
+written most of them down. She has them in a manuscript book. We want
+her to get it published some day, because they're so topping. They're
+all about Devonshire pixies and witches and charms and things."
+
+"I'd love to hear one."
+
+"So would I," added Mavis, "I'd like it far better than playing a game,
+if you others don't mind."
+
+"Oh, it's you visitors who are to choose."
+
+So when Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny entered, and inquired what was to be
+the particular form of entertainment, Mamie voted for Devonshire
+stories, and all hands were held up in favour of her proposal.
+
+"My little folk-tales!" exclaimed Miss Pollard, looking very pleased.
+"They're collected from the neighbourhood. The old people used to tell
+them years ago, but nowadays I don't think anybody in Durracombe cares
+about pixies. Most of them would have been forgotten if I hadn't written
+them down. I'll fetch the book. I'd rather read you one than try to
+remember it. I never can recollect the best points when I tell stories."
+
+Miss Pollard returned presently with a small manuscript volume, the
+result of rather careful work on her part, for she was interested in the
+old legends of the district. She settled herself in a wicker arm-chair,
+with Doreen on her lap, and Elsbeth squatting on the floor leaning
+against her knee, while Miss Fanny, on the opposite side of the hearth,
+gave similar petting to Jessie and Prue. It was a "home-y" little
+circle, not in the least like school. Mavis could not help thinking how
+sweet Miss Pollard looked, with the firelight shining on her silver
+hair, and an unwonted pink colour in her cheeks. Miss Fanny, too, was
+picturesque in the gloaming, and Prue's red-gold head made a bright spot
+of colour against her dull-green dress.
+
+"They're dears, both of them," thought Mavis. "Absolute dears! Anybody
+more unlike school-mistresses I never met in my life. They ought to have
+been married. They must have been so pretty when they were young. I
+suppose they never met anybody in this out-of-the-way place. The school
+may be old-fashioned, and behind the age, and all the rest of it, but
+they give the boarders a good time at any rate. They're just mothers to
+those Indian children. I'm glad to have had a peep at them behind the
+scenes and seen this side of them. I believe I'm rather in love with
+them both."
+
+But Miss Pollard had opened her manuscript book and, in her pleasant
+cultured voice, was beginning to read.
+
+    STOLEN BY THE PIXIES
+
+    Nancy Gurney sat by the side of the driftwood fire, and her
+    tears fell fast as she rocked the cradle of her sleeping child.
+    The afternoon sun shone brightly through the narrow casement
+    window, and lit up the earthen floor and the brown rafters with
+    a warm yellow glow. From outside came the fresh smell of the
+    sea, and the soft grinding of the pebbles, while the waves
+    lapped gently over the beach, as if they had never lashed
+    themselves into foaming breakers against the cliffs.
+
+    The red poppies which grew on the low-thatched roof raised up
+    their heads, battered by yesterday's storms, the great flat
+    fish, hung up to dry in the sun by the doorway, flapped in the
+    light breeze, and from the shore came the shrill eager voices of
+    children, who gathered the driftwood cast up by the gale. But
+    the fishing-boats! The brown-sailed fishing-boats that ought to
+    have beaten back so safely into the harbour with the turn of the
+    tide, alas! there was never a sign nor a sail of them to be
+    seen, and there was many an aching heart in Bulvertor that day.
+
+    "Maybe they've got safe off towards the Cornish coast," said
+    Kitty Trefyre, who sat knitting in the inglenook.
+
+    "Nay," said Nancy sadly, "they'd have been round the head by
+    now. It's only the stoutest of boats that could have weathered
+    such a gale as blew last night, and _The Dolphin_ was hardly
+    seaworthy at best. No! They're gone! They're gone! We shall
+    never see the brown sails again! The sea has taken my Peter as
+    it has claimed all my dearest and best, and my poor boy is a
+    fatherless babe."
+
+    She dropped her head on her hands, and sobbed till the tears
+    fell into the cradle over the sleeping child.
+
+    "Don't take it so hard!" said Kitty. "We won't give them up
+    yet! And whisht, girl, whisht! Whatever you do don't weep over
+    the boy! Have you never heard that if tears fall on a sleeping
+    child the pixies have power to steal it away?"
+
+    Nancy dashed the tears from her eyes, and walked to the doorway
+    to take one long wistful look over the bay. The old woman laid
+    aside her knitting and followed her.
+
+    "It's ill luck!" she muttered. "Ill luck to shed tears on
+    sleeping babes, and I doubt me but evil will come of it. I'll
+    gather some fern seed and drop it in the cradle. It's a
+    well-known charm for keeping off pixies or witches, and 'tis
+    better to be wise in time--wise in time!"
+
+    She hobbled out across the garden to where the ferns grew under
+    the hedge, while Nancy turned sadly again to the fireside. She
+    stooped over the cradle to kiss her sleeping child, but started
+    back with a piercing, bitter cry. _The cradle was empty!_
+
+    The sound of her grief soon brought old Kitty hurrying to the
+    cottage.
+
+    "My boy! My beautiful boy!" sobbed the despairing mother. "The
+    pixies have stolen him away. Oh, that I had wept myself blind
+    ere I let the tears fall over his cradle!"
+
+    She sat rocking herself to and fro in her sorrow, while the old
+    woman threw the fern seed, picked, alas! too late, into the
+    driftwood fire.
+
+    "There's one hope left," said Kitty, when the first wild burst
+    of grief had worn itself away. "I am cunning and wise in the
+    ways of the pixies, and I know that they dance each night in the
+    moonlight on the ledge of rock where the sea-pinks bloom on the
+    face of St. Morna's Cliff. If you hide yourself there, with a
+    wreath of vervain round your hair, and could catch them
+    unawares, my heart tells me you might force them to restore what
+    they have stolen. But, alas! the plan is well-nigh impossible,
+    for how could you tread safely over the crags where the boldest
+    of our cliff climbers scarce dare to venture?"
+
+    "Yet I will do it!" cried Nancy, as she rose up with a new light
+    in her eyes. "Quick! weave me the wreath of vervain, and show me
+    by what spell I may force the fairies to give me back my child."
+
+    "Nay, that I cannot tell you," said old Kitty. "Your own
+    mother-wit must find out the way. Start when the twilight has
+    fallen, and when seven stars are shining over the sea; tell none
+    your errand, and cast three sprigs from your vervain wreath if a
+    hare should cross your path. Turn your wedding ring round on
+    your finger before you venture to climb down the cliff, and call
+    on St. Morna to help you. Watch silently all that may happen
+    till you see your opportunity arise--and may good luck and my
+    blessing go with you!"
+
+    The dusk had fallen over the village, and the stars were
+    beginning to shine in the darkening sky, when Nancy, with the
+    wreath of vervain twined through her dark hair, crept softly
+    past the last of the cottages, and took the little briary path
+    which led through the low sandhills, and over the wind-swept
+    hill-side up to St. Morna's Cliff.
+
+    Not a sound broke the silence, for the sea-gulls had vanished
+    with the sunshine, and not even a fieldmouse stirred in the
+    bracken. With hasty step she hurried along, for she must reach
+    her post before moonrise. The path grew steeper, the bracken
+    gave way to heather, and at length she found herself on the
+    smooth grassy surface of St. Morna's Cliff. Down far below her
+    she could see the wide rocky ledge where the sea-pinks were
+    catching the last glow from the western sky. How steep the crag
+    looked! The few tufts of grass and jutting-out pieces of rock
+    offered her scarcely a foothold; should she make one false step
+    she must be dashed to atoms upon the precipice beneath. She
+    looked down and shivered; but the thought of her child sent a
+    thrill of courage to her heart. Kneeling down on the short grass
+    she prayed to St. Morna for help; then, turning her wedding ring
+    round upon her finger, she swung herself over the edge of the
+    cliff.
+
+    Clutching at a root here, feeling with her feet for the
+    slightest foothold, grasping the worn splinters of the crag, she
+    let herself down the face of the rock, till with panting breath
+    and bleeding fingers she fell among the sea-pinks on the ledge
+    below. She lay there for a while, half-insensible, till the
+    first rays of the rising moon began to shimmer over the sea.
+    Then she rose hastily, and, hiding herself behind a huge
+    boulder, waited for what should happen.
+
+    When the first faint moonbeams fell all silvery white upon the
+    ledge, the sea-pinks lifted their pretty heads; they grew and
+    grew till each had changed into a gorgeous tropical flower,
+    then, leaving their places, they ranged themselves into a wide
+    circle, and cast forth such a fragrance as might have stolen out
+    of the open gates of Paradise. Upon each hung a tiny silver
+    bell, and as they nodded their heads the bells chimed out the
+    sweetest fairy tunes. Little stars began to glitter among the
+    leaves, some pink, some blue, some golden, and the short green
+    grass inside the circle smoothed itself out into the most
+    beautiful dancing-floor.
+
+    Then there was a great rushing sound in the sky, and from far
+    and near there flew flocks of snow-white sea-gulls. As they
+    reached the ledge their wings fell from them, and they turned
+    into lovely little pixies, as light and transparent as gossamer.
+    Joining hands, they stepped inside the circle of flowers and
+    danced a graceful, intricate measure, while the fairy bells rang
+    out their sweetest tunes. On and on they danced, hour after
+    hour; the moon rose slowly in the sky, but the pixies' feet
+    seemed never to tire as they beat time to the enchanting music.
+
+    Hiding behind the boulder of rock Nancy had been quite
+    unnoticed, but her eager eyes watched all that had been taking
+    place. Stretching out her hand very gently she managed to steal
+    a pair of the sea-birds' wings, and hide them away in her bosom.
+
+    The little bells still rang out their chimes, and the pixies
+    tripped lightly over the grass, till at length the moon began to
+    wane, and the first glimmer of approaching dawn showed in the
+    eastern sky.
+
+    Then the tiny dancers stopped short in their merry pastime, and,
+    taking their white wings again, they flew away over the sea like
+    a cloud of foam flakes. The coloured stars and the silver bells
+    had disappeared, the tropical flowers broke up their circle and
+    changed once more into simple little sea-pinks, and the grass,
+    where the pixies had danced, grew up fresher and greener than
+    ever.
+
+    But one little pixie was left behind. She wandered round
+    wringing her hands and seeking vainly for the sea-bird's wings
+    that should have borne her away with the others. Tripping behind
+    the great boulder of rock she came face to face with Nancy, who
+    still crouched in its shadow.
+
+    "Mortal! cruel mortal!" cried the pixie, "you have stolen my
+    wings! Give them back, I pray you, before the dawn breaks, for
+    the first rays of sunshine will wither me up, and I shall turn
+    into a little faded brown leaf."
+
+    "Pixie! cruel pixie!" cried Nancy, "you have stolen my child!
+    Bring him back to my arms, and then and not till then will I
+    restore you your wings."
+
+    "How can I find you your child?" screamed the pixie. "Oh! give
+    me my wings--my pretty white wings; let me fly safely away over
+    the sea ere I turn for ever into a little withered brown leaf!"
+    and she stamped her tiny foot in her helpless passion.
+
+    "You can and shall find me my child," said Nancy, "for I know
+    that the pixies have stolen him away, and that only a pixie can
+    bring him back to me. Look! the sky is reddening already, your
+    time is short. Do my bidding speedily, and the wings are yours."
+
+    "The dawn! the dawn!" shrieked the pixie. "Mortal, I will grant
+    you what you ask! Each of the sea-pinks which bloom on this
+    green turf holds the soul of a child which we have stolen away
+    from its cradle. For a moment each pretty flower shall wear its
+    human face, then choose out your own child swiftly and let me be
+    gone."
+
+    She clapped her hands, and each of the little sea-pinks turned
+    to a smiling baby face. All the merry eyes and tiny curls were
+    there that mothers had mourned for all over the country-side,
+    and at her feet Nancy saw the sweet, laughing face of her stolen
+    child. With a cry of joy she clasped him in her arms.
+
+    "The dawn! the dawn!" cried the pixie. "Mortal, give me my
+    wings!"
+
+    Nancy drew them from her bosom, and gave them into the eager,
+    entreating fingers. With a great rush of light the sun rose, his
+    golden beams fell on the wide ledge of rock, lighting up a bed
+    of simple little sea-pinks, while over the broad blue sea there
+    flew a solitary sea-gull.
+
+    Folding her shawl about her child, Nancy slung him on to her
+    back, and with slow steps and painful fingers she climbed up the
+    face of the cliff. The larks were rising out of the heather, the
+    little blue butterflies were flitting over the yellow gorse, the
+    dew-drops hung like jewels in the gossamer, and far away on the
+    distant water she could see the brown sails of the missing
+    fishing-boats as they beat safely over the bar into Bulvertor
+    Harbour.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The story was told me in Devonshire dialect when I was a little girl,"
+said Miss Pollard, as she closed her book, "but I wrote it in ordinary
+English because the other is so hard to understand. It's funny that in
+the accounts of fairies they always seem to speak the local languages.
+Irish fairies talk Erse, and Welsh fairies sing in Welsh. Have you
+pixies in the north, Mavis?"
+
+"They're called 'boggarts' in our part of the world," laughed Mavis,
+"and I suppose they talk dialect. There's a north-country story about a
+boggart--a creature something like a brownie--that lived at a farm, and
+was such a bother that the people thought they'd remove to get rid of
+him. They put all their furniture on a cart, and started out. They met a
+neighbour, who said to them: 'So thee's flittin'!' and the boggart
+popped its ugly little head out of the churn and said: 'Aye, we's
+flittin'!'.
+
+"The people were so disgusted to find that it intended to go with them
+to new quarters that they turned back to their old farm and decided to
+put up with the nuisance."
+
+"Ayah used to tell us Indian fairy tales," said Mamie, "but they were
+about princes and devas and lovely ladies."
+
+"There are fairy tales all over the world," said Miss Pollard, "and if
+we go on telling them we shall never stop. It's time for preparation
+now. You little people must run away, and the others must fetch their
+books. Mavis and Merle must come some time to have tea with us again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Pixie-led
+
+
+Next morning Merle got out of bed on the wrong side. She did it
+deliberately and with intention. It was a rather awkward business to
+achieve, too, for the beds were placed close together with only a few
+inches between them, and to make her left-handed exit she was obliged to
+scramble over the recumbent form of Mavis, who protested sleepily.
+
+"Don't care! Bags me first innings at the hot water," blustered Merle,
+bouncing down with a plump on to the rush mat in front of the wash-hand
+stand.
+
+"Don't care came to a bad end," quoted a dormouse voice among the
+blankets.
+
+"Right-o! I'm in for it."
+
+After such a shameless tempting of fate it was not to be wondered at
+that matters immediately turned in the direction of bad luck.
+
+Merle poured out a liberal half of the hot water which Jessop had
+brought, then seized up the toilet jug to add some cold. But either her
+hand was wet or she was careless, or some unseen imp actually
+intervened; anyhow, the handle slipped from her grasp, down fell the
+jug, breaking its spout, and the contents spread themselves over the
+floor.
+
+Anybody who has ever upset a bedroom jug must have been astonished at
+the enormous volume of water it contains. It seemed to Merle as if the
+bath had suddenly emptied itself. Streams and trickles were running
+everywhere, and the rush mat was a swamp. She stood staring at it in
+utter consternation.
+
+"Mop it up, you Judkins!" shrieked Mavis, now thoroughly awakened. "Why
+can't you mop it up? Goody, what a mess!"
+
+Mavis put one foot out of bed into the wet pool, and drew it back like a
+cat. She reached for her bedroom slippers, pulled them on, then set to
+work with a sponge to try and remedy the damage. For what seemed about
+five minutes the girls were mopping and dabbing, getting the bottoms of
+their nightdresses soaked in the process, and having to scramble under
+the beds to follow some of the streams. Jessop, hearing the commotion,
+came in and scolded.
+
+"The new toilet jug! Whatever were you doing? What will your aunt say,
+I wonder? Girls are as careless as boys it seems to me! I used to make
+Master Cyril wash in the bathroom. We shall have to buy you enamel-ware
+if you break the china. Rivet it, did you say? No one could rivet these
+bits! Besides which, the old man who used to come round riveting things
+has never turned up since the war. The jug's done for and that's the
+long and short of it. There, get on with your dressing, or you'll be
+late for breakfast. I'll bring you some more water in a can. I suppose
+girls will be girls, and the thing's done now, and past praying for, so
+there's an end of it."
+
+It might be the end of the water jug, but unfortunately it was not the
+end of Merle's ill-luck. She must have been in a particularly awkward
+and maladroit mood, for at breakfast-time she actually managed to upset
+her cup of tea.
+
+"Hello! What are we doing here?" asked Uncle David, peering round his
+newspaper at the puddle on the clean tablecloth.
+
+"I don't know. I think the pixies nudged me. I'm fearfully sorry,"
+apologized Merle, thanking her stars privately that Jessop was not in
+the dining-room, and hoping to escape to school before that already
+offended domestic deity came to clear away and discovered the tell-tale
+evidence.
+
+"Ah yes! Put it all on to the pixies; they've broad shoulders," twinkled
+Uncle David, as he helped himself to more bacon.
+
+"It's like the Mad Hatter's tea-party," grunted Mavis, moving farther
+down the table to avoid the wet patch, which had spread in her
+direction.
+
+Certainly Merle seemed pixie-led, for everything went wrong. When she
+put on her boots she broke her boot-lace, and had to piece it with a big
+knot which ran into her instep and hurt her. She struggled into her
+coat, slammed on her hat, and tore out after Mavis, who had already
+started; but when she was half-way along the High Street she discovered
+that she had forgotten one of her books and had to run back for it. It
+was in the summer-house, at the bottom of the garden, where she had left
+it the day before, and as she scurried up the steps she stumbled and
+fell, and grazed her knee. She picked herself up, looked ruefully at the
+injured limb, seized her book, and rushed away, limping slightly on one
+leg, and grousing hard. She was late for school, though, in spite of her
+best efforts, and only slipped into the big classroom just when Miss
+Pollard was closing the register.
+
+"Where have you been, Merle?" inquired Miss Pollard in the most
+scholastic manner she knew how to adopt.
+
+"I forgot my history and went back for it--I'm very sorry," gasped
+Merle, much out of breath with running.
+
+Opal smiled, and counted over the books which she held on her lap with
+the air of one who is thinking to herself: "Other people don't forget
+their things!" Merle, by this time thoroughly cross, frowned at her
+darkly. There was something so aggravatingly smug about Opal; all her
+peccadilloes were well hidden, and never came under public and official
+notice. She took advantage of her position, too; for, as the girls filed
+out of the room, she stroked Miss Pollard's arm caressingly as she
+passed, a token of affection which Merle, who admired the head mistress
+after yesterday's tea-party, would have loved to bestow but did not
+dare.
+
+The pixies would not let Merle alone that morning. They jerked her pen,
+so that she made blots on her exercise, they whisked dates out of her
+memory, and put wrong figures into her sums. When it came to literature
+lesson they must have deliberately absconded with her copy of _Julius
+Caesar_. She hunted for it in vain.
+
+"I _know_ I left it in my desk yesterday," she assured Miss Fanny, who
+was waiting to take the class and chafing at the delay.
+
+"You ought to have your books ready. Be quick and look again. It's
+probably underneath something else," urged the mistress impatiently.
+
+Merle seized a top layer of textbooks and essay paper and dumped them
+down on the floor, the more readily to burrow deeper into the rather
+mixed and miscellaneous collection in her desk.
+
+"Merle Ramsay! Really, you forget yourself," chided Miss Fanny. "Pick
+those things up and put them back. A more disgracefully untidy
+performance I never saw. I won't have that litter on the floor. Is your
+_Julius Caesar_ there, or is it not?"
+
+Apparently it was not, for Merle turned over her heap of confusion in
+vain; and in her agitation let the lid of the desk fall with an awful
+slam that echoed through the room. She sat up scarlet in the face.
+
+"That will do!" said Miss Fanny icily. "You must look on with Mavis if
+you can't find your own."
+
+"Please, Miss Fanny, I saw a _Julius Caesar_ in the pound this morning,"
+volunteered Opal demurely. "I don't know whose it is."
+
+The mistress turned to the lost-property basket, stooped down, drew out
+the missing book, and handed it reproachfully to Merle.
+
+"If you kept your desk in better order you wouldn't lose your things.
+See how you've delayed the whole form! You must bring a penny for the
+missionary box this afternoon."
+
+Merle sat through the lesson with a face like thunder. She was
+absolutely certain that she had left the book inside her desk, and she
+strongly suspected Opal of having deliberately taken it out and placed
+it in the pound.
+
+"Just like one of her disgusting tricks. She'd do anything mean. I'll
+have something to say to her after school," she mused gloomily.
+
+She tackled Opal in the cloakroom when the latter was tying her
+shoe-laces.
+
+"Look here, you blighter," she began, "what do you mean by cribbing my
+books and sticking them into the pound? It's the absolute limit."
+
+Opal tied an elegant bow, and put out a foot to admire the result.
+
+"I've never seen your books, my good girl," she yawned. "What are you
+setting on me for?"
+
+"You have! You took it out of my desk and put it in the pound on
+purpose. I know you did!"
+
+"I didn't!"
+
+"What a whopper!"
+
+"Look here, just stop talking!"
+
+"I shan't! I'll say what I think. We used to play 'rags' at Whinburn
+High, but when one girl started that rag of hiding books we all 'booed'
+her out of our secret society as a sneak."
+
+"How clever of you!" sneered Opal. "What you did at your precious high
+school is nothing to me, I'm sure."
+
+"Well, my _Julius Caesar_ is at any rate. You took it away, and it's you
+who've got to put the penny in the missionary box for it."
+
+"Don't count on me to pay your fines for you; I'm always stony broke,"
+laughed Opal, as she put on her coat.
+
+"Opal Earnshaw, I _shan't_ pay that penny when it's your business."
+
+"Dear, dear! What tempers we get ourselves into!
+
+    "'Little children should not let
+       Their angry passions rise!
+     Their little hands were never made
+       To scratch each other's eyes!'"
+
+Opal spoke airily as she arranged her hat.
+
+"It'll come to scratching in another moment!" exploded Merle. "You
+_know_ it's all your fault."
+
+"Merle, _darling_! _Don't!_" remonstrated Mavis, seizing her sister's
+arm and whispering "It's no use and it only makes Opal all the nastier.
+I've put the penny in the box for you already. I told Miss Fanny, and
+she said it was all right. It's a shame, I know, but we can't do
+anything."
+
+"I'd like to spifflicate that girl," fumed Merle, looking after Opal,
+who was walking away giggling.
+
+Poor Merle took life hardly. She went home still reviling Fate. Directly
+lunch was over she seized her writing-pad and scribbled the following
+letter as fast as her pen would go.
+
+        "Un-dear Opal,
+
+            "I think you're the horridest, meanest girl I have ever
+    met in my life, and that's saying something. You think yourself
+    very clever and pretty, and all the rest of it, but you're not.
+    You may get Miss Pollard to shut her eyes to what you do, but
+    some day she'll find you out and then there'll be squalls, and
+    I for one shall dance for joy. If you want to know what I think
+    about you, I call you a proud popinjay; it's the best name to
+    suit you! I wish you were not at this school or else that I
+    hadn't come to it!
+
+                "With the reverse of love,
+                    "Yours unaffectionately,
+                        "MERLE RAMSAY."
+
+"There! That's done me good!" she declared, handing the letter to her
+sister.
+
+Mavis read the effusion quite calmly, folded it, and placed it in the
+envelope addressed to Miss O. Earnshaw.
+
+"Shall we put it in our usual post office?" she asked, then dropped it
+into the fire.
+
+She understood Merle, who loved to relieve her feelings by writing
+violent letters, which fortunately never reached the people to whom they
+were directed. It was merely a form of letting off steam, and did nobody
+any harm. Mavis always took care, though, to make sure that the epistles
+were safely consigned to the flames. She had pulled Merle out of many
+scrapes, and knew just how to manage her hot-tempered sister.
+
+"Opal's simply not worth thinking about," she consoled. "Let's forget
+this business. Uncle David says he's going to pay a visit at a farm on
+the moor this afternoon, and if we'll scurry home quick from school at
+four, he'll wait for us and take us with him."
+
+"Oh, Jubilate!" rejoiced Merle, recovering her good spirits. "What fun!
+I was just pining for a jaunt in the car. Go? I should think we will,
+rather! We'll fly the very second Mademoiselle lets us off. Thank
+goodness, it will be something decent to think about all the afternoon.
+Opal Earnshaw may go to Hong-Kong if she likes. I don't care about her
+and her meannesses. We're wangling a drive with Uncle David.
+Cock-a-doodle-do!"
+
+Merle got through her music lesson with moderate success, and did her
+drawing with tolerable correctness, so, except for a lost button and
+breaking the hinge off her pencil-box, she had no more conspicuous
+mishaps. She nearly undid herself by catching up her drawing-board and
+rising to go the moment the clock began to strike four, which caused a
+glare from Mademoiselle, who added:
+
+"Sit down till I dismiss the class. If you go too soon I shall make you
+stay behind all the others and wait."
+
+[Illustration: "HERE WE ARE AT CROSS NUMBER TWO" _Page 163_]
+
+Much terrified lest the teacher should keep her threat, Merle popped
+back into her place, and filed out in orderly fashion behind Maude
+Carey, fuming that the latter's movements were so dilatory and slow. She
+and Mavis hurried home almost at a run.
+
+After all they need not have been in such fearful haste, for they found
+Uncle David and Tom busy in the yard putting the spare wheel on the car.
+
+"Just had a puncture," explained Dr. Tremayne. "A nasty bit of broken
+glass in the High Street. Fortunately I was almost home. No, Tom, I
+haven't time to stay now while you mend it. I must get off to see old
+Mr. Tracy at once. We must just trust the spare wheel won't puncture,
+that's all. People ought to be prosecuted for leaving broken glass about
+to cut tyres. It's a dastardly trick to play on motorists. If I were a
+magistrate I'd fine them for it. The amount of time I waste over
+punctures is perfectly disgusting."
+
+The spare wheel was put on at last, in place of the one with the
+punctured tyre, and Uncle David and Mavis and Merle got into the car,
+and started off on to the moors. It had been quite clear in Durracombe,
+though not sunny, but directly they were up amongst the peat and heather
+great white clouds came rolling across the road, and in a few moments
+they were in the thickness of a white Devonshire mist. It was possible
+to see only for about a space of ten feet all round them. The doctor
+drove slowly, sounding his horn to warn anybody who might be approaching
+either in front or from behind.
+
+"I didn't think we should have caught a mist to-day," he commented. "I'd
+have started earlier if I'd known it was going to be like this. Curious
+how these queer fogs come on. I suppose it's our nearness to the sea.
+It's a regular winding-sheet. No use turning on the lamps, for they
+don't help. What's that! G-r-r-r! Great Scott! I believe we've got
+another puncture!"
+
+The unmistakable jarring sensation that betrays mishap to a tyre brought
+Dr. Tremayne to a sudden standstill. He got out to inspect.
+
+"Yes, it is! And the spare wheel, too! Of all the hard luck. I shall
+have to set to work and mend it. And here in the midst of all the fog.
+It might have kept up till we'd reached the farm. This is the second
+puncture this afternoon."
+
+"I'm afraid I'm the Jonah," said Merle. "I've had a pixie day ever since
+I got up this morning. Every single thing has gone wrong. I believe in
+bad luck, especially if you start badly. You'd better throw me
+overboard."
+
+"We must get started again before we can throw anybody overboard."
+
+"Can we help you, Uncle?" asked Mavis.
+
+"No, dear, not just at present. It's a question of finding the puncture.
+Ah! Here it is! And, would you believe it? another bit of broken glass!
+Some wretched tourist has been picnicking up here, I suppose, and
+smashed a ginger-beer bottle. Well, now I've found the spot, I can get
+to work."
+
+It was rather cold standing in the midst of the fog watching Uncle
+David. The girls began to walk up and down the road instead while they
+waited for him. They could see a patch of heather on either hand, and
+occasionally, looming through the mist, the dark body of a mountain pony
+or a bullock. Quite close to them, on the top of a small mound, was a
+little old, old worn cross, and they naturally stepped aside to look at
+it. Perhaps it marked some traveller's grave, or had been part of a
+shrine in long-ago times. Standing by its shaft they could make out
+through the fog another cross only a short distance away. It seemed a
+pity not to inspect this also. It was a far finer one than the first,
+and they walked all round it; then because they thought they spied a
+cromlech on the top of another mound they set off to inspect that too.
+It was not a cromlech after all, only a pile of boulders, so they turned
+back again.
+
+"Here we are at cross number two," said Merle.
+
+"Ye-e-s," agreed Mavis doubtfully. "It seems to have gone rather
+smaller, though. I don't remember that clump of ferns at the bottom."
+
+"Well, there's the first cross at any rate. Come along."
+
+But when they reached what they supposed to be the first cross they were
+more doubtful still. It was quite unfamiliar. Moreover, there was no
+road within sight of it.
+
+"We--we've come wrong!" faltered Merle.
+
+"There must be several of these crosses."
+
+"Let's go back to that one over there, then perhaps we shall find our
+first one."
+
+But meanwhile the treacherous mist was rolling up thicker and thicker.
+The girls hurried back as fast as they could, but this time they missed
+the cross altogether. There is nothing so easy as to get lost in a fog
+on the moors. Thoroughly frightened, they called to Uncle David, but
+they could hear nothing in reply. They wandered on, hoping he would
+sound the hooter and so give them some clue to his whereabouts, but
+everything was deadly still. It seemed as if a great white wall had
+arisen and shut them up in some elfin castle on the moor.
+
+"We're pixie-led. That's just all about it," said Merle. "I told you it
+was an unlucky day."
+
+"Well, look here, we mustn't go too far! If we walk on like this we may
+be going straight away from the road, and might tramp miles or get into
+a bog. We'd better stay where we are and shout every now and then, and
+perhaps Uncle David will find us."
+
+Two very forlorn girls, feeling extremely chilly and cold in the clammy
+fog, squatted down on the heather and took it in turns to call
+"Coo-e-ee!"
+
+"What are we to do if we have to stop here all night?" asked Merle,
+nearly crying.
+
+"I don't know!"
+
+"How long do these mists last?"
+
+"Oh, days and days sometimes I suppose!"
+
+"Should we be dead before morning?"
+
+"Oh, I hope not! Shout again!"
+
+They both called together, but there was no response.
+
+"I'm going to count a hundred, and if we hear nothing by then I shall
+walk on somewhere. It's so bitterly cold sitting still," said Mavis, who
+was shivering.
+
+She counted aloud, and at the end they gave a frantic shout. Not even a
+bird rustled in reply. "Well here goes, there's nothing for it but a
+plunge," said Mavis. "I've not the glimmer of an idea which way to
+take."
+
+"I shall follow my nose," said Merle, setting off.
+
+"Don't go too fast or you'll lose me. Let me take hold of your arm. We
+never came this way, I'm sure. We certainly didn't pass a little
+stream."
+
+"Any way is better than no way," said Merle desperately. "Hello! why
+there's the road!"
+
+The relief at finding themselves back upon the track of civilization was
+intense. They ran joyfully along, and in a few moments came upon Uncle
+David, just screwing on his last nuts and whistling to himself quite
+unconcernedly.
+
+"Where have you two been?" he asked.
+
+"Where!" answered Merle with dramatic unction. "Where? Why, getting lost
+like the babes in the wood! We thought we were going to perish upon the
+moors and never see home again! We wandered on for _hours_. Didn't you
+hear us shouting?"
+
+"Exactly twenty-five minutes," corrected Dr. Tremayne, consulting his
+watch. "No, I never heard you shout. I should have hooted if I had. I
+wondered where you were. Better not run off too far another time. Well,
+I've mended this tyre, and been remarkably quick over it too, I think.
+I'm rather proud of myself. It's a record."
+
+Feeling a little small, the girls got into the car. It was humiliating
+that Uncle David did not seem to realize their terrific adventure, and
+was far more concerned over the tyre than over their possible loss and
+death from exposure and starvation.
+
+"It's all the fault of the Devonshire pixies," whispered Mavis.
+
+And Merle nodded emphatically.
+
+"Rather! I consider we were absolutely and entirely pixie-led. I can
+almost hear the little wretches laughing about it over there. I'll do
+for them if I catch them! It's been a pixie day."
+
+"Then for goodness sake do get out of bed to-morrow on the right side,"
+implored Mavis.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+Blackthorn Bower
+
+
+As a direct consequence of sitting on the damp moor in the mist Mavis
+caught one of her bad bronchial colds and was put to bed and cosseted by
+Aunt Nellie, and was fussed over by Jessop, and was visited by Uncle
+David, and had flowers sent her by Tom, and for a few days was the
+centre of the entire household. She was such a dear gentle little
+patient, and her blue eyes and dull-gold hair always looked so effective
+against the background of a pillow, that she invariably received much
+petting and spoiling when she was ill. Merle, who went through some
+stormy scenes when left to her own devices at school, declared that
+Mavis was "a lucker", and that it paid to be an invalid. She did her
+share of the spoiling, however; for though she might sometimes affect to
+be jealous, no one was more thoroughly devoted to her sister than
+herself. It was characteristic of Merle that she would not go to
+Chagmouth alone.
+
+"I'll wait till Mavis is better and then we'll go together, thanks,
+Uncle David," she said decidedly, in response to all tempting offers of
+a run in the car.
+
+Mavis pulled round much faster at Durracombe than she would have done at
+Whinburn, and, though several weeks saw the doctor set off alone for
+Chagmouth, one Saturday arrived when he started with a pale and a rosy
+face beside him, and two wagging tongues keeping up an excited
+chatteration. The girls felt as if they had been away from the village
+for years. The short time of their absence had made changes, for the red
+pyrus japonica was in blossom on some of the houses, and daffodils and
+wallflowers were blooming instead of snowdrops and crocuses in the
+cottage gardens. It was a glorious heavenly day, one of those blue March
+days that are linked in our memories with young lambs and violets. They
+had caught the wind coming across the moor, but the Cove of Chagmouth
+was sheltered from it, and was calm and warm as summer.
+
+"Just the very weather for Mavis to be out-of-doors," said Dr. Tremayne.
+"If Bevis can spare the time we'll ask him to take you a walk. You ought
+to go and see Pixies' Cave--that's the place I was telling you about the
+other day, where the Antiquarian Society excavated and found so many
+prehistoric weapons. Bevis was there helping them. He's got one or two
+of the things, I believe. He must show them to you. It's only about a
+mile and a half to the cave if you go along the cliffs. You can manage
+that, Mavis?"
+
+"Rather. I'm not a scrap ill now, and ready for anything."
+
+Bevis had completely forgiven the girls for deserting him on the former
+occasion. Moreover, he had kept his promise, and had made them a
+miniature grindstone upon which to sharpen their penknives. It turned
+with a handle, and was quite a neat little piece of workmanship. They
+welcomed it with much admiration.
+
+"It's absolutely dinky! How could you ever manage to do it?" they asked.
+
+"Oh, it was quite easy!" replied Bevis airily, looking gratified all the
+same.
+
+He agreed at once to escort them to the cave, and directly lunch was
+over they started forth. This time they went in the opposite direction
+to the sanatorium. They climbed above the village, and struck a footpath
+among woods that overhung the cliffs. On this sunny March day it was
+like a peep of fairyland. The trees were still bare, but between the
+network of branches showed the brilliant blue-green of the sea below; an
+aspect of the scene not possible in leafy summer. The ground was
+spangled with little tufts of primroses, peeping from among the grass
+and dead leaves, as the pre-Raphaelite artists so loved to paint them in
+their masterpieces. Mosses, lichens, and hardy Polypody ferns grew
+thickly on the trees, so that grey and green were mingled with the tones
+of brown and gold into one soft harmony of rich colour. The air was
+soft, and yet had an invigorating sparkle of spring in it. Everything
+seemed to hold the thrill of awakening life, and the magnetic atmosphere
+was that of an old-time folk-tale when the world was young and all its
+objects were sources of wonder and worship.
+
+The girls caught the spirit of the place and ran about like dryads in a
+rapture of delight, picking flowers, gazing up into the tracery of the
+bare branches, or peeping over edges of cliff at the waves dashing
+below. They were so enthralled with the wood that it was difficult to
+drag them any farther. Yet it was finer still when they had left the
+trees and walked out to the open headland. This was the grandest side of
+Chagmouth, and the view of steep jagged rocks and wide waters was
+sublime. There is a spiritual exaltation in being on the heights, else
+why have the greatest souls ever born ascended into mountains for their
+periods of meditation and transfiguration?
+
+Bevis was a most satisfactory person to act guide, for he appreciated
+everything so much himself. He invariably stopped at exactly the right
+places and said, "There!" The boy was a keen naturalist, and was always
+watching the birds, poking about for nests, picking up snail shells, or
+making a dash after some insect specimen that he wanted. His pockets
+were generally full of miscellaneous objects, and he had a growing
+collection put by in boxes inside the tool-shed. He had been much with
+Mr. Barnes, the local antiquary, and had acquired a smattering of
+archaeological lore, enough to make him take a wild interest in the
+excavations which were carried on by a learned society from Port Sennen.
+He had himself helped to dig and to sift the gravel, and had been lucky
+enough to light upon quite a good find. The best of his discoveries had
+been sent to the County Institute, but a few objects had been private
+treasure trove, and lived in the museum of his pockets.
+
+The point to which he was taking the girls was a little grassy plateau
+that jutted out from the sloping cliff. Nature must have designed it
+specially for her early children, as it was sheltered from the
+prevailing winds and faced the sun. Moreover, it was the outer courtyard
+of a large cave which shelved into the hill-side. Many thousands of
+years ago successive generations of the old prehistoric race, who once
+inhabited these islands, had lived there, and had hunted the mammoth and
+elk. No one would have known anything about them had they not left
+behind them their rude weapons and the bones that remained over from
+their feasts.
+
+It was from these relics, buried under yards of gravel, that
+antiquarians had pieced together some idea of the life in those ancient
+times.
+
+The cave was dark, and, so the girls declared, decidedly "spooky", but
+Bevis had brought a piece of candle and a box of matches; so they were
+able to explore its recesses. There was really not much to see except
+rugged bits of rock, and heaps of gravel, over which they stumbled in
+the dim flicker of their solitary candle. They were both extremely
+relieved when they stepped outside again into the sunshine.
+
+"Ugh! Shouldn't have liked that for a home, thank you!" declared Merle.
+"I'd have lived outside if I'd been a prehistoric woman."
+
+"How about wild beasts catching you?" asked Bevis. "You'd have been glad
+to fence yourself safely into the cave at night."
+
+He was turning out the miscellaneous collection in his pockets, and now
+proudly produced the specimens he had found in the cave--some flint
+arrow-heads, a skin-scraper, and two bone needles.
+
+"I often wish they could talk," he said, "and tell me who owned them,
+and what animals they killed, and what hides they scraped and sewed
+together into clothes. They must have seemed such treasures to the
+people who first made them. Mr. Barnes is going to dig again here this
+summer. Perhaps we shall find something more. Last June I helped him to
+open a mound in the field over there."
+
+"Did you find arrow-heads and bone needles?"
+
+"No, it belonged to the Bronze Age, and a chief was buried there. His
+wife was lying by his side. The skeletons were quite perfect, and their
+hands were clasped together. She had a little baby in her other arm.
+There was a necklace round her throat, and a torque on his head. They
+must have been grand people when they were alive. I'll show you the
+mound if you like to come."
+
+Of course the girls wanted to come, and they scrambled up a steep place
+on to a yet more beautiful part of the headland. The tumulus stood in
+the midst of a rough field, like the green grassy hillock of a fairy
+legend. Below, with a hedge between, lay a tiny quarry, where blackthorn
+was breaking into blossom, and ivy trailed over the remains of an old
+wall. This seemed a suitable spot to sit down and eat the slices of
+home-baked cake that Mrs. Penruddock had sent with them. They settled
+themselves happily for their picnic. From the vantage-point of the wall
+they could see spread out before them the whole grand panorama of the
+Bay of Chagmouth. Away on the farther side of the harbour lay The
+Warren, half-hidden in woods, and higher up gleamed the slated roof and
+many windows of the Sanatorium.
+
+"We're monarchs of all we survey here," laughed Merle.
+
+"I should think this is No Man's Land on the top of the cliffs," said
+Mavis.
+
+"As a matter of fact it's part of the estate that goes with The Warren,"
+said Bevis. "Mr. Barnes had to get permission before he might excavate
+in the mound. And an absurd fuss they made about it, too, between Mr.
+Glyn Williams and the agent. They said at first he would have to write
+to General Talland in the West Indies."
+
+"It seems funny to live in the West Indies when you've got all this
+beautiful place belonging to you here."
+
+"Ah, I only wish it were mine! You bet I wouldn't be an absentee
+landlord," broke out Bevis bitterly. "It seems to me the limit that
+people should own things and care nothing about them. The old General
+hasn't been at Chagmouth for fifteen years. I don't suppose he remembers
+there's such a beauty spot as this where we're sitting now, even if he
+ever saw it. He's turned the property over to the Glyn Williams, and all
+the value _they'd_ put on this scrap of hill-side would be its worth for
+the shooting. It's hard that things should go so unequally. There's a
+lot of injustice in this world. The people who care for the things ought
+to own them."
+
+"Don't you think in a sense they do?" Mavis spoke slowly and
+hesitatingly. "What I mean is that all beautiful things belong in a way
+to the people who love them: old castles, and pictures, and landscapes,
+and everything of that sort. If you appreciate them they're yours, and
+nothing can ever take them away from you. This little quarry, and the
+sloe blossom, and the primroses, and the view over the water, are ours.
+They can't belong to people who've never seen them. I'm going to call it
+'Blackthorn Bower', and take possession. I feel as if we'd a right to
+it."
+
+"Cheerio! Here are your title deeds, 'Lady of the Bower'!" laughed
+Bevis, peeling a piece of bark off a tree and handing it to her as if it
+had been a manuscript, "if there's any dispute with the old General
+we'll go to law about it, and prove that we're the lineal descendants of
+the mound dwellers or the cave folk, and have a prior claim on the
+property."
+
+"The land for the people," quoted Merle. "This patch of land certainly.
+The Lady of the Bower has proved it's ours. She's a regular Portia at
+arguing, and there isn't a Shylock who could stand against her."
+
+"It's our joint estate then, and belongs to us three. We'll call
+ourselves The Triumvirate!" proclaimed Mavis. "Have you a penny in your
+pocket, Bevis? Merle, give me one too! Now, we'll bury these three
+pennies in the ground, like the Romans used to do before they began a
+building, and that'll mark the spot ours for ever more."
+
+"I wish we _had_ a building here," said Merle, producing her penny.
+
+"Oh, so do I! A sort of ancient British hut, made of boughs and turf.
+Wouldn't it be priceless? We could almost imagine ourselves mound
+dwellers, and feel as if we were living in the Bronze Age."
+
+"Would you really like it?" asked Bevis quickly.
+
+"Rather!"
+
+"Well, we'll see what can be done. No, I can't exactly promise anything;
+but look here! if you care to come here again next Saturday afternoon
+perhaps I might have a surprise ready for you. No, I shan't tell you
+anything about it, or it wouldn't be a surprise. You must wait and see!"
+
+"Do whisper just a teeny-weeny hint," begged Mavis coaxingly, but Bevis
+was adamant.
+
+"I don't know myself yet! Wait till next Saturday. Give me your pennies,
+and I'll dig a hole. Here's a foundation at any rate. Good luck to
+Blackthorn Bower."
+
+Having solemnly interred the three coins, the young people regretfully
+remembered the time, and turned away from the lovely spot to go back to
+Chagmouth. For the sake of variety they went by another path, which led
+over the top of the headland and down on to an inland road. In the deep
+sheltered green lane early violets were blooming, and presently, on the
+banks of a little pond, they spied the first kingcups of the year. They
+were growing in a rather swampy place, and it would have been prudent of
+the girls to have let Bevis gather them for them; instead of which they
+both insisted upon venturing on to some very spongy ground, with the
+result that Mavis made a false step and plunged suddenly, well over her
+knees, into water. She splashed out again immediately, but the damage
+was done. Here was a pretty business--Mavis, newly recovered from a bad
+attack of bronchitis, was wet through and shivering already.
+
+"Oh, she'll get cold!" cried Merle. "What _are_ we to do?"
+
+"I feel like a dr-r-r-owned r-r-r-at!" said Mavis through her chattering
+teeth.
+
+"Mrs. Jarvis lives close by. She'd dry her things," suggested Bevis.
+
+"Oh, do let us go there at once then!"
+
+Where Mavis's health was concerned, Merle, through sad experience, was
+an anxious little mother. The Triumvirate hurried off post-haste in the
+direction of a white-washed cottage whose chimney peeped above the hedge
+on the opposite side of the road.
+
+Mrs. Jarvis was a short, wizened, elderly widow woman, who had
+suffered badly in the battle of life and had come off with many scars.
+Fourteen years ago she had been the village nurse, and had been sent for
+on that tragic evening when poor Mrs. Hunter, helpless and speechless,
+lay gasping with fluttering breath on the sofa in the parlour of the
+King's Arms. It was Mrs. Jarvis who had performed the last offices, who
+had supplied what information she could to the doctor and the coroner,
+and had indeed been one of the principal witnesses at the inquest. It is
+said that misfortunes never come singly, and on the day when all
+Chagmouth had flocked to the churchyard to watch the stranger's funeral,
+Mrs. Jarvis had been overwhelmed with a trouble of her own. Her one
+child, a wilful headstrong lad of thirteen, had run away, and had taken
+with him the few savings that she had kept stored inside an old tea-pot
+in the cupboard. All search for him had been in vain, and it was
+generally supposed in the neighbourhood that he had walked to Port
+Sennen and gone to sea as a cabin boy in one of the many vessels that
+lay in the busy harbour. Certainly from that day to this his mother had
+had no further news of him. This grief had been the bitter culmination
+of many black years, and it had preyed on the poor woman's mind to such
+an extent that she was often strange in her manner, and indeed for a
+time had been an inmate of the County Asylum. She was perfectly
+harmless, and though she could no longer be trusted as a nurse, she
+fulfilled the duties of an extra postwoman and delivered letters at
+outlying farms. She had one unreasoning obsession. She was certain that
+Jerry, her boy, might come back at any moment. A little table in her
+kitchen was always set out ready for him, with clean cloth, tea-pot, and
+knife and fork. Every evening at dusk she lighted a candle, and placed
+it in a window to guide him home by the short cut he had been wont to
+take over the cliffs from the village. She was brisk and cheerful, and
+would talk eagerly of the lad whom she daily expected, oblivious of the
+fact that nearly fifteen years must have changed him almost out of
+recognition. People humoured her on this point, and treated her with
+that kindly consideration which is often meted out in country places to
+those who are labelled "daft".
+
+Amongst her other work Mrs. Jarvis went weekly to scrub floors at
+Grimbal's Farm, so Bevis knew her well, and had no hesitation in taking
+Mavis to be dried at her fire. The door of the small fuchsia-covered
+cottage was open, and the postwoman, still in her uniform, was newly
+returned from her upland tramp, and was blowing sticks into a blaze
+under her kettle. She took the advent of a drenched visitor with the
+utmost calm.
+
+"Well, Bevis! Who'd have thought of seeing you. The young lady wet!
+Yes, yes! Nasty thing to be wet! Very nice fire! The kettle's just on
+the boil! Take her things off? Yes, missy. Come with me and I'll take
+wet clothes off. Very dangerous to sit in wet clothes."
+
+Poor Mrs. Jarvis might be half-crazy, but she collected her scattered
+wits sufficiently to usher Mavis into her tiny bedroom, to lend her some
+dry garments, and to make her a steaming cup of hot tea.
+
+"I can't give her _his_ place," she murmured, glancing in doubt at the
+table set ready for Jerry, and beginning to twist her hands in the
+nervous fashion that accompanied any distress in her mind.
+
+"No, no! She's better here by the fire," said Bevis soothingly. "I'll go
+out and find you some fresh wood, and then you can make a regular
+blazer. Don't you begin to worry! I know you're glad to do anything for
+Dr. Tremayne's niece, aren't you?"
+
+"Yes, indeed! A nice gentleman--Dr. Tremayne. Very kind always when my
+head's bad. A very nice gentleman and all!"
+
+By the aid of a perfect bonfire of sticks and brushwood, which Bevis
+foraged out of the fields, Mavis's clothes were dried at last, and the
+little party were able to start off on their way back to Chagmouth. They
+hurried along, being afraid lest Uncle David should have returned from
+the Sanatorium and be waiting to set off in the car for Durracombe. As
+they clattered down the steep steps that led from the footpath into the
+village, they almost ran into Gwen and Babbie Williams, who, looking
+charming in white serge coats and little ermine caps, were going to post
+letters in the pillar-box. Gwen stood still and stared in utter
+amazement, first at Mavis's mud-stained garments and then at Bevis. The
+latter raised his cap, but Gwen did not acknowledge the courtesy, and
+remained gazing as if absolutely petrified, while the Triumvirate,
+conscious of intense disapproval, scurried past in the direction of the
+farm.
+
+"Why do we _always_ happen to meet the Glyn Williams just when we're not
+tidy. It really _is_ too bad," groaned Mavis.
+
+"There's fate about it I think. I've only to lose my hair ribbon, or
+forget my gloves, or dirty my boots, and Gwen turns up round the corner
+as neat as if she'd stepped out of a bandbox. It's most fearfully
+aggravating. I wish to goodness they'd stay at The Warren instead of
+acting fashion plates in the village. I'm thoroughly cross," grunted
+Merle.
+
+Bevis said nothing, though he might have added that it was not pleasant
+to have your civility acknowledged only with a stare. There was a
+curious stubborn look on the lad's dark face, such as the girls had
+noticed there on that first afternoon when they had been obliged to put
+off their appointment with him in the tool-shed. He turned abruptly into
+the stackyard when they reached the farm, and though, afterwards, they
+hunted about for him to say good-bye, they could not find him anywhere.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Nicky Nan Night
+
+
+Immediately after the lesson, on the next French day, Gwen Williams
+sauntered in the direction of the Ramsays.
+
+"Do you go out for walks with that Penruddock boy from Grimbal's Farm?"
+she asked rather insolently.
+
+"Do you mean Bevis Hunter?" Mavis's voice was iced politeness.
+
+"Yes. I told Mother, and she _was_ surprised! Does your uncle know?"
+
+Merle was on the point of bursting out, "It's not your business!" but
+her more discreet sister gave her a hasty poke.
+
+"It was Uncle David who sent us out with Bevis," answered Mavis with
+stately dignity. "He thinks very highly of him, and so do we. I've never
+met anybody who knows so much about natural history, or who can tell us
+more about excavations and prehistoric mounds and things. He was curator
+of the school museum when he was at Shelton College."
+
+Gwen gazed at Mavis as if she were speaking an unknown language.
+
+"It's a matter of taste of course," she replied. "_I_ shouldn't care to
+go about with the boy from the Penruddocks' Farm."
+
+She walked away, leaving sad heart-burnings behind her. The Ramsays had
+been very simply brought up at home, and were accustomed to judge people
+merely by whether they liked them or not, and knew little of worldly
+standards. Bevis, with his jolly, merry ways, and his intense love of
+nature, seemed a far pleasanter companion than Gwen or her brother
+Tudor. Intellectually he was more than the equal of those who despised
+him, and his romantic story suggested many possibilities.
+
+"Bevis might be _anybody_," ventured Mavis.
+
+"I don't care who he is, he's our friend," fumed Merle stoutly.
+
+"Rather, and we'll stick to him in spite of all the Glyn Williamses in
+the world. It really doesn't matter to us what Gwen thinks."
+
+Fortunately for the Ramsays, Gwen only came to school twice a week, but
+to their sorrow Opal was there every day. Lately she had been growing
+more and more out of hand. She had begun to adopt a patronizing attitude
+towards Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny, called them "poor old dears",
+quizzed their clothes, their manners, and their methods of teaching, and
+voted them hopelessly slow and out of date. There is a certain phase in
+girls who are growing up at which they are fiercely critical of their
+elders. As a child Opal had immensely admired her two godmothers, and
+had been proud of their many accomplishments. Now, because she too had
+acquired a certain skill in music and painting, she rather looked down
+upon their talents. She thought her own superior, forgetting that though
+a well-taught girl may seem clever at sixteen, there is no guarantee
+that she will go on developing in the same ratio, and will therefore be
+a genius at the age of thirty-seven.
+
+The fact was that Opal ought long ago to have been sent away to a
+boarding-school, where she would have found her level among other girls
+of her own age, and have been thoroughly sat upon by elder ones. Her
+position of prime favourite at The Moorings was bad both for herself and
+for everybody else. The juniors, encouraged by her example, began to
+evade rules, and to do many things they had never dreamt of before. Miss
+Fanny, finding them unusually troublesome, puzzled over the reason. She
+decided there must be bad influence somewhere, but it never struck her
+to fix the blame upon Opal. She was always ready with an excuse where
+her god-daughter was concerned.
+
+Among other subjects which Miss Fanny taught at The Moorings was the
+piano. She was a very good and correct musician, and had studied under
+an eminent master of her day. Perhaps her fault as a teacher was that
+she concentrated too much on the technique to the exclusion of the
+artistic element. She would stop a pupil every few bars to correct
+errors in touch or the position of the hands, and was such a martinet
+over these details that the spirit of the piece was often entirely lost.
+Merle, who liked to dash away and get a general impression of a
+composition, oblivious of a few wrong notes, chafed terribly under this
+severe regime.
+
+"It knocks all the poetry out of the music," she complained. "I
+hardly know what tune I'm playing when Miss Fanny is watching my
+hands like a cat watching a mouse, and that abominable metronome is
+tick-tack-tick-tacking on the top of the piano! How I hate the beastly
+thing. I'd as soon recite Shakespeare to a metronome as play Chaminade.
+It would be just as sensible. Music, to my mind, is like reciting, you
+want to hurry up some phrases and to linger on others, not go pounding
+on like a pianola or a piece of clockwork! Tick-tack-tick-tack--Ugh! I
+hate it!"
+
+Opal, who also suffered from the metronome, chimed in with her side of
+the grievance.
+
+"My cousin learns from Mr. Jardine, the best teacher in Burchester, and
+she never uses one!"
+
+"I don't see why we need. I wish somebody would break the wretched old
+thing, or lose it, or otherwise dispose of it. They'd have my blessing
+I'm sure."
+
+The juniors, who had gathered round to listen, giggled at Merle's
+heroics. It was rather nice to hear elder girls grumbling.
+
+"Why don't you do it yourself," piped Betty Marshall.
+
+Merle, just for fun, seized the object of her invective from the top of
+the piano, and opening the window placed it outside upon the sill.
+
+"It may stay there and tick-tack to the birds if it likes," she
+declared. "If I had my way it would never come back again. Yes, I mean
+it."
+
+The juniors laughed again as they ran from the room, and Merle, also
+laughing, lifted the unfortunate metronome inside and placed it back on
+the piano. She and Opal chased the smaller ones along the passage, and
+caught them, squealing with delight, in the cloakroom.
+
+"You little pussies, I'll tickle you!" cried Merle, swinging Posie
+Andrews off her feet and tucking her under one arm, while she made a
+grab at Florrie Leach.
+
+The children, wild with fun, danced about like so many imps.
+
+"It's Nicky Nan Night to-night," twittered Betty as she jumped and
+pranced. "We're all Nicky Nans. Look at us!"
+
+"Hooray! It's Nicky Nan Night," shouted the others.
+
+"Heavens, so it is. I'd completely forgotten!" said Opal.
+
+She stood for a moment as if thinking, then she suddenly ran back to the
+schoolroom. She was only gone a moment or two, but she returned to the
+cloakroom with a curious look of amusement on her face.
+
+"What have you been up to?" asked Merle, eyeing her suspiciously.
+
+"Ah! Wouldn't you just like to know?"
+
+"You've been doing something!"
+
+"Indeed! How clever we are all of a sudden. Are you clairvoyante may
+I ask?"
+
+"Not at all, but I know Opal Earnshaw. You're pluming yourself no end."
+
+Opal broke into a fit of delighted giggling, but refused all
+explanations, and slamming on her hat rushed away home, leaving the
+juniors still dancing about the cloakroom like pixies and loudly
+proclaiming: "It's Nicky Nan Night. We're all Nicky Nans!"
+
+"What on earth is Nicky Nan Night?" asked Merle rather crossly, but
+nobody troubled to answer, so she struggled into her coat and joined
+Mavis, who was waiting at the door, and forgot all about the matter
+directly.
+
+Later on in the evening, however, she began to understand. Durracombe
+was a little old-world place, and had preserved many quaint and curious
+customs from ancient times. One of the most extraordinary of these was a
+kind of carnival held by the boys of the town at the beginning of the
+season of Lent. As soon as it was dusk they commenced to prowl about the
+streets wearing black paper masks and carrying turnip lanterns. They
+were supposed to represent imps of darkness, or perhaps will o' the
+wisps, and their chief sport was to ring door bells, or rat-tap with
+knockers, and then run away. Mavis and Merle, hearing repeated peals
+from the surgery bell, were amazed that Jessop did not answer it, till
+she explained it was merely a ruse of the Nicky Nans, and that nobody in
+Durracombe who knew their tricks would respond to such a summons. She
+offered however to take the girls out for ten minutes to look at the
+fun; so they donned coats and scarves and issued into the dim High
+Street. It was a moonless night, which made things all the better for
+such a saturnalia. In the distance a cluster of lights began to dance
+about, and presently up ran half a dozen little urchins, disguised in
+masks and waving turnip lanterns pierced with holes for eyes and mouths,
+so that the candles shining through them gave them the appearance of
+gruesome goblins. The children had indeed vied with one another as to
+which could produce the most horrible looking turnip head, and part of
+the sport was to hide in dark alleys and suddenly to exhibit the
+lanterns to unwary passers-by, to try to raise a scream. The small imps
+careered round and round, prancing and giving an occasional yell of
+"Nicky Nan". The girls laughed in much amusement, and Jessop, who had
+witnessed the custom from her youth up, felt in her pocket for some
+pennies, and threw them into the road to be scrambled for.
+
+Presently came the noise of a tin-kettle band, and down the High Street
+marched a procession carrying "Jack o' Lent", a grotesque figure on the
+lines of a Guy Fawkes, stuffed with straw and wearing a mask and an old
+top hat. The Nicky Nans flew to join their fellows, showing their
+lanterns like the wise virgins in the parable, and the Guy was escorted
+by quite a crowd of leaping dancing will-o'-the-wisps, who added squeals
+and whistling to the din made on the old tea-trays and pans. They
+crossed the bridge to a field on the farther side of the river, where a
+bonfire had been built. Upon this Jack o' Lent was carefully hoisted,
+and a match was put to the straw. The Ramsays, hurried indoors by Jessop
+lest Mavis should catch cold, watched the scene from Aunt Nellie's
+bedroom window, and had a fine view of the flames blazing up, and the
+Nicky Nans prancing round in a circle, waving their weird turnip lights.
+
+On this one night in the year the town's children were veritable
+Devonshire pixies. By immemorial custom they were licensed to carry away
+brooms, pails, or any objects which people were so foolish as to leave
+unguarded outside their houses. These they pounced upon and bore off as
+booty, exhibiting them the next morning in the pound, whence they might
+be redeemed by their owners for a fee varying from a penny to sixpence,
+according to their value. As the proceeds went to their football club,
+the Nicky Nans were naturally anxious to pick up every trifle which they
+could possibly find lying about, and every house and garden in the town
+was visited for that purpose. The matron, who missed her scrubbing-brush
+or her bucket, knew what Pucks and Robin Goodfellows had been flitting
+round in the darkness, and made a visit to the pound to recover her lost
+property, paying the price with a good-natured remembrance of the fun of
+her own young days.
+
+Mavis and Merle, on their way to school on the morning following the
+saturnalia, peeped into the pound, a walled enclosure intended for the
+detention of lost cows or strayed sheep, and saw half a dozen of the
+boys, still wearing masks, guarding quite a collection of treasures and
+chaffing some of the owners over the gate. Evidently they had had a most
+successful evening, and the funds of their football club would be
+replenished.
+
+"Little wretches. They're as light-fingered as elves," remarked Merle.
+"They've even taken the pots of geraniums off people's window-sills."
+
+"I shall never forget them dancing in a mad circle round the bonfire,"
+laughed Mavis, as the pair passed on.
+
+When the pupils at The Moorings assembled that morning for call-over,
+Miss Fanny entered with a look upon her face which everybody at once
+mentally registered at stormy. Her "Good morning, girls!" was cold. She
+never noticed the vase full of flowers which the boarders had arranged
+upon her desk, and she took the names, as if she were reading a list of
+criminals, in a deep sad voice without an atom of her usual geniality.
+When this first preliminary was finished she turned to what was
+evidently the pressing business on her mind.
+
+"Girls!" she began. "A very unpleasant thing has happened in the school.
+The metronome is missing from the piano. None of the boarders has
+interfered with it. Can any of you day girls tell what has become of
+it?"
+
+A look of much astonishment passed round the assembled faces. On
+several it was even mingled with relief. To get rid of the metronome did
+not seem an unmixed evil. Perhaps Miss Fanny noted the expression. She
+paused for a whole solemn minute, then spoke again in a yet sterner
+voice.
+
+"I put every girl in this room on her honour to tell what she knows."
+
+There was a stir among some of the younger children, a bending together
+of heads, and a faint whispering like the buzzing of bees, then Betty
+Marshall held up her hand.
+
+"Please, Miss Fanny, there's a metronome just like ours in the pound.
+Posie and Florrie and I saw it as we came to school."
+
+"In the pound!" Miss Fanny's voice quivered with amazed indignation.
+
+"Yes, the Nicky Nans had taken it."
+
+"But surely no boy would dare to venture into our schoolroom. It's
+outrageous! I shall have to complain to the schoolmaster if they go
+beyond bounds like this. To take it off the piano!"
+
+Posie and Betty glanced doubtfully at one another as if uncertain
+whether to explain further. Then Posie held up a chubby hand.
+
+"Please, Miss Fanny, it wasn't on the piano; it was outside on the
+window-sill."
+
+"On the window-sill! Who put it there?" The teacher's voice had reached
+crescendo.
+
+Posie wriggled and looked uncomfortably at Betty and then at Florrie,
+finally in a rather tremulous whisper she murmured:
+
+"Merle Ramsay."
+
+Merle stood up at once with flaming cheeks.
+
+"I put the metronome outside the window for a minute, Miss Fanny, but I
+didn't leave it there. I put it back upon the piano."
+
+Miss Fanny glared hard, first at Merle, and then with a kind of
+comprehensive sweeping glance over the whole school.
+
+"Can any other girl volunteer any information?"
+
+There was dead silence. Opal was rather ostentatiously sharpening the
+point of her pencil. The teacher's gaze came back to a focus on Merle.
+
+"You had no business to interfere with the metronome at all. I certainly
+consider it your fault that it has been taken. In future I can't have
+you day girls staying in the schoolroom after four o'clock. You must
+leave directly you've put your books away. Go to your forms now, girls!
+We've wasted too much time already."
+
+Merle stumped off, feeling extremely cross. She was absolutely certain
+that Opal, who had run back last thing into the schoolroom, must have
+put the metronome outside on the window-sill, knowing that the Nicky
+Nans would be sure to carry it off. At 'break' she taxed her with it.
+But Opal simply laughed, and went on eating biscuits.
+
+"Don't set all the work of the Nicky Nans down to me," she declared.
+"It's a pity they didn't keep the metronome. Miss Fanny will trot down
+to the pound and pay her sixpence and get it back, and it will be
+tick-tacking again on the piano as gaily as ever, unless some of those
+priceless kids have chanced to break it."
+
+"But you put it outside for them?" persisted Merle.
+
+"I? I never do naughty things!"
+
+"Don't you? It strikes me you tell the biggest fibs of any girl I've
+ever yet come across. I call you the absolute limit," said indignant
+Merle as she flounced away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+The Squatters
+
+
+On the next day but one after Nicky Nan Night, Mavis and Merle had
+returned from school, and were walking in the garden on the terraced
+path that overlooked the river. It was a vantage-point which gave them
+as good a view across the bridge and along the high road as any mediaeval
+maidens might have had from a castle turret, and they gazed at all
+comers with interest not unmixed with curiosity. There were certainly no
+Sir Lancelots or Sir Percivales riding into the town clad in golden
+armour, and carrying silken banners, only modern motor-cars and
+bicycles, creaking country wagons and homely foot passengers. But
+presently there was a sound of hoofs, and a smart well-groomed little
+horse came trotting along from the south. Mavis put up her hand to shade
+her eyes from the sun, and took an inspection of the rider as he crossed
+the bridge. Something in the fair, rather delicate face seemed instantly
+familiar.
+
+"I verily believe it's Tudor Williams," she said.
+
+It was undoubtedly Tudor, and he was evidently coming to Bridge House.
+He rode round into the stable yard, called to Tom to take his horse,
+dismounted, and went to the surgery entrance. In the course of a few
+minutes he came out again, walked briskly on to the terrace, and greeted
+the girls.
+
+"Your aunt sent me to find you. She's asked me to stay for tea. I came
+to see Dr. Tremayne, but he's out at a case, so I'm going to wait till
+he comes back. I say! You've got a nice old garden here, haven't you?
+I've never been in it before. It's ripping overlooking the river."
+
+Suddenly placed in the position of hostesses Mavis and Merle did the
+honours graciously. Tudor seemed in a very amiable frame of mind, and
+was inclined to make himself agreeable. He chatted about the
+neighbourhood, the weather, some theatres he had visited in town, told
+them one or two school episodes, and discussed the prospects of the new
+Durracombe golf club. Mavis, who had discovered his pleasanter side at
+The Warren, was soon talking quite eagerly, and even Merle, who had a
+deep prejudice against him, put in a remark now and then. Tea was quite
+a jovial affair. Aunt Nelly liked to be amused by young people, so they
+all made jokes and related adventures, and sat on enjoying the fun till
+the car returned and they heard Uncle David's footstep in the hall.
+While the Doctor interviewed his patient the two girls ran out to the
+stable to look at "Armorelle", the lovely satin-coated little horse that
+snuggled a soft nose against Merle's shoulder, and ate sugar from
+Mavis's hand. They stood by in much approval of her beauty as Tom led
+her forth for her master to mount.
+
+"I'd change all the cars in the world for her, sir," said Tom, stroking
+the glossy neck caressingly. "You don't know what it's been to me to
+lose my horses. It was like losing children. It's been a pleasure to
+have her in the stable, sir. It's minded me of old times."
+
+"She's a spoilt darling, and she ate three lumps of sugar," said Mavis.
+"What a glorious ride you'll have home. I love that road to Chagmouth."
+
+"You must come and see us again at The Warren! And you too" (nodding to
+Merle). "Are you keen on tennis? So am I. We've a cinder court that we
+play on in spring. Just drop in some Saturday when you're over with your
+uncle. Mother and the girls will be pleased to see you, I'm sure. We're
+generally, some of us, about the place."
+
+Tudor rode away, leaving a much more favourable impression behind him
+than the girls would have believed possible on their first encounter in
+the lane above Grimbal's Farm. That unpleasant episode was beginning to
+fade from their memories. Jim, the fox terrier, ran up to them now in
+friendly fashion if they chanced to meet him in Chagmouth, though
+Mavis's skirt, beautifully darned by Jessop, still retained traces of
+his teeth. It is no use keeping up ill-will against boy or animal, and
+the Ramsays were quite ready to let bygones be bygones. They even began
+to decide that they rather liked Tudor, though of course not nearly so
+much as Bevis. When they went to Grimbal's Farm as usual on Saturday
+they could not help pouring out to their friend an account of this
+reconciliation.
+
+"Tom let me climb on Armorelle's back in the stable. Oh, how I'd love to
+ride her!"
+
+"There's a topping cinder court at The Warren. We're going to bring our
+rackets with us sometime. Mrs. Glyn Williams has sent a message to Aunt
+Nellie to say we must go there whenever we like and play tennis."
+
+Bevis was sitting on a hurdle in the stackyard, untwisting a piece of
+rope while he listened. He bent his head down over his work. They could
+not see his face at all.
+
+"You won't want to come walks with _me_ now you've made friends at The
+Warren," he said in a low, strained voice. "I quite understand. I never
+thought you'd care to go about with a fellow like me. It wasn't to be
+expected. It's all right!"
+
+When Bevis, in that strangled tone, said "it's all right", it was
+invariably a sign that matters were all wrong. The girls, aghast at
+their own lack of tact, hastened to set things straight, and to reassure
+him that they would not miss their walk with him that afternoon for
+worlds.
+
+"You promised us a surprise at Blackthorn Bower!"
+
+"We've been looking forward to it the whole week, and counting the
+days."
+
+"It's really nothing worth taking you up there for." (Bevis's voice was
+still gloomy.) "If you'd rather go to The Warren, please go. It's all
+right."
+
+"Look here, don't be absurd," urged Merle. "We want to see the Bower
+again, and we're going there this afternoon. You can please yourself
+whether you come with us or not."
+
+"But I don't think we _quite_ remember the way," added Mavis artfully.
+"It would be so very tiresome if we were to lose ourselves."
+
+Of course that settled it. Bevis was bound to offer himself as guide,
+and by the time they started he appeared to be in a smoother temper. He
+whistled quite cheerily as he slung a shooting-bag over his back. He
+gave the girls three guesses each as to its contents, but would not tell
+them whether they were right or wrong.
+
+"You'll see when you get there," he replied, and went on whistling
+softly to himself.
+
+By mutual but unacknowledged consent they walked by an upper way across
+the fields. It was a little longer, but it avoided all possibility of
+meeting the Glyn Williams anywhere in the village. To run up against
+them would have been most embarrassing. As it was, nobody mentioned even
+their names. The girls, having once "put their foot in it", were
+cautious, and avoided all reference to The Warren.
+
+Fortunately their backs were turned in that direction, as they walked
+towards the headland.
+
+When they reached Blackthorn Bower they found an immense surprise
+awaiting them. Bevis must have been very busy during the time which had
+intervened since their last visit. He had taken some of the stones from
+the old wall, and some sods and some branches, and had constructed a
+kind of beehive hut, such as must have been used by the primitive
+dwellers in these islands.
+
+"It's just the sort of thing they lived in in the Bronze Age," he
+explained. "I borrowed one of Mr. Barnes's books, _Antiquities of
+Devonshire_, and it gave a fancy picture of what some of the prehistoric
+villages probably looked like. The only bit I altered was the doorway. I
+made it big, so that we could see out of it; and of course they had low
+holes that they crawled through, and blocked with a stone."
+
+Mavis and Merle were delighted with the structure raised in their
+honour. They had been keen on history at Whinburn High School, and had
+studied the Stone and Bronze Ages under an interesting teacher, so that
+it was particularly fascinating to find what seemed as good as a real
+live specimen of a house of the period actually before their eyes. They
+went inside at once and took possession. There were some logs for seats,
+and a big stone for a table placed in the middle of the hut. While they
+were examining these, Bevis slung his shooting-bag carefully from his
+shoulder and began to unpack it. Then he produced what he evidently
+considered his masterpiece.
+
+There was a small quarry near Chagmouth whence China clay was shipped.
+He had begged a big lump of this, kneaded it and moulded it into
+handleless cups, and had baked them in the oven at the farm. They were,
+of course, roughly made, but they much resembled prehistoric pottery,
+even to the willow-withe markings which he had put on them. They were
+stained on the outside, one red, one blue, and one yellow.
+
+"So that we shall each know our own," he explained, handing the blue to
+Mavis and the red to Merle.
+
+It was undoubtedly an anachronism that Bevis had brought a thermos flask
+in his shooting-bag, and offered his friends tea in their home-baked
+cups, but they were not disposed to quarrel with such a mixture of
+ancient and modern. They sat on their log seats, eating cake and sipping
+the modern beverage in defiance of historic accuracy.
+
+"I feel as if the Bronze Age people who were buried in the mound ought
+to rise up and come and turn us out and say it was their shanty,"
+laughed Merle.
+
+"What did they do with the skeletons that were found there?" asked Mavis
+suddenly.
+
+"Took them to the County Museum," answered Bevis. "I didn't like the
+idea myself. I think it was hateful to put the poor things' bones in a
+glass case. They ought to have left them where they were buried, with
+their hands still clasped and the little baby in the woman's arm. They
+must have been fond of each other thousands of years ago."
+
+"Perhaps he built her a hut like this and made her clay pottery,"
+speculated Mavis.
+
+"I've no doubt he did."
+
+"But she didn't drink tea out of it anyway," snorted Merle. "Don't be
+sentimental over the Bronze Age people, you two. I'd rather call the
+tumulus a pixie mound, and imagine the wee folk coming tumbling out of
+it some moonlight night, and dancing on the grass. Don't Chagmouth
+people tell any stories about pixies?"
+
+"They wouldn't be Devon folk unless they did. Yes, there are heaps of
+pixie tales. They say an old man from Groves Cottage was once pixie-led
+on the moor. He wandered round and round in a circle, and couldn't find
+his way home till he turned his coat inside out, and that broke the
+spell. There was an old woman over by Tangoran who used to tell a
+wonderful tale about a fairy."
+
+"Oh, what was that?"
+
+"It's a weird sort of story. There was once a lad named Will
+Killigarth, who lived at Horndon, up on the moor. There was a witch in
+the village, and she told him that if he would go on Hallowe'en and dig
+inside one of the ancient stone circles that he would find treasure,
+only he must go at midnight, and go alone. He was rather frightened of
+the business, but he took his father's spade and went. It was heavy work
+digging, but at last he struck something, and drew out a bowl of rough
+pottery, all full of gold pieces. He was just picking this up when he
+heard a cry, and in the moonlight he saw a most lovely girl with
+streaming yellow hair stretching out her hands imploringly to him. She
+said she was the guardian of the gold, and begged him to bury it again
+where it was in the circle. He said he would do so if she would marry
+him, and after thinking awhile she said yes. So he buried the treasure
+and took the girl home to the village and married her. She lived with
+him just a year, and then on the next Hallowe'en she vanished, and he
+never saw her again. He hunted for the stone circle where he had dug
+before, but he never could find the right one again. There are so many
+of them up on the moor. So he lost both the treasure and the girl."
+
+"Did they actually _believe_ these stories?" asked Mavis, knitting her
+brows.
+
+"Oh yes, in the old days they believed them, just as they believed in
+witches and charms and all the rest of it. Mr. Barnes calls all the old
+tales folk-history. He says the pixies were the prehistoric Stone Age or
+Bronze Age people who lived on into historic times, and hid themselves
+in the mounds or caves or wild places on the moor. The stories of the
+pixies' habits and haunts read just like accounts of very primitive
+people. Bronze Age or Stone Age folk would be sure to come at night and
+steal things from the Celtic tribes who had settled in Devon, and they
+would bury their treasures inside their huts. The stone circles on the
+moor are the ruined walls of their huts."
+
+"But surely the Stone Age folk didn't go living on till about the
+seventeenth century?" asked Mavis, still puzzled.
+
+"No, but you know how people like to bring a story up to date. They
+often tell you a thing happened to themselves when you know it must have
+happened to their great-grandfather. The old Celtic accounts of the
+little men on the moor would keep being handed down, and each generation
+would fit the story with fresh names, and a few extra details."
+
+"Miss Donald told us a lot about that at Whinburn High. She said the
+dragons of old folk-tales were probably prehistoric animals that had
+lingered on in lonely places--very likely pterodactyls."
+
+"I dare say they were. To judge from the fossils that have been found
+the old monsters must have been pretty common in Devon. You should ask
+Mr. Barnes. He's great on all this kind of thing, always poking about
+and digging, and measuring hut circles and all the rest of it."
+
+"It's awfully fascinating," said Mavis.
+
+"Ye-es, but just a trifle spooky," admitted Merle. "Honestly I shouldn't
+like to spend a night up here camping out in this shanty. I'd be scared
+to death of the mound dwellers. What are we to do with our prehistoric
+cups, Bevis? Leave them here or take them back?"
+
+It was decided to wash the cups in a pool of water close by, and leave
+them inside the hut to be ready for some future picnic. That domestic
+duty finished, the Triumvirate wended their way back in the direction of
+Chagmouth. This time they climbed by a pathway down the cliffs on to the
+beach, in order to go home along the shore. It was low tide, so they
+could walk on the firm sands at the edge of the high-water mark. Little
+gentle waves were rippling in over the rocks, cormorants were diving for
+fish, and the inevitable seagulls were wheeling and screaming, or
+settling down in the pools to hunt for tit-bits. At the corner of the
+cove, built on the solid rock barely above the level of winter storms,
+stood the little old, old church of St. Gervan's, disused now, except
+for an annual service. Before the building of Chagmouth church in the
+eighteenth century it had served a wide district, and there were tales
+that its bell had often proved a signal for ships in a fog, and had
+warned them off the rocks. There were other and wilder stories, of
+smugglers who had hidden their contraband goods inside the pews, of the
+press-gang who had waylaid the fishermen as they returned from service
+and had carried them off to serve in His Majesty's navy, and of a wicked
+parson, foremost among a gang of wreckers, whose uneasy ghost still
+haunted the beach on moonlight nights.
+
+Bevis, who knew all the legends of the village, poured out these tales
+for the girls' benefit, and of course they naturally wanted to take a
+look at the place. So they climbed the eighty-seven rough stone steps
+that led up from the shore, and scrambled over the wall into the little
+churchyard. It was a neglected spot, but all the more picturesque on
+that account. Long grass grew over the graves, and moss had almost
+obliterated the names on the fallen stones, the framework of the doorway
+had sunk at one end, and the tower had lost some of its coping in the
+last gale. The great pieces lay strewn about the path. The windows
+looked cobwebby, but one of them was open, and, with some difficulty,
+Bevis hoisted the girls up to peep inside. The poor little church, flung
+aside now like a cast-off ecclesiastical garment, nevertheless showed
+signs of its former glories, when worshippers had given of their best to
+deck it forth. Its pre-reformation rood-screen, one of the very few to
+escape the commissioners' hatchets or Puritan whitewash, was carved with
+quaint figures of saints, and still showed traces of colouring in red
+and blue and gold. The oak benches, grey for want of oil or polish, were
+also carved, and in the chancel there was a splendid pew with a wooden
+canopy embossed and painted like the rood-screen, though plainly of a
+later date. The whole was mouldy and ill-kept, but at least had been
+saved from the ruthless hand of that foe to all antiquarian lore, the
+nineteenth-century restorer, who would probably have stripped it of
+rood-screen and carved benches, and have replaced them with pitch pine.
+
+"I'd like to sit in that gorgeous pew," said Mavis, dropping down from
+her perch, and examining her grazed hands tenderly.
+
+"That belongs to the Tallands. It goes with The Warren. There's an old
+monument down the nave to some of the family. You couldn't see it
+properly from that window," explained Bevis.
+
+"Don't they ever clean the place up?" asked Merle.
+
+"They do once a year, before the festival."
+
+"When is the festival?"
+
+"Late in May. They always have kept it at Chagmouth, and they make much
+more of it now because they have the war-memorial service at the same
+time, and everybody goes to that. The cross is up there, just at the top
+of the churchyard."
+
+The people from the several places which the tiny church had originally
+served had joined together in erecting a memorial to their brave boys
+who had fallen in the Great War--a plain Celtic cross of granite, placed
+on a platform of rock above the church, where it could be very plainly
+seen by all the vessels that passed by in or out of the harbour. It was
+a magnificent situation for it, far more romantic than any in the town,
+and to judge from the wreaths and bunches of flowers laid at its foot,
+it was the goal of an easy walk along the cliffs on Sundays. Mavis, who
+stopped to read the roll of honour, took the violets from her
+button-hole and laid them with the rest of the floral tributes.
+
+"I like this wee church much better than St. John's," she remarked.
+"Although it's so dirty and cobwebby and dilapidated, it seems to have
+more of the old spirit of Chagmouth about it somehow. It takes one back
+to Drake and Raleigh, almost to the days of King Arthur. I'm so glad
+Merle and I are Devon folk on Mother's side at any rate. We're
+tremendously proud of it."
+
+Bevis was looking beyond the ancient walls to where the little town lay
+alongside its harbour at the edge of the grey sea.
+
+"The boys over there have always taunted me that I don't belong to
+Chagmouth, but I've got the spirit of the place in me all the same," he
+said. "I don't believe there's one of them that cares for it like I do.
+As for the Glyn Williamses they'd modernize it to-morrow if they were
+allowed. I hope to goodness General Talland will never sell them the
+property, or they'd sweep away every picturesque corner in it, and widen
+the street so as to bring cars down. They've not a scrap of taste. That
+new Institute may be all right for lectures and theatricals and the rest
+of it, but I should think they chose the most hideous plan that the
+architects submitted. It's a perfect eyesore standing just where it
+does. You should hear Mr. Barnes hold forth about it. He got his way at
+any rate about the war memorial though, and insisted on a Celtic cross.
+Mr. Glyn Williams wanted a sort of 'Cleopatra's needle' and nearly
+carried the committee. Think of planting an ancient Egyptian monument on
+the cliff here. It would have been ridiculous. The Glyn Williamses may
+look down upon me and call me a 'nobody', but I've better taste than
+they have, and know more about old things too. I can't see that having
+pots of money gives people the right to ride rough-shod over the whole
+town."
+
+The boy spoke hotly, almost furiously. Evidently the subject was a sore
+one.
+
+"You're not called a nobody," said Mavis.
+
+"I _am_ a nobody, and no one knows that better than myself. If I'd even
+the slightest clue, I'd be off and away to hunt out my own relations. I
+wouldn't stay here only I'm needed so on the farm. I sometimes think
+I'll----" but here Bevis stopped and looked rather ashamed.
+
+"Don't take any notice of me," he continued more quietly. "I don't often
+break out like this. Why should I bother you with my troubles? They're
+nothing to you!"
+
+"Yes they are," said Mavis gently. "We're very interested indeed."
+
+"And very sorry," added Merle.
+
+They had the good sense, however, to change the subject, and Bevis,
+though at first his answers were rather short, gradually recovered
+himself. By the time they reached the farm he was chatting just as
+usual, and telling more stories of Devonshire pixies. He went into the
+surgery and helped Dr. Tremayne to dispense some medicines, and as the
+girls were starting home in the car they saw him in the orchard cutting
+down an apple tree, chopping away with most terrific energy.
+
+"I guess he's working off steam," said Merle waving her hand.
+
+"Yes, I didn't know what a volcano he was covering up till he let some
+of it bubble out this afternoon. Uncle David! What's going to become of
+Bevis? Will he always stay on the farm? He's so clever!"
+
+"Yes, poor lad, he's worthy of better things, and would make a name
+for himself some day if he got the chance. He ought to be back at
+school. It's hard luck on him to have his education broken off just when
+he was beginning to do so brilliantly. A nice lad too--a very nice
+lad--one of the nicest lads I know," muttered the old doctor, half to
+himself, as the car sped up the hill, and the sound of Bevis's blows on
+the apple tree grew fainter and fainter, then died away behind them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+Trotman's Circus
+
+
+One morning, towards the end of March, as the day girls were walking
+home from school, they came across a bill-sticker pasting a flaming red
+poster upon a hoarding. Naturally they stopped to look. The
+advertisement was headed:
+
+"Trotman's Circus & Menagerie", and set forth that on Monday next the
+famous show would visit Durracombe for one day only, and would give two
+performances, at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., introducing the latest novelties and
+sensational displays. Here was an excitement for the sleepy little town.
+It was years since any travelling circus had come that way, and very few
+of the children had seen elephants, performing sea-lions, trick-horses,
+gymnasts, North American Indian riders, or any of the marvels set down
+in the programme. Of course all the juvenile population was a-thrill at
+the prospect. The day girls at The Moorings carried the news to the
+boarders, and the arrival of the wonderful show at once became the most
+important date in the school calendar. Trotman's Circus had rather a bad
+reputation for missing its appointments, and, as it had once before
+advertised its advent but had failed to turn up, people declared they
+would not believe in it until they actually saw the procession marching
+into the town.
+
+"You'll take us if it really comes, won't you?" begged the boarders at
+The Moorings.
+
+Miss Pollard would not commit herself.
+
+"I must hear something about it first," she said guardedly. "These
+travelling shows aren't always very select."
+
+"It's a wonderful programme," urged Iva, who had seen the posters.
+
+"That doesn't guarantee it from being extremely vulgar," returned Miss
+Pollard.
+
+On Sunday afternoon, just as the scholars were pouring out of
+Sunday-schools, there came the rumble of wheels along the road, and
+presently down the High Street passed a remarkable procession of gilded
+caravans, horses, and elephants. The men who led them, and the women who
+peeped from the little curtained windows, were a tired-looking crew who
+deserved a Sunday's rest; but directly they had crossed the bridge, and
+arrived in the meadows at the opposite side of the river, they began to
+work hard at erecting tents, stabling their horses, and setting their
+temporary camp in order. Nearly all the children in Durracombe stood on
+the bridge and watched them. It is not every day you can see elephants
+or a camel or a troupe of tiny piebald ponies. To most of the small folk
+it was the opportunity of their lives.
+
+Mavis and Merle, from the vantage-ground of the terraced walk by the
+river, had a splendid view of the settlement. They were almost too near,
+indeed, for they were much disturbed during the night by weird noises,
+the roaring of lions in cages and the trumpeting of elephants. They
+dressed next morning, feeling as if they had slept in a jungle or in an
+African forest. They found all the girls at school in a state of flaming
+excitement. Miss Pollard had not yet decided whether the circus was a
+sufficiently refined entertainment to justify her in taking her
+boarders. She was old-fashioned in her notions, and very particular
+about what was suitable and proper for children. She hesitated and
+vacillated, and even wrote a note to the vicar to ask for his opinion,
+and was more embarrassed still when she found he had gone out on his
+motor-cycle, and might not be back until the evening. She and Miss Fanny
+had discussed the matter threadbare in private, but could not make up
+their minds in the least. Meantime a whole school full of fluttering
+girls centred the circus as the one event of the term.
+
+"Of course we're to have a half-holiday this afternoon," began Opal.
+
+"There's no 'of course' about it," returned Miss Pollard, eyeing her
+god-daughter gravely. She did not like Opal's tone, which was both
+uncompromising and truculent.
+
+"Oh, but we've simply _got_ to have a holiday! We can't miss this
+circus. All of us day girls have been promised at home that we may go,
+and we _shall_."
+
+Miss Pollard was long-suffering where her pet pupil was concerned, but
+it is possible for even a prime favourite to go too far.
+
+"That's not the way to speak to me," she rebuked. "Your parents may make
+any arrangements they wish for taking you to the evening performance,
+but you will all attend school this afternoon. Do you thoroughly
+understand me, girls? I give _no_ half-holiday, and I expect you all to
+be present here as usual at 2.30. You may take that message home with
+you."
+
+Miss Pollard, very much on her dignity, glared first at Opal, and then
+round the entire room. She did not intend to be dictated to or forced to
+give her consent against her better judgment. She was Principal of The
+Moorings, and as such meant to maintain discipline over her pupils.
+
+Her announcement caused them all to look very sulky, and produced much
+grousing during 'break', but nobody thought of disputing it. The day
+girls consoled themselves by hopes of attending the evening performance.
+The less fortunate boarders said it was just like their luck. Everybody
+was more or less in a bad temper, but resigned. Mavis and Merle, walking
+back from Bridge House about 2.15, passed the corner of the Earnshaws'
+garden, and saw Opal's face peeping over the paling.
+
+"Hello! Going to school like two good little girls," she jeered.
+
+"Why! Aren't you?"
+
+"I! Rather not! I call it the limit! I say, will you give a message for
+me to Miss Pollard?"
+
+"What do you want us to say?"
+
+"Tell her I've got a fearful headache, and I'm going to lie down."
+
+"We'll do nothing of the sort," snapped Merle.
+
+"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," said Mavis.
+
+Opal only grinned.
+
+"What nice good little girls," she repeated mockingly. "You'll give me
+the trouble of sending a note, that's all."
+
+"What does your mother say?"
+
+"She's gone to Port Sennen to-day, so I can't ask her. Look here, people
+are saying in the town that there's not going to be any evening
+performance. Trotmans want to pack up the show and start early, so as to
+travel at night. They've had a bother with the police about those vans
+blocking the roads in daytime. They held up a whole row of motors in
+Blagden, and no one could pass them for half an hour. Do you think I'm
+going to miss that circus and toddle up to school to write exercises and
+have a music lesson? Hardly! If you'll take my advice you'll scoot back
+home and do the same. I shouldn't be surprised to find an epidemic of
+headaches this afternoon."
+
+"If I stopped away, at least I wouldn't tell fibs about it," said Merle.
+
+Both the Ramsays agreed that it was very unsporting of Miss Pollard to
+refuse the holiday, and decided to get up a sort of eleventh-hour
+petition amongst the girls to ask her to grant it. They hurried on to
+school, therefore, not without hopes, though a little trembling as to
+how she would receive the appeal. They arrived at The Moorings to find
+the hive in a delighted ferment. The Vicar, Mr. Carey, had returned home
+to lunch, and had read Miss Pollard's note, and had sent a reply by his
+daughters to the effect that in his opinion the circus was a most
+harmless and innocent form of entertainment, and that it would be a pity
+for the girls to miss it. He suggested, indeed, that the whole school
+should visit the show _en bloc_. The Misses Pollard, being themselves
+daughters of the late clergyman, set a high value on clerical sanction.
+The Vicar's letter settled the matter.
+
+"If Mr. Carey approves, it must be perfectly right," fluttered Miss
+Fanny.
+
+"I'm so glad to know what he thinks about it," agreed her sister.
+
+The poor ladies were really anxious to give their boarders a treat, and
+as the day girls were already assembled, and time was flying, they
+decided to adopt the suggestion, and march the whole school in an
+orderly crocodile to the tent. Just before they started, a small village
+boy came running up the lane and delivered a note. Miss Pollard tore it
+open hastily.
+
+"Dear me! How unfortunate," she exclaimed. "Opal ill with a bad
+headache. The child was perfectly all right this morning. Thank you,
+there's no answer. Now, girls, take your partners and form into double
+line. Quietly, quietly! Not so much talking! Iva and Nesta first.
+Where's Mademoiselle? Has Mamie brought her scarf? Those tents are
+sometimes very draughty. Betty, if you can't behave you'll be left
+behind! Are you ready? Then quick march!"
+
+It was very exciting indeed to file along the High Street and across
+the bridge on to the meadow, and more thrillsome still to enter the big
+circular tent with its green canvas roof flapping in the breeze. The
+seats were only wooden planks covered with red baize, and swayed about
+when people sat upon them, but Durracombe audiences were not accustomed
+to luxuries, and the juvenile portion would have cheerfully sat anywhere
+to watch the show. A caravan drawn up by the entrance acted as pay desk,
+and a big, fat gipsy-looking woman took the money and said, 'Thank you
+very much' to those who bought the more expensive tickets. The school
+secured a block of reserved seats all to itself, and the girls settled
+themselves with little ones in front, and big ones behind. In the middle
+of the tent was a large circle strewn with sawdust, and the spectators
+were ranged round this as in a Roman amphitheatre. Through the open door
+opposite might be caught a glimpse of horses standing outside. A very
+large part of the audience was composed of children. Most of them had
+been waiting in a queue for a long while before entering, and they were
+over-excited and tired. They were all impatience for the performance to
+begin, and the hum of their little voices sounded like the buzzing of
+bees. Through the gaps between the walls and the roof of the tent long
+shafts of sunlight streamed like Jacob's ladders over the heads of the
+children, and into the sawdust circle. One almost expected elves and
+fairies to slide down them and perform on the magic ring. One tiny boy,
+tired of waiting, strayed from his place, and stood a moment under one
+of these shafts of light like a fair-haired cherub. The spectators
+cheered him as if he were part of the programme.
+
+The contingent from The Moorings were sitting close to the main
+entrance, and as their united glances strayed round the tent they
+presently began to nudge each other and focus their gaze in one
+particular direction. Miss Pollard, aware of the undercurrent, looked
+also. What she saw caused her to take out her lorgnettes and stare
+amazedly through them to satisfy herself that failing eyesight had not
+produced an illusion. On the other side of the tent, exactly opposite to
+their party, sitting on a red-baize-covered reserved seat, was
+Opal--Opal who was supposed to be lying on her bed prostrate with
+headache, and whom she had pitied for missing the treat. Miss Fanny had
+also just made the same discovery. The sisters glanced at one another,
+and drew their own conclusions. If Opal had turned rather white at the
+entrance of the school party, she had apparently recovered from the
+shock, and was bluffing the matter out. She was sitting with some
+friends, girls much older than herself, and was laughing and chatting as
+if in thorough enjoyment.
+
+And now at last, after much tiresome delay and waiting, the show began.
+Through the far door was seen a vision of men in gay costumes, and the
+strains of a band were heard.
+
+"O-o-o-oh!" came from the children all round, as the procession streamed
+into the tent. It was headed by the band, then followed piebald horses
+with riders in gorgeous velvet costumes or spangled dresses; there were
+Roman chariots, and a drove of tiny ponies, and an Eastern lady on a
+camel, and several funny men who bounced about like india-rubber balls,
+and three stately elephants, and some wild-looking Red Indians in
+war-paint and feathers. These all paraded round the ring to allow the
+audience to have a good view of them, then went off again, so that the
+programme might proceed in its separate items.
+
+It really was a capital show. There was no mistake about that. First
+entered the gymnasts, wonderful people who jumped easily on to one
+another's shoulders, and swung head downwards from trapezes, and made
+themselves into a human pyramid, and performed other amazing and
+marvellous feats. Then came the horses, which ambled round the circle in
+pairs, with riders who stood astride two of them, one foot on each,
+marvels of equilibrium, and ladies in gauzy dresses who jumped lightly
+from horse to horse as if on wings. When these had cantered off the
+scenes appeared "Queenie", a beautiful Arabian trick horse with her
+playfellow "Pixie", a tiny piebald pony. The manager, a gorgeous
+individual in evening dress, stood in the centre cracking a whip, while
+Queenie and Pixie ran in contrary circles, reared, knelt, and lay down
+to music, and finally did a dying scene together, with Pixie's head
+resting sentimentally on Queenie's back.
+
+"I want that 'ickle pony," called out a small voice from the audience,
+at which remark even the manager smiled.
+
+Then it was the turn of the clown, a funny man in baggy white pants and
+a red patch on each of his cheeks. He kicked up six hats in succession,
+and caught them all, one on the top of the other, on his head in a
+pyramid, and had a comical fight with somebody who was dressed up as a
+lion and tried to pounce upon him.
+
+"Here we are again. No harm done this time," he kept saying, after
+somersaults and jumps that made some of the audience tremble for his
+safety.
+
+Next a tight-rope was fixed, and two lady gymnasts in spangled garments
+and holding parasols walked across it, and even danced upon it, shaking
+bells on their ankles as they moved. The funny man pretended to be
+envious and begged to be allowed to try; so he climbed up too and at
+first made the tight-rope wobble in the most alarming fashion, but
+finally performed a jig upon it, holding aloft a big black umbrella.
+
+"No harm done this time," he proclaimed laughingly.
+
+An Eastern lady, who arrived veiled on a camel, did a marvellous turn
+with Queenie, the trick horse. Slow music was played, and when the lady
+danced Queenie moved her fore-feet as if dancing also. Then the lady
+skipped, and the horse also skipped over a rope held by the manager and
+the clown, a performance which called forth cheer after cheer from the
+spectators. When Queenie ran out of the ring two elephants took her
+place. They saluted by trumpeting, a form of greeting which rather
+scared most of the children, and even brought squeals from some of them.
+The elephants with their slow heavy gait were favourites, however, and
+quite captured the house when one of them acted nurse to a rag baby,
+placed it inside a cradle, and rocked it gently to sleep.
+
+The Red Indians, with their wild, spirited horses, performed most
+daring feats, careered round the ring clinging to the tails of their
+steeds, jumped from one horse to another when in full gallop, and had a
+most exciting battle in which a little girl was bound to a stake by one
+party and rescued by another. Then one of the elephants came in again,
+and played skittles with the clown, who kept calling out "Cheat fair,
+old girl," though he always let her win in the end, and rewarded her by
+drinks from a bottle which he produced out of his big hat. The funny man
+was indeed the very heart and soul of the circus and worked hard to keep
+the audience amused. When the elephant had finished her tricks he
+brought in a pair of seals who flapped into the ring on their fins,
+roaring and snorting as they came. Their feats were, if anything, even
+more clever than those of the elephants: they balanced cups on their
+noses, played football with the clown, and flapped their fins or roared
+in answer to his questions. They played a game of hide-and-seek, and
+finally posed on either side of their human friend apparently whispering
+into his ear.
+
+A Roman chariot race followed, as a variety, and afterwards some trick
+riding by ladies accompanied by a jazz band to which the elephant played
+the drum. It was all clever and amusing, yet everybody smiled when the
+funny man, after a short interval for rest, made his reappearance in the
+circle. He seemed indefatigable, and his limbs might have been made of
+india-rubber by the way he jumped and bounced and pranced about. This
+time he was to give a performance on the trapeze, and he ran up the
+ladder as easily as a monkey, cracking out many jokes. He swung on the
+trapeze, and turned somersaults, and hung by his heels and did other
+hair-raising experiments, always ending with his usual "no harm done
+this time".
+
+Then he commenced to swing himself backwards and forwards for an
+enormous leap on to another trapeze. He accomplished it safely, and
+turned to make the bound back again. But either the rope was faulty, or
+for once his nerve deserted him, or he miscalculated his distance, for,
+instead of landing lightly upon the pole, he missed it, and fell down,
+down on to the edge of the net, and off again on to the ground below.
+
+For an instant the audience thought it was part of the performance, and
+that he would bounce up with one of his merry jokes. But this time there
+was harm done. Instead of springing to his feet he lay limp and quiet
+among the sawdust in the ring. There was a buzz of horror from the
+spectators as two of the gymnasts ran in with a stretcher and hastily
+removed him. Many could not bear to look at any more and left the tent,
+though the manager made a short speech and begged people to remain for
+the rest of the programme, bringing on the ponies, and causing them to
+run and jump round the circle.
+
+Miss Pollard and her girls felt they had seen enough, and withdrew
+quietly, very much upset at the horrible accident. Mavis and Merle,
+running home with the news, found Dr. Tremayne just starting for the
+cottage hospital, whither the unfortunate clown had been carried from
+the circus. Jessop was helping to hunt out splints, bandages, &c., and
+hastily packing them into the car.
+
+"Here's a pretty business," said Uncle David. "I hear the poor chap's
+badly hurt. I've an urgent call to Bragdon--man in an epileptic fit--but
+he'll have to wait till I've attended to this case first. It's a mercy I
+hadn't started. Jessop, where's the chloroform bottle? Put it here in my
+bag, please! If I want anything else I'll send someone over with a
+message. You know where the other splints are? Good! Telephone to Mrs.
+Goodwin that I can't possibly see her till to-morrow, but she must go on
+taking the medicine, and if Johnson's boy comes with a message, keep him
+till I get back."
+
+And Dr. Tremayne, having collected all the various things he considered
+he was likely to need, jumped into his car, and departed to the cottage
+hospital on his errand of help, a very real angel of mercy though clad
+in twentieth-century garments.
+
+"Will the poor fellow die?" the girls asked with awestruck faces.
+
+Jessop shook her head enigmatically.
+
+"It depends how much damage is done. You never can tell in a case like
+this till the Doctor has seen him. You may be sure your uncle will do
+the best that human skill can."
+
+"That goes without saying," said Mavis as she and Merle went gravely
+upstairs to wash their hands for tea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+The Sick Clown
+
+
+Opal turned up at school next morning in one of her most defiant and
+reckless moods. She marched into the cloakroom with a jaunty "don't
+care" air, and immediately began to talk about the circus.
+
+"I was caught neatly, wasn't I!" she proclaimed. "Never got such a
+surprise in my life as when you all came parading in like a flock of
+lambkins. Miss Pollard had rather spasms to judge from her face."
+
+"_You'll_ get spasms later on if I'm not mistaken," said Merle.
+
+"Oh, I can always fix up the poor old dears. They've a blind eye where
+I'm concerned."
+
+"How about that note you wrote?"
+
+"Well, I _had_ a headache, only it got better in time for the circus.
+I'm a wonderful person at getting well when I make up my mind to it.
+Will power I suppose. There's nothing neurotic about me!"
+
+"You're the biggest fibber I know!"
+
+"What _are_ fibs?" asked Opal flippantly. "I only make a little
+picturesque variation sometimes instead of telling the brutal truth.
+It's what's called diplomacy, and finesse, and all the rest of it. In a
+matter of expediency I hedge the question."
+
+"Use the plain Anglo-Saxon word 'lie' and I understand you," retorted
+Merle, turning disgustedly away.
+
+Opal laughed, and some of the younger children, who had been standing
+like little pitchers listening with all their ears, laughed too.
+
+"Look here, you kids," said Merle, facing round again. "You may think
+all this is very clever and funny, but I tell you it's most
+dishonourable. You've some queer notions in this school. I wouldn't give
+anything for a head girl who can't speak the truth. She's not worth her
+salt. Yes, I mean it. All this underhand work isn't done in decent
+schools, and the sooner you get that into your silly little noddles the
+better. Fibbers were 'sent to Coventry' at Whinburn High."
+
+"Were they indeed," mocked Opal. "What an extremely superior place it
+must have been. I wonder you condescend to stay at The Moorings among
+such a set as ourselves. We're evidently not good enough for you."
+
+Merle took no further notice but walked away, and Opal followed her,
+giggling, into the classroom. She thought matters would be passed over
+by the Principal as they had always been condoned before. Her boast that
+she could do what she liked with her godmothers had hitherto been
+justified. She had, however, gone a step too far. Miss Pollard's eyes
+had at last been opened, and in the light of yesterday she suddenly
+began to remember very many sinister incidents which might easily be set
+down to the head girl's influence.
+
+"I'm afraid, my dear, we have been utterly mistaken in Opal," she
+confided to her sister, and Miss Fanny, who had also had her doubts,
+regretfully agreed with her.
+
+Miss Pollard took the call-over that morning, but when she had closed
+the register she paused.
+
+"There's a matter I wish to set straight," she said impressively. "Opal,
+I received a note from you yesterday afternoon telling me you were in
+bed with a headache. Will you kindly explain how it was that we saw you
+at the circus?"
+
+"My head was better, thanks, and I felt well enough to go," replied Opal
+perkily. She was lolling on her seat, and sharpening a pencil as she
+spoke.
+
+"Sit up, and put that penknife in your pocket," commanded Miss Pollard,
+in a stricter tone than she had ever used before to her favourite. "Now
+answer me. Do you consider that you have been behaving in an honourable
+fashion? Your letter was sent with the intention to deceive me! What
+have you to say for yourself?"
+
+Instead of doing as she was told, Opal went on sharpening her pencil
+rather ostentatiously. There was a sullen look on her face. She was
+trying her strength against Miss Pollard's. She had won before in minor
+battles, and she hoped to score in this. A faint giggle from one of her
+satellites among the juniors spurred her on. She would show the girls
+that she at any rate was not afraid of the head mistress. She leaned
+back in her seat and yawned.
+
+"If you ask me, I think it's a case of much ado about nothing," she
+replied. "I've explained that I felt better, and I can't say any more."
+
+This was the limit even for The Moorings. The girls looked at Opal in
+amazement. As for Miss Pollard she stared for a moment as if absolutely
+mesmerized with horror. Then, with a gasp, she recovered her presence of
+mind, and, summoning all her dignity as Principal, delivered her
+ultimatum.
+
+"If that's the view you take of your deceit and falsehood the sooner you
+leave this school the better. Get up and go home at once. You can tell
+your mother the reason I have sent you, and say I will call and see her
+this afternoon at five o'clock. Now go immediately!"
+
+Opal, still with the sullen and defiant look on her face, rose slowly
+and gave a glance of triumph round the room, which, however, met with no
+response. Then she walked jauntily out and slammed the door after her.
+
+What happened at her own home nobody ever knew. Miss Pollard called and
+had a long talk with Mrs. Earnshaw, the result of which was that Opal
+was sent away for a few weeks to stay with an aunt, and arrangements
+were made at once to place her at a boarding-school after Easter. In
+justice to her it must be chronicled that she apologized to her
+godmothers, and said she was really sorry, but they were wise enough not
+to try the risky experiment of letting her return to The Moorings. She
+was too old for so small a school, and needed strict discipline, and the
+pressure of a high moral standard among girls of her own age. At
+Brackenfield College she would not find her "fiblets", as she called
+them, applauded or tolerated, and she would have to be straight and
+honest if she wanted to win golden opinions. In spite of her many lapses
+from the code of honour, there were elements of good in Opal, and under
+the influence of straightforward girls such as Dona Anderson and Ailsa
+Donald, who were at present leading spirits at Brackenfield, she was
+likely to make a fresh start and retrieve her past.
+
+The Moorings, freed from the shadow of her bad example, seemed a
+different school. Iva Westwood was appointed head girl, and filled the
+office conscientiously. The juniors, who took their colour from their
+elders, soon dropped certain unpleasant practices, and were square in
+their work. Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny also, feeling they had been too
+slack and trustful, kept a tighter hand over things, so that cheating
+and shirking were no longer possible as of yore. In respect of
+favouritism they had learnt their lesson, and became strictly impartial.
+
+"It hardly pays to be a boarder nowadays," mourned Aubrey Simpson.
+"We're all treated so exactly alike."
+
+"And a good business too," snapped Edith Carey. "I always said it was
+time we had a turn. I like things to be fair all round, without anybody
+getting special privileges. The school's been nicer this last fortnight
+than it has ever since I came here. I used to detest Miss Fanny, but I'm
+beginning almost to like her now."
+
+"Though she _is_ making a horrible crusade about punctuality," groaned
+Maude, who, as usual, was late for everything. "Just fancy! She actually
+made me go to drawing-class without my pencils because I couldn't find
+them."
+
+"Poor old sport! Buck up! Buy a pencil with a ring at the end and cable
+it on to you so that you won't lose it. You could wear it round your
+neck like a baby's comforter."
+
+"It wouldn't be much use at drawing when I want an 'H.B.', a 'B', and a
+'B.B.'," grumbled Maude, who had small sense of humour and rarely saw a
+joke.
+
+But we must return to the day after the circus. The unfortunate clown
+had been carried after his accident straight to the Cottage Hospital,
+where his injuries were attended to by Dr. Tremayne. He was badly hurt,
+and, though there was a possibility of his recovery, it would be months,
+if ever, before he could resume his profession. The manager and the
+ringmaster, and several other people from the show, came to the hospital
+to inquire about him, but the circus was due at another town, and they
+were obliged to move on at once. So that very evening the vans were
+packed, and the great rumbling cavalcade, with all its horses, and
+ponies, and elephants, and camels, jolted along the High Street, and
+turned up the north road in the direction of Warebury.
+
+The piece of wreckage whom they left behind them lay very still and
+quiet in the clean, white bed, at the Cottage Hospital, and made no more
+jokes. His leg was in splints and his head was bandaged, and his right
+arm was held in a sling. Dr. Tremayne, going to see him for the third
+time on the following day, took Mavis and Merle, in the hope that
+visitors might distract his thoughts. They went rather shyly into the
+ward. It was strange to see "the funny man" lying flat on his pillow,
+with hollow, sleepless eyes, and lines of pain round his poor mouth.
+They offered him the flowers they had brought, and began to talk about
+the circus. He brightened up a little at that. Evidently he was proud of
+his reputation as a gymnast.
+
+"It was the rope that failed. It wasn't my fault," he said. "I've done
+that trick thousands of times, and never missed before. And I'd do it
+again."
+
+"You must make haste and get well then," said the sister-in-charge
+kindly. "When we get your splints off you shall give us a special
+performance in the ward if you like. We'll ask these young ladies to
+come and see it, won't we?"
+
+The ghost of a smile flickered round his lips for a moment.
+
+"I can't say 'no harm done this time'," he whispered.
+
+It was the first attempt he had made at a joke. Sister said visitors
+had done him good, and though she sent Mavis and Merle away then, she
+asked them to come again. So every day they ran into the hospital for a
+few minutes on their way to school, and again at lunch-time and after
+tea. They never stopped long enough to tire the patient, but they
+brought him flowers or newspapers or some little thing from the outside
+world to help to cheer him up. They chatted to him and asked him what
+towns he knew, and he told them he had travelled over most of England
+and Scotland with the circus, and had even been to America.
+
+"I've seen a-many beautiful places! But there's none to beat Devon in my
+opinion."
+
+"That's what we always say," cried Mavis. "Devonshire is the loveliest
+county in England, and Chagmouth is the most beautiful little place in
+all Devonshire."
+
+"Chagmouth! Do you know Chagmouth?" asked the clown quickly.
+
+"We motor over every Saturday with our uncle when he goes to take
+surgery. Do _you_ know it?"
+
+"I used to when I was a boy. I haven't seen it now though for a matter
+of fourteen year or so. I dare say it's changed."
+
+"I don't believe it has much. People say it's just the same as it always
+was. You must make haste and get well, and we'll ask Uncle to take you
+there for a drive when you're able to get out of hospital."
+
+"Ah--when?" echoed the clown, closing his eyes.
+
+He was restless, and seemed in much pain. Dr. Tremayne came in later
+and examined him, and gave him morphia. Sister's report the next morning
+was unfavourable. His temperature was very high, and his pulse was
+fluttering.
+
+"I'm sorry I shan't be about to-day," said Dr. Tremayne. "I'm obliged to
+go over to Halford to perform some eye operations at the hospital. I
+don't suppose I shall be back till nine o'clock. I'll leave the
+hypodermic syringe and if he needs it give him another dose of morphia.
+We've done the best we can, but it's an anxious case all the same."
+
+Mavis and Merle were detained after tea that day, and could not go round
+to the hospital until about six o'clock. Sister greeted them with
+relief.
+
+"I've kept expecting you, and was going to send you a message if you
+didn't come," she said. "He keeps asking for you all the time. He's gone
+downhill rapidly to-day, poor fellow. He's sinking fast, and I don't
+believe he'll ever see the night through. He's wandering a little in his
+head, and he says you two know Chagmouth, and he wants to speak to you.
+I'll tell him you've come."
+
+Very gently the girls entered the ward where the patient was lying. The
+signs of a great approaching change were on him. The hands that little
+more than a week ago had grasped the trapeze so strongly now lay white
+and frail on the counterpane. His face was shrunken, and his eyes held
+the far-away look of one who is beginning to sight things beyond our
+earthly plane of vision. He smiled feebly at Mavis and Merle, and tried
+to raise his head. Sister lifted him a little and propped him up with an
+extra pillow.
+
+"You know Chagmouth?" he whispered.
+
+"Yes! Yes!" Mavis was stooping down beside his bed.
+
+"Is Mrs. Jarvis still living there--the nurse?"
+
+"Yes, we sometimes see her. She's postwoman now."
+
+"Could you fetch her here? To-night?"
+
+"We'll try!"
+
+"Tell her it's Jerry as wants her--her boy Jerry! She'll understand!"
+
+"We'll bring her somehow, don't you worry," said Merle.
+
+"I'm slipping west, and I'd like a word with her afore I go. You've been
+so kind--I thought I might ask you to do that for me."
+
+His breath came in gasps. His face was drawn with a spasm of pain.
+
+Sister took the girls quietly aside.
+
+"If there's anything you can do for him, you'd better do it," she said.
+"I don't think he'll last the night."
+
+Mavis and Merle saw for themselves that if mother and son were to meet
+again on earth they must fetch Mrs. Jarvis quickly. How could they get
+her to Durracombe in the shortest possible time? Outside the hospital
+door they held a whispered consultation. Uncle David and the little
+Deemster car were fifteen miles away, at Halford. They must find some
+other means of conveyance. They went, therefore, to the Swan Hotel,
+where motors were to be hired, and explained the urgency of their
+errand. The manageress shook her head.
+
+[Illustration: "YOU KNOW CHAGMOUTH?" HE WHISPERED _Page 232_]
+
+"Mr. Johnson's out himself with the four-seater, and Bates has gone to
+the station with the little car to meet a lady and take her to Rushton.
+There's only the old Ford left, and no one to drive it."
+
+"A Ford! May I look at it?" said Merle eagerly.
+
+"You can if you like."
+
+The car was standing in the yard, rather a shabby specimen, but in
+workable order. Merle examined it carefully.
+
+"It's exactly like Daddy's at home," she said. "I've often driven that.
+Will you let me try this?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know whether I dare!" gasped the manageress.
+
+But Merle got inside the car and showed such a working knowledge of its
+various levers and begged so hard to be allowed to take it out that at
+last Mrs. Johnson relented.
+
+"If it weren't a matter of life and death, as you might say, I wouldn't
+let you for a minute. It seems almost like murder to trust you two
+alone, and those hills and all. Still you do seem to know how to drive.
+Be very careful of the brakes, and don't go tearing along too fast. I
+shan't know a moment's peace till I see you safe back again. Little
+George will give you a start. He knows how to do that, though he can't
+drive yet."
+
+George, a small boy of twelve, turned the starting-handle, and soon the
+engine was humming. Merle took off the brake, put in the low gear, waved
+a good-bye to Mrs. Johnson, and with Mavis by her side steered
+successfully through the gate-posts of the garage yard into the High
+Street. The girls devoutly hoped that neither Aunt Nellie nor Jessop
+would be looking out of the windows as they crossed the bridge. The
+risky ride must be ventured, but they preferred to spare the feelings of
+those at home.
+
+To Merle it was a gorgeous opportunity. She was not in the least afraid
+and perfectly confident that she could manage the car. She had always
+wanted to go for a drive entirely on her own. Mavis, rather nervous but
+ready to stick to her sister through all perils, kept an anxious eye on
+the road, in case a motor-lorry should suddenly whisk round a corner, or
+a flock of sheep emerge from a field.
+
+"May Providence sweep all nails and bits of broken glass out of our
+path. I don't know what we should do if we got a puncture," she
+murmured.
+
+"Run on the rim," returned Merle. "As long as the old car can keep going
+I'll make her go. She's really doing very decently considering she's
+rather a ramshackle concern. I'll get some pace out of her, you'll see,
+when the road's clear ahead. I wonder if the speedometer is working?"
+
+"Oh, do be careful!" implored Mavis. "There's something coming now.
+Sound your hooter! It's one of those wretched furniture vans, and they
+never leave proper room."
+
+"I'm glad we haven't to pass the circus at any rate," said Merle,
+squeezing the bulb of the hooter, and lurching dangerously as she did
+so, but regaining the left side of the road before they met the van.
+
+Mavis was thankful when they were out of the deep Devonshire lanes and
+up on the comparatively safe level of the moors, where there were no
+high hedges to conceal approaching vehicles, and the road could be seen
+stretching like a long ribbon in front of them.
+
+"Shan't find any police trap here," chuckled Merle, increasing the speed
+till the rattling old car seemed to be flying. "That speedometer isn't
+working, but I dare say we're going at thirty miles an hour. I believe
+she'd do forty."
+
+"Merle, _don't_" squealed Mavis. "For goodness sake slow down or you'll
+be upsetting the whole business into the ditch."
+
+The hooting of a motor-cycle that wanted to pass them stopped Merle in
+her mad career, and reminded her that she was occupying the middle of
+the road. She steered to the left, and proceeded more soberly.
+
+"We must be half-way there already," she triumphed. "We've simply
+bounded along like a house on fire. Who says I can't drive? I shall tell
+Daddy about this. It'll be a score for me, won't it."
+
+"I hope we shan't meet a policeman anywhere who'll ask for your
+licence."
+
+"Don't care if I do. I just shan't stop, however much he waves his
+white gloves at me. He can take the number of the car, and prosecute me
+afterwards if he likes. I'd rather enjoy going before the bench of
+magistrates. I'd tell the reason, and say the end justified the means."
+
+"You'll make an end of us if you go bumping so fast over this lumpy
+road. The holes are enough to upset a tank. What a sharp wind there is
+up here! I wish we'd got our thick coats."
+
+"You ought to have brought a wrap!" Merle's voice was self-reproachful.
+"Turn up the collar of your jersey. Oh, I'm all right, thanks. It's hot
+work to drive, I can tell you. There's Gundry Tor. We really _are_
+getting on. We shall soon be at Chagmouth now."
+
+What Mavis was dreading most was the tremendous hill that ran down the
+ravine into the little town. It was a very steep gradient, and was
+marked with a danger signal. She hoped the brakes of the rickety old car
+would be equal to their duty. The road was unfenced, and had several
+awkward bends, where an unskilled motorist, losing control, might dash
+over the edge, and down into the woods. How she longed for Dr.
+Tremayne's firm steady hand on the driving-wheel! It is always far more
+anxious work to sit and watch a novice than to do a thing yourself.
+Merle, in her girlish confidence, felt no alarm. She was ready to
+venture anything in the way of a descent.
+
+Fortunately for the safety of the sisters, her powers had no need to be
+tested. While they were still on the level road at the top of the hill
+they saw, walking briskly along in front of them, a little stumpy figure
+in a navy-blue uniform, and with a leather bag slung over her back.
+
+"Mrs. Jarvis, by all that's wonderful," exclaimed Mavis, in much relief.
+
+The postwoman was coming back from collecting letters at a pillar-box in
+a neighbouring village. It was the merest luck that they had overtaken
+her at that particular spot. Merle stopped the car, and the girls
+explained their errand.
+
+"You must come with us at once," said Mavis. "Never mind the letters. We
+can hand them in at the post-office at Durracombe instead. It will be
+all right."
+
+Poor Mrs. Jarvis did not need any urging. As soon as her clouded brain
+understood who wanted her, she was ready to throw her post-bag to the
+winds. She jumped into the back part of the car and took her seat,
+trembling with excitement and eagerness.
+
+"Jerry! My own boy Jerry!" she kept repeating. "Bless him! The little
+table's all spread out in the kitchen ready for his tea. I knew he'd
+come back to me some day. Bless his heart."
+
+Merle with much difficulty managed to restart the old Ford, and to turn
+it with its bonnet in the direction of Durracombe; then they set off
+again at a rather reckless pace. Every minute seemed of importance now,
+and Mavis did not remonstrate though they bumped over holes, tore round
+corners, or flew across the moor at thirty miles an hour. Perhaps her
+nerves were getting used to it. She gave a sigh of satisfaction,
+however, when at last they came in sight of their destination, and
+motored back across the bridge into the High Street. Merle drove
+straight to the hospital, where the girls took Mrs. Jarvis inside and
+asked for Sister.
+
+"Will you come into the ward, please," said the nurse who returned with
+the message. "You've brought her just in time!"
+
+Mavis and Merle stood aside to give precedence to Mrs. Jarvis. They had
+warned the poor mother that it was no lad of thirteen whom she must
+expect to see, that long years had passed away, and had changed him
+possibly past recognition. There was little resemblance between the
+round cheeks she used to kiss, and the sunken face on the pillow. But
+mother hearts cannot forget, even though the brains may be blurred. She
+knew him instantly as she stepped to his bed-side.
+
+"Jerry! My own boy, Jerry! Come back at last!"
+
+Then Nurse put a screen round the bed, and mother and son were left
+alone, for there are some scenes too sacred for even the kindest friends
+to witness.
+
+Mavis and Merle returned an hour later to inquire, having taken back the
+car, delivered the post-bag to the authorities, and reassured Aunt
+Nellie of their whereabouts. They met Sister in the corridor of the
+hospital. They looked at her in mute interrogation, and she shook her
+head.
+
+"I knew it was hopeless this afternoon, but it's been quicker than I
+thought. He didn't suffer much, and he was so glad to have his mother
+with him. Will you please tell Dr. Tremayne."
+
+Very softly the girls went out of the hospital door. It was dark, and
+bright stars were shining overhead, but there was still a faint streak
+of red where the sun had set. They looked at it for a moment or two
+without speaking, then:
+
+"It will rise over there," gulped Mavis, pointing eastward, and Merle
+understood her meaning.
+
+All the jokes and tricks of the funny man were over now, and his poor
+hurt body was lying quiet and still, but he himself had "gone west", and
+though the tea-table was spread in vain in the little cottage,
+somewhere, in the light of the eternal dawn, mother and son would meet
+and know one another again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+Greek meets Greek
+
+
+On the last Saturday in March, by special invitation from Mrs. Glyn
+Williams, the Ramsays spent the day at The Warren. They went in their
+best dresses and took their tennis rackets with them. They were not at
+all sure whether they wished to go, but it was one of those coercive
+visits which society demands, and which there is no evading, so they set
+forth, Mavis in one of her quiet moods, and Merle, with an awkward
+remembrance of past skirmishes, on her very best behaviour. There is no
+better fence than good manners, and it is really impossible to squabble
+with a person who preserves a studied politeness. To-day, however, the
+Glyn Williams did not wish for quarrels. They might have their faults,
+but they could be pleasant enough hosts and hostesses when they liked,
+and they really made an effort to entertain their guests. When their
+shyness thawed, Mavis and Merle began to enjoy themselves. The cinder
+court was in excellent order, and it was rather delightful to have a
+game of tennis. Tudor and Merle played Gwen and Mavis, and beat them in
+two sets, a score which caused them much triumph.
+
+"I say, you know, you're a jolly good player," said Tudor to his
+partner. "Those swift serves of yours are A1!"
+
+"We had cinder courts at school in Whinburn," replied Merle. "It makes a
+difference if you're used to them."
+
+She might have added that she had been one of the champions, and had
+helped to win a tournament, but she was not given to boasting. It is
+pleasant, though, to be congratulated on present prowess, even if you
+feel too modest to mention your past successes. She began to relent a
+little towards Tudor. He was so obviously doing his best to give her a
+good time. According to his own lights he tried to be amusing.
+
+"The cinder court is my last stronghold," he assured her. "Just when we
+get the grass courts into decent order in the summer the Mater always
+insists on having half Chagmouth up to trample over them--wheezy old
+women who drink tea till you think they'll never stop, and awful
+children who stuff themselves with buns, and run races for bags of
+sweets. You don't know what I suffer. And the Mater says: '_Do_ come and
+speak to them'! Speak to them! What the Dickens am I to say? I'm longing
+to tell them that I wish the whole lot of them were at Jericho rather
+than messing about our garden. Why can't they drink tea and run races
+down in the town? The Mater says we _must_ know our neighbours, but I
+say bother our neighbours. If she likes to do the Lady Bountiful
+business I wish she'd leave me out of it."
+
+"Chagmouth is a lovely place," ventured Merle.
+
+"Oh yes, but they're a cantankerous set of people. Never satisfied
+whatever you do for them. The shooting here isn't really up to much
+either, nor the fishing. I stayed with a friend of mine once in
+Herefordshire. His father has a splendid place there. I can tell you we
+had some sport. The woods here haven't been half preserved. Every Dick,
+Tom, and Harry from Chagmouth thinks he may go into them, and the same
+on the headland. They pretend there's a right of way along the cliffs,
+and it's nothing on earth but an excuse for poaching. They go rabbiting
+up there. I've found lots of traps, and flung them over the cliffs into
+the sea. Beastly cheek, setting traps on our land. I tell Dad he ought
+to put up a fence and dispute that right of way along the headland. I
+believe he's going to too. You must stand up for your rights with these
+people, or they'll take advantage of you at every end and give you no
+thanks either."
+
+After lunch, Tudor, a large part of whose interests centred round the
+stables, offered to show the horses, and all the young people went to
+admire and pet beautiful "Armorelle", Gwen's pretty cob "Taffy", and
+Babbie's little pony "Nixie". Merle would have liked to beg to mount
+Armorelle, but good manners prevailed, and she only stroked the soft
+nose instead.
+
+"Do you ride?" asked Gwen rather grandly.
+
+"A little," said Merle, not liking to confess that her equestrian
+experiences were mostly confined to donkeys on the beach at the
+sea-side.
+
+"Brought your habit with you?"
+
+"No," answered Merle, who did not possess a riding-habit at all.
+
+"What a pity! But of course your uncle has sold all his horses. He
+always goes about in that little yellow car now, doesn't he? Motoring's
+well enough--one must have a car naturally--but give me a horse."
+
+"Yes, give me a horse, too, for choice," echoed Tudor. "I simply
+couldn't live without horses."
+
+On the whole the Ramsays spent a pleasant day at The Warren. Gwen and
+Tudor might be rather patronizing, and too fond of showing off their
+possessions, and "talking large", but these were their obvious failings,
+the direct result of their early training and upbringing, and they were
+not without pleasanter traits. Everybody is a mixture of perfect and
+imperfect, in greater or lesser degree. The young Glyn Williamses might
+have false standards of life, and would perhaps have to suffer many hard
+knocks before they learnt to revise them, yet in their own way they
+certainly meant to be kind. Gwen gave Mavis several foreign stamps, and
+was liberal in handing round chocolates. Little Babbie waxed really
+affectionate. She had liked the Ramsays from the first, and had begged
+her mother to invite them. In the drawing-room, after tea, she asked
+them to repeat the dialogue which they had given at The Moorings on the
+wet afternoon when the day girls waited for the storm to clear.
+
+"I've never forgotten how you two acted," she urged. "It was splendid!
+Just like going to the theatre. _Please_ do it again! _Please!_ Mother
+and Tudor haven't heard it."
+
+"We want two other characters," objected Merle.
+
+"Oh, never mind! We'll imagine the other two, and you can say their
+parts for them. Give the funny piece where the aunt says what she thinks
+about the modern girl. You did it so well."
+
+"May we dress up a little?" asked Mavis.
+
+"As much as you like. Come upstairs and take what you want."
+
+So after a time the visitors returned duly costumed for the piece, Merle
+as an elderly spinster with white cotton-wool hair and a black veil tied
+over a toque, and Mavis in a sporting coat and rakish hat belonging to
+Gwen. They played up to the best of their ability, and delivered the
+amusing little sketch with much vigour. Merle, as the maiden aunt, was
+inimitable, and quiet Mavis astounded everybody in her pose of the
+up-to-date damsel. Tudor stared as if he had not suspected she had so
+much in her. The audience of four clapped tremendously at the close of
+the performance.
+
+"It's really very clever. You're quite actresses," commented Mrs. Glyn
+Williams. "Have you ever performed in public? No! Why, when you leave
+school I should think you'll be tremendously in request for dramatic
+performances in aid of charities."
+
+"We ought to get up something here in the Institute," said Tudor. "It
+would be topping fun, and astonish the natives no end. I should think
+everybody's sick to death of their eternal concerts. It's always the
+same old business--part song by the choir, timid warble by village
+soprano about spring or roses, seafaring song roared by the bass,
+ambitious operatic air attempted by tenor, who makes a hash of it,
+strains on a violin badly out of tune, temperance speech by the Vicar,
+who, of course, wants to butt in with a word on 'Prohibition', action
+song by kids from the school, then votes of thanks till everybody has
+thanked everybody else all round, and said how clever they all are. Then
+'God Save the King', and thank goodness one may go home."
+
+"Tudor's a naughty boy," laughed Mrs. Glyn Williams. "I never _can_ get
+him to take an interest in Chagmouth."
+
+"Well, I hate being trotted out to these functions," declared her son.
+
+When Mavis and Merle, brushing their hair as they went to bed that
+night, compared notes on their experiences at The Warren, both decided
+they had had a very enjoyable time there. Merle had revised her first
+opinion of Tudor.
+
+"He's quite jolly in his own way," she admitted. "I rather like him."
+
+"But of course he's nothing to Bevis."
+
+"They're in a different running altogether."
+
+The two boys were certainly an utter contrast, in circumstances,
+disposition, and attainments. Tudor was fond of sport, but not at all
+intellectual. From various hints the girls had gathered that his school
+career was not unchequered; indeed they strongly suspected, from a
+foolish remark of Babbie's, that ill-health was not the sole reason for
+his passing this term at home, and that for some episode, carefully
+hushed up, he had been temporarily suspended by the authorities. Tudor's
+accomplishments all seemed to stand on a foundation of wealth. Take away
+his horses, his gun, his woods, his visits to town to see theatres, and
+he would have no resources left. His pleasures were inseparable from the
+spending of money, and though they were well enough in their way, and
+kept him amused, they were not cultivating the highest part of him. The
+citizen side, which seeks to be of some use to the community, was
+conspicuously absent. He posed, indeed, as deliberately scorning the
+masses, and laughed at his mother for her well-meant efforts at trying
+to entertain her neighbours. Human souls are surely at different stages
+of evolution, and his was an undeveloped one that had not yet progressed
+beyond the period of self-serving. Sometimes a rough lesson is needed to
+clear the soul's vision, and teach it what things are really worth
+while; and Fate, who jolts us about much to our own indignation, had her
+special plan for his education, which in the fulness of her time she
+meant to bring about.
+
+Bevis, reared up from babyhood at Grimbal's Farm, had learnt to shoot
+and to ride as well as Tudor, though he had not so good a gun nor so
+fine a mount. He was a splendid swimmer, and he had brought back many
+medals from school gained at athletic sports. He could almost do a man's
+work in the fields now, and while he hated farm labour it had made him
+physically very fit. He rejoiced in his young strength, with something
+of the pure gladness of the old Greeks merged with the Christian ideal.
+Mavis, looking at him as his muscular arms chopped with an axe in the
+spinney, or his long legs came jumping over a fence, always thought of
+some lines that she had copied for her "pet quotation" in the High
+School calendar at Whinburn.
+
+    "God who created me
+     Nimble and light of limb,
+     In three elements free
+     To run, ride, or swim.
+     Not when the sense is dim,
+     But now from the heart of joy
+     I would remember Him--
+     Take the thanks of a boy."
+
+Bevis's brain capacity fully balanced his bodily strength. He liked to
+read the newspapers, and think out all the problems of the times, and
+the country's needs. He relished a mental tussle with the same keen zest
+as he enjoyed a football match or a vaulting contest. Whoever his father
+and mother might have been the boy was innately refined, and at school
+had caught up all the culture that his foster parents--kind homely
+people--unfortunately lacked.
+
+It was a matter of amazement to Mrs. Glyn Williams that Mavis and Merle
+were allowed to go for walks with Bevis, and she blamed the Doctor for
+slackness in the care of his nieces, but Dr. Tremayne knew the boy
+thoroughly, and was perfectly satisfied that he was a fit companion for
+them.
+
+The girls themselves thought him a most delightful comrade. He was so
+well versed in all country lore, and he could make so many things, and
+he was so jolly and humorous and full of fun and jokes. They looked
+forward to their weekly excursions, and felt they could not have
+explored Chagmouth half so thoroughly without Bevis as guide. Saturday
+at the beginning of April saw the three once more setting off for
+Blackthorn Bower. It was a showery day, but they had their mackintoshes,
+and did not mind the light rain. Mavis was so wonderfully better that
+she could now do with impunity what before might have been risky. She
+had grown, and seemed altogether stronger, though she still looked more
+ethereal than Merle. That, however, was partly a matter of temperament.
+The months in Durracombe had been an immense delight to both girls.
+After the severe winters of Whinburn they had seemed like perpetual
+spring, and they called Devon "the Garden of Eden". To-day, as they went
+up the lanes towards the headland, there were many excitements. Bevis,
+who seemed to have a kind of second-sight for discovering birds' nests,
+found a hedge-sparrow's, a robin's, and a thrush's, full of eggs, and
+showed them where a tit-lark was beginning to build. Then they actually
+saw the first swallow, an early arrival which had come before the
+cuckoo, but whirled past with unmistakable forked tail and white breast.
+The primroses were a dream, and Mavis gathered a bunch of wild hyacinths
+and some purple ground ivy, and Merle thought she saw a snake, but was
+not perfectly sure about the matter. They were following a footpath
+which led through the field where the tumulus lay, on to the headland.
+When they reached the usual point where they had always passed through a
+gap in the hedge to get down to the tiny quarry they found their way
+barred. A strong fence had been erected, with prickly gorse placed upon
+the top of it. The girls halted in much dismay.
+
+"Who's been stopping the path?" asked Merle blankly.
+
+"Some of those keepers, I expect," answered Bevis. "They've no right to
+do it. It's been a public way for years and years. People come across
+the hill, and go along the headland, and down to the beach. They always
+have done, and they always will. There was a bother once before about a
+right of way through the woods, and Mr. Glyn Williams went to law about
+it, but he lost his case."
+
+"What are we going to do now?"
+
+"Take down the fence, that's all. It's easily done."
+
+Bevis set calmly to work, and pulled away first the gorse, and then
+enough of the fence to enable his companions to scramble across. He
+laughed as he handed them over.
+
+"Those keepers will be jolly vexed when they find their work spoilt,
+but it serves them right. They shouldn't try to stop a public footpath."
+
+The girls had an uneasy remembrance that last Saturday Tudor had spoken
+of this very matter of a right of way along the headland, and had said
+that he had urged his father to dispute it. They had not mentioned to
+Tudor that they knew the spot, though they had guessed where it was from
+his description. They did not care for him to know about Blackthorn
+Bower, or the cups of rough pottery, and their picnics and talks about
+the prehistoric people. They felt instinctively that he would not
+understand or sympathize in the least, and would only sneer at it all as
+nonsense. They did not say anything about Tudor to Bevis now, because
+the subject always seemed a sore one, and their friend was in such a
+particularly jolly mood that they did not want to bring the cloud that
+sometimes settled over his face. They took his word for it that they
+were not trespassing but pursuing a perfectly legitimate path, and
+climbed down the bank to the little quarry.
+
+Here a horrible surprise awaited them. Their beautiful bower, put up
+with so much skill and trouble, had been completely pulled to pieces.
+The staves of its roof were stacked in a pile, and the sods had been
+thrown down the cliff. For a ghastly moment they stared as if hardly
+able to believe the evidence of their own eyes. Then their indignation
+found vent.
+
+"What an abominable shame!" exploded Merle.
+
+"Oh, it's _too_ bad! Our _lovely_ hut!" quavered Mavis, practically in
+tears.
+
+Bevis said nothing. He gazed round the ruin, then stooped and picked
+something up from the ground. It was a fragment of the blue pottery cup
+smashed to atoms. He looked at it with somewhat the same consternation
+with which a hedge-sparrow might regard her torn and robbed nest and
+broken eggs.
+
+"I'll make somebody pay for this!" he muttered.
+
+The girls were still exclaiming in much wrath and annoyance. At first
+they were so busy bemoaning the hut that they never heard sounds on the
+bank behind, then becoming aware of voices they walked out from the
+quarry to find Tudor, and two of the keepers standing by the fence.
+
+"Hello!" cried Tudor, springing down and greeting them joyously.
+
+But at that moment Bevis stepped from the ruins of Blackthorn Bower and
+faced him.
+
+"Is this your doing?" he asked abruptly.
+
+The two boys glared at one another with looks that suggested clashing of
+steel.
+
+"Certainly it's by my orders," returned Tudor in his most lofty and
+insolent tone. "What business had you building a hut on my property? A
+regular squatter! I won't have you fellows from the village coming
+poaching up here. I'll throw every rabbit trap I find down the cliffs,
+so I give you warning. I could prosecute you for breaking down that
+fence."
+
+"Oh, Tudor! Bevis _doesn't_ poach," interposed Merle.
+
+"He built the hut for _us_," put in Mavis.
+
+Unfortunately the girls' remarks only made matters worse.
+
+"A nice fellow you are to take young ladies about!" continued Tudor
+tauntingly. "I wonder they'll condescend to walk with you. A nobody like
+you, who doesn't know where he comes from! You may fancy yourself no
+end----"
+
+But here Bevis, whose dark face held a "Hast thou found me, O mine
+enemy" expression, sprang at him in an anger too deep and furious for
+words.
+
+Both the boys were wrestlers. For one wild minute they held each other,
+and swayed to and fro as they struggled, while the girls shrieked in
+alarm, and the keepers, standing by the fence, gaped too utterly amazed
+to interfere. Then Bevis, by far the fitter and stronger of the two,
+gained the mastery, and seizing Tudor, flung him violently away. He
+fell, and rolled over and over nearly twenty feet down the side of the
+cliff. Then the keepers recovered from their frozen paralysis, and
+rushed to the rescue of their young employer.
+
+Fortunately Tudor had landed upon a platform of rock, but he lay there
+quite quiet and still, and did not stir when the men carried him up. His
+eyes were closed, and his head hung loosely as they laid him down beside
+the ruined bower. One of them fetched water in a hat and bathed his
+temples, and the other rubbed his hands. The girls looked on in pitiful
+distress. Bevis was still standing on the patch of grass that was the
+scene of their combat. He stared at Tudor's prostrate form with wild,
+horror-stricken eyes.
+
+"I've murdered him," he gasped to Mavis and Merle. "It's murder! Yes,
+that's what it is! I'm going away, and you'll never see me any more! I'm
+not fit to say good-bye to you!"
+
+And without another look he turned and began scrambling recklessly down
+the cliff, not following a path, but dropping anyhow over the rocks as
+if he did not care what happened to him. For a moment or two he was
+visible, and then he vanished.
+
+After more water and vigorous rubbing Tudor at last revived and opened
+his eyes. He was stiff and much shaken, but there seemed no bones
+broken, and with the help of the two keepers he was able to walk home.
+Mavis and Merle fled back to Grimbal's Farm with the disastrous news.
+They poured out the story to Mrs. Penruddock as she was feeding the
+fowls. She dropped her pan of Indian corn on to the ground.
+
+"There now! I always said it would come to that," she bemoaned. "Bevis
+flown at young Williams and run away. What will his father say? The
+lad's so hasty, and he flares up when he's roused. Don't you cry! You
+say there's not much harm done after all, and I dare say Bevis will come
+creeping back at dark when things are quiet. It's not the first time
+he's run off, and turned up again when he felt hungry."
+
+"He said we'd never see him any more," sobbed Mavis, much upset by the
+whole affair.
+
+"He'd say anything, but he doesn't mean it. I'm sorry it's happened
+because it will make fine trouble with The Warren, and we've trouble
+enough as it is, goodness knows! But I'm not afraid for Bevis. He'd
+never go off without fetching some of his things at any rate. He loses
+his temper and there's a flash, and then it's all over. I know Bevis!
+He'll come back all right, don't you fear!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+At Half-mast
+
+
+For once Mrs. Penruddock was mistaken in her calculations. Bevis did not
+come back. His supper waited in the oven, and his room over the kitchen
+was ready, but the potatoes were spoilt, and his bed was never slept in.
+Nobody in Chagmouth had seen anything of him, and all inquiries were in
+vain. Day after day passed without bringing news of the truant. When
+Mavis and Merle motored over with Dr. Tremayne on the following Saturday
+they found sad trouble at Grimbal's Farm.
+
+"It's not like Bevis," proclaimed Mrs. Penruddock. "He's never treated
+us in this way before. To run off without a word when he'd know well
+enough we'd take his part even if there was a little trouble with The
+Warren. We thought he might have gone to his school, and we telegraphed
+to the headmaster, but they'd seen nothing of him. We're afraid the
+silly lad must have tramped to Port Sennen, and got on some vessel
+there. If that's so goodness knows where he may be by now, or when we
+shall have a letter from him. If we could only be sure he was all right
+we shouldn't mind so much. It's this waiting that wears one out. Young
+folks don't think of all it means to their elders when they do these
+things. I can't sleep at nights for worrying. The place doesn't seem the
+same without Bevis. Such a good lad he's always been too."
+
+Mrs. Penruddock's pleasant face looked quite puckered, and there was a
+choke in her voice which she had to cough away. She was busier than
+usual, and hurried off into the dairy to serve customers who came for
+their Saturday portions of scalded cream. (Chagmouth people could not
+eat their Sunday tea without jam and cream on their bread.) She missed
+her foster-son's help with the poultry, and in many other matters. He
+had never shirked work on the farm, and had always been ready to lend a
+strong hand when she needed it.
+
+Mavis and Merle, strolling round the stackyard, agreed with her. The
+place was certainly not the same without Bevis. It seemed very slack and
+slow indeed now he was gone. To kill time before lunch, while Dr.
+Tremayne saw his patients in the surgery, the girls took a walk down the
+town towards the beach. Midway in the quaint steep street there was a
+spot railed off where people could sit on benches and look out over the
+sea. It was a favourite lounge, and two or three old fishermen were
+generally there discussing catches and tides, or the village invalids
+were sunning themselves and collecting local news. In the middle stood a
+flagstaff where the Union Jack was kept flying. To-day as the Ramsays
+passed this observation point they noticed that the flag was at
+half-mast.
+
+"I wonder what's the matter?" said Merle.
+
+"I don't know. Somebody dead, I suppose, and we haven't heard yet. I
+hope it's not the King! Shall I ask?"
+
+"Yes, do. Ask that old man!"
+
+"Oh, I daren't! You do!"
+
+Merle, having more courage with strangers, made the necessary inquiry.
+The blue-jerseyed individual whom she addressed pulled his pipe from his
+mouth and grunted a reply:
+
+"It's General Talland as is gone. There was a telegram come this morning
+from the West Indies. He was only sixty-one. He ought to a' been good
+for another ten year or more."
+
+"They do say the climate is awful over there," chimed one of the
+loungers, quite willing to discuss the event.
+
+"Ay! He should a' stayed in his native air!"
+
+Other listeners had strolled up and began to give their opinions.
+
+"I don't hold with foreign parts myself."
+
+"Not to live, though it's nice to see them."
+
+"There's always fever about in those hot places."
+
+"He'll be buried out there!"
+
+"And his son was buried in India!"
+
+"It seems as if the luck was against the family."
+
+"Mr. Glyn Williams will be for buying the property now!"
+
+"If he can get hold of it."
+
+"It's what he's been after ever since he came here."
+
+"Well, I suppose he'd make a better landlord than some."
+
+Mavis and Merle were not remarkably interested in General Talland, so
+they said "Thank you" for the information they had received, and walked
+down to the shore, where they amused themselves till it was time to
+return for lunch. When they got back to Grimbal's Farm, however, they
+found Mrs. Penruddock full of the news, which she had learnt from some
+of her customers.
+
+"It seems trouble on trouble," she declared. "Everybody is saying that
+Mr. Glyn Williams will be sure to get hold of the estate now, and with
+our lease just falling in, and this business between Bevis and young
+Williams which they'll likely not forgive, we may be turned out of the
+farm for all I know. I came here when I was married twenty-five years
+ago, and Mr. Penruddock was born here. It would break our hearts to have
+to go anywhere else."
+
+"Oh, I hope it won't be as bad as that!" said Mavis consolingly.
+
+At lunch-time the girls told Uncle David about the matter.
+
+"Will Mr. Glyn Williams really buy the property?" asked Mavis.
+
+"I don't think he can," replied Dr. Tremayne; "the estate's entailed."
+
+"What's 'entailed'?" said Merle, looking puzzled.
+
+"It's a legal term, which means that a property cannot be sold, but must
+always pass to the next heir in the male line, so that the owner really
+only has a life interest in it."
+
+"And who is the heir then?"
+
+"A distant cousin of General Talland's, Mr. George Talland, a most
+unsuitable man from all accounts. I believe he spends most of his time
+gaming at Monte Carlo. Very probably he will make the same arrangement
+as before with Mr. Glyn Williams, and will let him the The Warren and
+the shooting. There's a possibility, though, that Mr. George Talland and
+his son might 'cut the entail'. If owner and heir both agree to sell a
+property they can legally do so, and they might care to have the ready
+money and settle up their debts rather than only the income of the
+estate."
+
+"Pity General Talland hadn't a son to leave it to."
+
+"Yes, poor Austin. He died in India. It must be fifteen years ago now.
+There was a persistent rumour at the time that he'd been privately
+married out there, and had a son of his own, but no wife and child ever
+turned up to claim his heritage, which they would most certainly have
+done if they had existed. It was all gossip and hearsay. People love to
+invent these stories, but when you come to sift them there's no truth in
+them. I'm sorry the estate will go to the George Tallands. The son--also
+a George--has six daughters, but no son, so the male line comes to an
+end in that direction. That's why I fancy they may cut the entail--to
+get a little money for the girls. It seems a sad pity for an old family
+to die out absolutely. There have been Tallands at Chagmouth from time
+immemorial. After the younger George goes, the name will become quite
+extinct. Many of the old Devon families have died away like that for
+want of heirs."
+
+The troubles of the Tallands seemed to Mavis and Merle quite a minor
+business, however, compared with the overwhelming misfortune of Bevis's
+running away. They did not quite know what to do with themselves after
+lunch. They would have gone with Uncle David to the Sanatorium, but he
+wished to drive a patient up there, and had no room for them in the car.
+They might of course have gone to The Warren, where they had a general
+invitation to play tennis, but they hesitated, partly because they felt
+a delicacy in going without being definitely asked and certain of
+welcome, and partly because after what had happened the week before they
+were not very keen to meet Tudor. They could not forget the way he had
+taunted Bevis, and they had not yet forgiven him for it.
+
+"Gwen would be sure to say something nasty about last Saturday,"
+ventured Merle, who had carefully avoided the Williamses at school on
+French days.
+
+"I vote we go a walk by ourselves," decided Mavis.
+
+So they set off, and instinctively their steps turned in the direction
+of their dismantled bower. They did not, however, choose the upper road
+to it, which would have led them over the forbidden fence, but went the
+same way as on their first visit, taking the footpath among the woods.
+Spring had come since they were there before, and had brought out the
+leaves, so that the sea was seen through a screen of greenery. The
+primroses were nearly over, but hyacinths were opening like a blue
+cloud, and great purple orchises were shooting up. In clumps at the
+edges of the cliff bloomed the pink thrift and white sea-campion, and
+patches of the yellow lady's-fingers. Merle thought she heard the
+cuckoo, though Mavis was certain it was only a little boy who was
+anticipating the well-known call. They lingered and loitered for a long
+time in the wood, picking flowers and hunting about for birds' nests,
+and wishing Bevis were there to find them for them. At last they left
+the trees behind, and coming out on to the headland reached the grassy
+plateau that jutted out from the sloping cliff.
+
+The cave looked very dark and particularly "spooky" to-day. Merle
+peeped timorously inside, and turned away shuddering. Mavis, more deeply
+interested, ventured farther. She had neither matches nor candle, and
+could only trust to the faint twilight that reigned within. It seemed to
+her as if in a dark corner a heap of something was lying. She did not
+think it had been there on their former visit. Wild thoughts of
+smugglers and contraband goods flashed into her mind. Were there
+smugglers nowadays? Was it a bale of silk or a case of champagne that
+was being stored there for safety? With rather a fluttering feeling she
+crept nearer. It was no case of wine or bale of silk; in the darkness it
+looked more like a tumbled bundle of clothing. What could it be? She was
+frightened, and almost turned to go; but some attraction greater far
+than curiosity seemed to draw her on. She was quite close to it now. Her
+eyes had grown accustomed to the dim light, and she could just
+distinguish the sleeping figure of a boy, covered with a mackintosh
+coat.
+
+"Bevis!" she whispered. "Oh, Bevis!"
+
+He roused at her voice, and sprang to his feet with a cry, turning to
+her such a white, haunted face that she scarcely knew him. Merle ran
+forward from the entrance, and seeing both the girls he came slowly
+towards them.
+
+"It's you, is it?" he said. "Have you brought the police with you?"
+
+"Police! Why no, Bevis, of course not!"
+
+"Why should we?"
+
+He put his hand wearily to his head. His face was very pale, and his
+eyes were bright and big with dark rings round them.
+
+"No, you wouldn't bring them, I know, but they'll come all the same! I'm
+wanted. Wanted by the police. They're after me!"
+
+"Oh, Bevis, don't talk like this! No police want you. Why don't you go
+home?"
+
+"Go home! Go to Chagmouth! His ghost would stop me! Tell me, where have
+they buried him?"
+
+"Buried whom?"
+
+"Why, Tudor Williams of course--the poor boy that I murdered."
+
+"But Tudor's all right. He wasn't really much hurt. He walked home."
+
+Bevis stared searchingly at Mavis, then shook his head.
+
+"I _know_ he's dead. It's no use telling me he isn't. I murdered him.
+Haven't I heard the bell tolling for his funeral? It never stops. I tell
+you it never stops. I hear it night and day, and I feel like Cain!"
+
+The girls glanced at one another. Bevis was plainly very ill. He looked
+ghastly, and his knees trembled so greatly that he had to lean against
+the wall of the cave.
+
+"Where have you been all this week?" Mavis asked him.
+
+"I don't know. Here mostly, I think. I thought I'd walk to Port Sennen
+and try to get on board a ship, but somehow I feel weak. Perhaps I could
+get off to-night if I tried."
+
+"Come home, Bevis," persuaded Merle.
+
+But he sank down again on to the bed of leaves which he had made, and
+drew the mackintosh coat over him.
+
+"It's so cold," he shivered. "First I'm burning hot and then I'm cold.
+It's the curse of Cain!"
+
+Mavis took Merle's arm, and drew her outside the cave.
+
+"He's in a high fever, and simply raving," she whispered. "He's not fit
+to walk home even if we could get him to try. You go back to the farm
+and tell Mrs. Penruddock, and I'll stay here. We mustn't both leave him
+or he might wander off somewhere on to the cliffs. Be as quick as you
+can."
+
+"I shall run all the way," declared Merle. "Oh, the _poor_ boy. Think of
+staying here by himself the whole week."
+
+Mavis went back into the cave, and kneeling down by Bevis tried to
+soothe him. She had been ill so often herself that she could sympathize
+as he shuddered and shivered. His hands were burning hot, and his great
+dark eyes shone like fires in his white face. She told him over and over
+again that Tudor was safe; but he scarcely seemed to understand, and
+kept moaning that he had murdered him.
+
+"I'm not fit for any one to speak to. It's the curse of Cain," he
+repeated.
+
+Meantime Merle, who was swift of foot and had won many long-distance
+races at school sports, flew back to Chagmouth with record speed, and
+carried her news to Grimbal's Farm. Mrs. Penruddock was in the kitchen.
+She ran at once and called her husband from where he was working in the
+orchard.
+
+"I'll put the horse in the trap," he said briefly. "We'll go by the
+upper road, and then slip across the fields to the cave. Best take his
+overcoat and a rug."
+
+Merle went with them, not that she could be of any special use, but
+because she simply could not stop behind, and after all she was able to
+render a service, for she held the horse while Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock
+hurried down the fields to the cave. They came back after a short time
+half-carrying Bevis along, with Mavis, looking extremely grave, walking
+beside them. They lifted him into the trap, and drove him home, meeting
+Dr. Tremayne on the very doorstep.
+
+The Doctor shook his head when he heard of the nights in the damp cave.
+
+"Get him to bed, and we'll do our best," was his verdict. "He has youth
+and strength on his side at any rate. Please God we'll pull him round
+again. I've seen people worse than he is, Mrs. Penruddock, so keep your
+heart up. While there's life there's hope, remember. That's a proverb I
+always tell my patients, and one of the best that was ever invented."
+
+"I know, Doctor," gulped poor Mrs. Penruddock. "I know if anybody can
+pull him through, you will. But it's hard to see him looking like this
+all the same--Bevis, who's hardly had a day's illness in his life
+before."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A Confession
+
+
+All the next week Bevis lay desperately ill, and in the gravest danger.
+Every morning Dr. Tremayne motored over to Grimbal's Farm to see him,
+and arrived back with the same unsatisfactory report. Mavis and Merle,
+who waited anxiously for the daily bulletin, would run in from school at
+lunch-time hoping for better news. When Saturday came round again they
+begged to be allowed to go to Chagmouth as usual.
+
+"We wouldn't be a scrap of bother to Mrs. Penruddock," said Mavis. "If
+Jessop may give us some lunch we could eat it on the cliffs or in the
+woods."
+
+"That's a great idea," declared Uncle David. "I'll do the same to-day.
+Jessop shall make us up a lunch basket, and we'll all have a picnic meal
+together somewhere before I go up to the Sanatorium. It will certainly
+save them trouble at the farm. Mrs. Penruddock won't want to do any
+cooking for us, I'm sure, when she's so busy nursing."
+
+As they motored along towards Chagmouth, the girls felt strongly, what
+had sometimes struck them before, that it was good to belong to a
+Doctor's family, and to be taking skilled help where it was so greatly
+needed. They had the utmost confidence in Uncle David, and knew that he
+would give every service that human aid could render or his long
+experience could suggest. He came down that morning from his patient's
+room with no better report:
+
+"He's still very ill. I can't get his temperature down. But I'm trying
+different treatment, and we must see what that will do. I'm glad I shall
+be about the place to-day. They know where to find me if they want me."
+
+Dr. Tremayne went into his surgery to attend to the string of other
+patients who were waiting for him, and Mavis and Merle sat in the little
+front garden, on the green bench under the fuchsia tree outside the
+French window. They had not the heart to go for a walk. Mrs. Penruddock,
+kind as usual, but overwhelmed with trouble, had greeted them, and taken
+them upstairs for one brief peep at the invalid. They had not gone
+inside the room, but from the doorway they had seen Bevis lying in bed
+with ice on his head, so thin and changed and hollow-eyed, that he
+scarcely looked like their old friend. As they sat in the garden,
+talking in undertones, the gate clicked, and Tudor Williams came up the
+path to the door--such a subdued Tudor, without any of his former
+jauntiness and gay flippancy of manner. When he saw the girls he crossed
+the grass and shook hands with them.
+
+"I've come to ask about the poor chap," he said quietly. "Mother sent
+down a message to Dr. Tremayne to say that if there's anything we can do
+we'll be very glad. We'd send Jones for ice or anything of that sort,
+you know. He'd take out the car directly and get what was wanted."
+
+"Thanks very much, we'll tell Uncle David. Oh, there's Mrs. Penruddock!
+Perhaps you'd better speak to her and give her the message. There might
+be something wanted at once."
+
+Mrs. Penruddock had come into the parlour, and now walked to the French
+window to meet Tudor, who inquired about Bevis, and explained his
+errand. She mopped her eyes as she thanked him.
+
+"I'm sure people have all been so kind," she gulped. "Everything that
+can be done has been done. But there he lies rolling his head on his
+pillow, and talking for ever about the 'curse of Cain'. He can't get it
+out of his mind but what he's murdered you. It seems no use telling him.
+He just listens, and goes on again how he knows you're lying dead on the
+cliff. I wonder if he saw you if it would put that right? Could I ask
+you to step up to his bedroom for a minute, and let him have a look at
+you, and see for himself that you're alive?"
+
+"Oh, may I?" said Tudor, passing through the French window into the
+parlour, and following Mrs. Penruddock upstairs.
+
+He came down again after perhaps five minutes, and, big manly boy though
+he was, his eyes were red, and his voice was choking.
+
+"I'd no idea the poor chap was in such a state," he burst out to Mavis
+and Merle. "It's awful to see him with his hollow eyes and his white
+hands. He asked me to forgive him! Forgive him! It's I who ought to ask
+for forgiveness. It was all my fault! Mine entirely! I was an utter
+vulgar brute and beast! I never thought--" But seeing somebody coming to
+the gate, and boy-like not wanting to give an exhibition of his
+feelings, Tudor bolted back into the parlour, and going out by the side
+door into the stackyard, crossed the orchard, and went home over the
+fields to The Warren.
+
+Mavis and Merle were rather glad that they were not having lunch to-day
+at the farm. Mrs. Penruddock was busy and upset, and though many
+neighbours had come in to help her, nobody seemed to know exactly what
+to do, and they sat in the kitchen talking and shaking their heads.
+
+"Just like a set of old crows. As if that could do Bevis any good!"
+exclaimed Mavis rather impatiently.
+
+"They're telling each other all sorts of tales about early deaths and
+funerals. Nice cheerful kind of conversation for a sick-house," agreed
+Merle.
+
+Of course as they were in a hurry to get away, Dr. Tremayne had more
+patients than usual, and was detained a long time in the surgery. They
+waited for him in the garden, where the lilac bush under Bevis's window
+was already breaking into blossom, and swallows were darting past.
+To-morrow would be Palm Sunday, and next week was Easter week, and
+Father and Mother would be coming down to Durracombe for a brief
+holiday. It was three months since they had seen them, and to-day, in
+the midst of all the sadness around them, the girls felt rather
+home-sick, and were longing for a peep at their "ain folk".
+
+"Are they going to take us back with them to Whinburn?" speculated
+Merle.
+
+"I don't know! I've asked Mother in almost every letter, and she's not
+answered my question."
+
+"I'm torn in two!"
+
+"So am I. I want Dad and Mother, and yet I don't want to leave dear
+Devonshire."
+
+"Or Uncle David?"
+
+"No. I've got real right-down fond of Uncle David. He's a darling!
+There's nobody else in the world exactly like him."
+
+Dr. Tremayne worked through his list of waiting patients at last, and
+went round to the stackyard to fetch his car. Mavis and Merle jumped
+joyfully in, and they drove away up the hill. They went in the opposite
+direction to the Sanatorium because the Doctor had a visit to pay at a
+farm, and he wished to combine with it a call on Mrs. Jarvis, whose
+cottage would be close by his destination. The manager of Trotman's
+Circus had sent some few possessions which had belonged to her son
+Jerry, and they had brought the parcel with them in the car.
+
+"We'll have our lunch first," decreed Uncle David, "then we'll go and
+see the poor old body afterwards. I want something to eat before I
+interview any more patients."
+
+They chose a quiet spot at the edge of a wood, and drawing up the car on
+a patch of grass by the roadside, they took their basket among the trees
+and spread forth their picnic. Jessop had provided handsomely for them,
+and they immensely enjoyed the meal in the open air.
+
+"If I'd only time, I'd go skirmishing all over Devonshire. It's my ideal
+of a holiday, to motor just where you like, and not have to think of
+your surgery," admitted Dr. Tremayne, throwing pine cones at the girls,
+and behaving quite boyishly in spite of his sixty-five years.
+
+"Can't Daddy take surgery for you while he's over and give you a rest?"
+suggested Merle. "I'm sure he'd help if he could."
+
+"It's rather a brain wave. Perhaps he might," said Dr. Tremayne
+thoughtfully. "I'm growing a little tired of being perpetually in
+harness. When a man gets to my age he begins to crave for some leisure.
+I've been trying for the last three years to write a book on 'The
+Treatment of Tuberculosis', but I can't find the time to do it. Directly
+I begin somebody rings up and wants me to go and see them."
+
+"I should smash the horrid old telephone and then they couldn't ring you
+up," laughed Merle.
+
+"That's all right, little Pussie, but they'd send a messenger to fetch
+me instead, so it would come to just the same thing in the end."
+
+"Why do doctors always go?"
+
+"Because people can't do without us, I suppose. Of course we don't make
+unnecessary journeys, but when a case is serious we turn out whatever
+the weather or however late it is."
+
+"I know; that's what Daddy always says," put in Mavis. "He comes in
+tired to death, and goes out again in a snowstorm because the case is
+serious. I think doctors are just the best and kindest men in all the
+world."
+
+They were quite sorry to leave the wood and go back to the car, but time
+was creeping on fast. Dr. Tremayne paid his visit at Clavedon Farm, then
+drove on to Mrs. Jarvis's cottage, which was close by. The girls took
+the parcel between them, and they all three walked together up the
+little garden to the open door. They found Mrs. Jarvis sitting in her
+kitchen with a neighbour to keep her company. Since the death of her son
+the postwoman had failed greatly, and for the last week she had not
+undertaken her duties in connection with the pillar-box. To-day she
+seemed hysterical and excited. She sprang up at the sight of Dr.
+Tremayne, and began a loud complaint of pains in her head, mixed up with
+lamentations on the death of General Talland.
+
+"She's been like this all the week, Doctor," explained the neighbour.
+"She's not fit to be left alone. Ever since she heard the news about
+General Talland, she's been going on with this wild talk. We take no
+notice of her. He's nothing to her. It's just one of those queer fancies
+she gets sometimes. She'll perhaps calm down again."
+
+[Illustration: SHE REACHED DOWN INTO SOME DARK RECEPTACLE AND DREW UP A
+BROWN-PAPER PARCEL _Page 275_]
+
+"Can you bear to look at some of Jerry's things, Mrs. Jarvis?" asked the
+Doctor.
+
+At the mention of her son the poor woman's excitable mood changed;
+instead of shouting she spoke more quietly, and her eyes filled with
+tears as she turned over the trifles that had been sent to her.
+
+"Jerry! My boy Jerry!" she murmured. "I always said he'd come back. He
+oughtn't to have gone and left me--ought he? And he took--I never told
+anyone what he took! He was a bad son to me."
+
+"Never mind that now he's dead and gone," put in the neighbour.
+
+"Ay, he's dead and gone, and so is General Talland, so is General
+Talland."
+
+"She's off again on that point," groaned the neighbour.
+
+But Mrs. Jarvis was looking at Dr. Tremayne with a curious craftiness in
+her eyes.
+
+"General Talland's gone," she repeated. "And I hear they've to go a long
+way to find an heir to the property. What if there was an heir close at
+hand--here in Chagmouth?"
+
+"What do you mean?" asked the Doctor.
+
+"Ay, what do I mean? I'm not so demented as some folks think me.
+There's something that I could tell if I liked. I wouldn't have said a
+word if _he'd_ a-lived, but he's dead and gone, so it makes no
+difference to him now if I speak. Sit you down, Doctor, and the young
+ladies too! I may as well tell it to plenty of witnesses while I'm about
+it. Do you remember, Doctor, when I was village nurse over fourteen year
+ago? I was called in all of a sudden one day to attend Mrs. Hunter, the
+lady who'd been taken ill at the King's Arms."
+
+"I remember," nodded Dr. Tremayne.
+
+"Well, I swore at the inquest that she died without saying a word, but I
+swore false. I was left alone with her for just one minute in the
+parlour while Mrs. Tingcomb fetched more brandy, and Mr. Tingcomb sent
+Bob hurrying on his bicycle to Durracombe with a message for you. In
+that minute she got her breath. She knew that she was going fast, and
+she gasped out that she'd come to Chagmouth to find General Talland,
+that she'd been married secret to his son, and that the child was the
+heir. 'I've all the papers', says she, but then the faintness took her
+again, and though Mrs. Tingcomb ran in and gave her brandy she never
+come round."
+
+"But I thought at the inquest it was distinctly said there were no
+papers. I remember that point of the evidence particularly," said the
+Doctor.
+
+"There were none in her handbag or in her portmanteau. She had them all
+in a hanging pocket slung round her waist under her dress skirt. I found
+them when I was laying her out. I put them by, and said nothing about it
+just then. I meant to give folks a big surprise at the inquest. I took
+them home and looked them over. There was forty pounds in notes amongst
+them. My poor boy Jerry was lying in bed asleep, as I thought, but he
+must have been watching me, for he up and away as soon as it was light,
+and took the notes and my bits of savings too out of the old tea-pot.
+Why didn't I tell at the inquest? They'd have issued a warrant against
+Jerry! I wasn't going to put my own boy in prison! No one knew about the
+pocket, and the safest thing was to keep my mouth shut. I wouldn't have
+told now if my poor boy had been alive. Oh! he broke his mother's
+heart!"
+
+"This is a most extraordinary story," said Dr. Tremayne. "If it's true
+have you anything to prove your words? Where are these papers you speak
+of?"
+
+"Those that hide can find! May I trouble you to shift your chair,
+Doctor?"
+
+Mrs. Jarvis moved away several pieces of furniture, and lifted first the
+hearthrug, and then part of the oilcloth that covered the floor. There
+was a loose board underneath; she raised it, reached down into some dark
+receptacle, and drew up a brown-paper parcel. She unwrapped this and
+revealed a small case made of linen, with tapes attached to it. Inside
+were a number of papers which she handed to Dr. Tremayne.
+
+"They're all as she said, Doctor. There's her wedding certificate and
+the birth certificate, and letters from her husband too. You'll find
+them all right. She'd everything in order, poor thing. They'd have made
+a stir at the inquest, wouldn't they, if I could only 'a told about
+them?"
+
+Dr. Tremayne was looking rapidly through the contents of the old linen
+case.
+
+"These are indeed most valuable papers," he remarked. "I shall take
+them to the lawyers who manage the Talland estate, and they'll no doubt
+prepare a statement which you will be required to sign to show how they
+came into your possession. Oh, Mrs. Jarvis! how _could_ you keep them
+back for all these years, when you knew how much was involved?"
+
+"Better late than never, Doctor. I was in two minds whether to burn them
+and have done with it. Oh, my poor boy Jerry! It's ill raking up matters
+against them that's gone. If he'd been alive, I'd have kept my mouth
+shut, and never have said a word."
+
+Mrs. Jarvis was rocking herself to and fro in a state of great
+excitement. She was sane enough where a recollection of the events at
+the King's Arms was concerned, but her clouded brain revolved round the
+pivot of her son's death. She moaned, and twitched her mouth with
+nervous jerks.
+
+"I'll make her up a bottle of bromide mixture when I get back to the
+surgery," said Dr. Tremayne to the neighbour. "Can you send one of your
+boys down for it about six o'clock? She oughtn't to be left alone."
+
+"No, Doctor. I'll do what I can. She's in a bad way, poor soul. There's
+a lot of trouble in the world, isn't there?"
+
+"There is indeed! Now I must hurry off, for I'm due at the Sanatorium,
+and I'm very late. Give her the mixture, and I'll call and see her again
+next week."
+
+Dr. Tremayne put the linen case inside his safest inner pocket, and
+took his departure. As they drove down the hill towards the ravine all
+the little town and its neighbouring cliffs and woods lay stretched out
+before them.
+
+"Uncle David," asked Mavis, "if those papers are proved does it mean
+that The Warren and the whole of Chagmouth will belong to Bevis? Is he
+the grandson of General Talland?"
+
+"There seems very little doubt about it. It was evidence that ought to
+have been given at the inquest fourteen years ago. Poor lad! Poor lad!
+If we'd only known sooner."
+
+"But why did his mother call herself Mrs. Hunter?"
+
+"Probably she wouldn't care to give her true name at the hotel until she
+had been to see General Talland. The marriage had been kept secret, and
+nobody in Chagmouth knew about it. No doubt she had intended to go to
+The Warren and show her child to its grandfather. But General Talland
+had started for the West Indies. It was perhaps the news of his absence,
+and the consequent failure of her errand, that brought on the heart
+attack that caused her sudden collapse."
+
+"So Chagmouth belongs to Bevis," repeated Merle wonderingly. "The house,
+and the grounds, and the woods, and the shooting, and the farms, and the
+town are Bevis's. It's like a fairy tale!"
+
+But the heir to all the Talland Estate lay between life and death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+The Floral Festival
+
+
+Bevis pulled round after all. As Dr. Tremayne had said, he had youth
+and a strong constitution on his side. The new method of treatment
+seemed a miracle, and perhaps also the interview with Tudor, by settling
+the disturbance in his mind, allowed the medicines to have a fair
+chance. Nature reasserted herself, drove out baneful microbes, and set
+that wonderful instrument of hers, the human body, once more in working
+order. As soon as the fever left him Bevis picked up very fast. There
+was so much to get well for. The papers, hidden away so long in Mrs.
+Jarvis's cottage, established without a doubt his claim to the Talland
+property, and when the necessary formalities could be gone through he
+would become its legal owner. Naturally the affair was the talk of
+Chagmouth, and Bevis would have been overwhelmed with visitors and
+congratulations had not Mrs. Penruddock acted dragon, and kept away all
+callers except those who had a special permit from the Doctor. Under her
+excellent nursing he gained strength rapidly, and by the time St.
+Gervan's Day came round he looked almost his old self again. The floral
+festival held every year in honour of the patron saint of Chagmouth was
+an extremely ancient custom dating back probably to dim ages before the
+dawn of history. The antiquarians of the neighbourhood said it was
+either a survival from the Romans, or more likely still a relic of
+Druidism and sun worship. Christianity, finding pagan rites had always
+heralded the beginning of the summer, had adopted the feast and
+dedicated it to St. Gervan, an obscure Cornish missionary whose very
+legend was forgotten. Nothing is so persistent, however, as the survival
+of an old village fete, and for hundreds of years Chagmouth people, when
+the anniversary occurred, had decked their boats with flowers, and rowed
+across the harbour, and round the point to the little old church on the
+rock. Ages ago Druids had no doubt invoked the heavens to send
+favourable harvests, in mediaeval times the parish priest had probably
+blessed the fishing boats according to the custom which still obtains at
+a few places in Brittany, but these points in the old ceremony were now
+lost, and it had simply become a village holiday. It is likely enough
+that in these modern times, when few are given to sentiment, the whole
+thing would have fallen into disuse, had not the Vicar had the happy
+idea of combining with it a memorial service for those who had "passed
+on" in the Great War. Chagmouth people might smile at saints' days, and
+ask who St. Gervan had been, but they remembered their own boys, and
+would take wreaths to lay round the Celtic cross that had been erected
+in the little churchyard.
+
+Mavis and Merle were very anxious to see the floral festival, and
+though the Easter vacation was over, and school had begun again at The
+Moorings, they were allowed a special holiday for the purpose. That was
+Mother's doing. She had come to Durracombe with Father for Easter, and
+had stayed on for some weeks because Aunt Nellie was not very well, and
+needed extra care. On St. Gervan's day she hired a car from the hotel,
+and drove over to Chagmouth with the girls in order that they might all
+see the interesting ceremony. It was years since Mrs. Ramsay had been in
+the little town, and she was delighted to renew her acquaintance with
+it. To-day it was entirely _en fete_. Everybody was down by the quay
+side, where rowing boats of every description were ready in the harbour.
+The veriest old cockleshells had been patched up for the occasion, and
+there were also some motor-launches, and a small pleasure steamer which
+had made the trip from Port Sennen. All local boats were beautifully
+decorated with flags and with boughs of lilac or branches of pink
+hawthorn, and garlands of all kinds of gay cottage blossoms, May tulips,
+wallflowers, pansies, forget-me-nots, double daisies, pinks, or
+campanulas. There was great competition in the decorations. The school
+children had special boats to themselves, and proudly held up banners
+and little staves upon which were tied round bunches of flowers and
+flying ribbons. The Provident Societies also had their boats and their
+banners, and their members wore nosegays in their button-holes.
+
+The Ramsays had been offered places in Mr. Penruddock's boat, and they
+walked along the quay side to where she was moored. It was really a
+beautiful and very quaint scene, the harbour with its green, lapping
+water looking for once like a field of flowers, and the flocks of
+seagulls wheeling overhead and screaming at the unwonted sight. _The
+Dinah_, an old tub that belonged to Grimbal's Farm, had been made
+unwontedly smart for the occasion with a coat of fresh paint. Boughs of
+white lilac, wreaths of early roses, forget-me-nots, globe flowers, and
+starry clematis had fashioned it into quite a bower, the Union Jack
+fluttered in the stern, and rugs were spread over the seats.
+
+The bell in the little church of St. Gervan's was clanging loudly, and
+people were beginning to get into their various craft, and push away
+across the harbour. Merle was carrying her camera, and was busy taking
+snap-shots of the interesting scene. Mavis, who had leanings towards
+art, had brought her sketch-book and jotted down impressions in
+black-lead pencil. For the sake of everybody it was a mercy that the
+weather, which had been behaving badly of late, held up and gave bursts
+of brilliant sunshine. It was only a short row from the quay to the old
+church. The congregation disembarked at a jetty, moored their boats, and
+climbed the eighty-seven stone steps that led steeply upward. To-day the
+usually neglected place had been made to look wonderfully spick and
+span. The grass had been mown between the graves and round the soldiers'
+monument, where people were already piling up wreaths, floral crosses,
+and bunches of blossoms. The tower still lacked its coping, and the
+doorway had sunk yet more, but the windows had been cleaned, and all
+cobwebs were swept away. Inside the church was decked with beautiful
+flowers, arum lilies, and roses, and pale-pink peonies and bush lupins,
+and many lovely half-exotic plants from the gardens of The Warren and
+the Vicarage. People were taking their places on the old oak benches.
+The Ramsays went into a seat half-way down the nave, exactly behind the
+Glyn Williamses, who had arrived in a body, governess and all. Bevis was
+about to follow when the Vicar came up to him, and after a short
+whispered conversation motioned him into the Talland family pew. It was
+Bevis's first visit to church since his illness, and to the whole
+congregation the Vicar's act seemed a public acknowledgment of the boy's
+new position in Chagmouth. He flushed scarlet, hesitated a moment, then
+stepped forward and took his place with a quiet dignity which became
+both himself and the occasion.
+
+The short service was very simple, partly a thanksgiving, and partly a
+memorial to those who had given their lives for their country.
+
+Through the open door came the sound of the lap of waves and the
+screaming of gulls.
+
+"They that go down to the sea in ships," ran the Vicar's text, "that do
+business in great waters: these see the works of the Lord and His
+wonders in the deep."
+
+To Mavis the sunlight and the scent of the flowers and the prayers all
+seemed blended together into one beautiful picturesque whole, that
+joined ancient and modern and the living and the dead, and united those
+who worshipped with their rough forefathers who had carved those quaint
+bench ends, or those figures of the saints with the colourings of red,
+and blue, and gold.
+
+As Bevis left the cool, flower-decked church, and stepped through the
+doorway into the sunshine, the very first person to greet him was Tudor
+Williams. The two boys gripped hands heartily, and without a trace of
+any former resentment.
+
+"I believe they'll be friends now," said Mavis, as she talked the matter
+over with Merle afterwards. "I was afraid the Glyn Williamses would be
+bitterly disappointed at the prospect of having to give up The Warren
+some day to Bevis, but Tudor never cared much for Chagmouth, and what do
+you think Gwen told me just as we were starting back in our boat? Why,
+that her father had the offer of Godoran Hall, and all the property and
+shooting, and he means to buy it, and go and live there. It will be more
+convenient for them close to Port Sennen, and it's a lovely place."
+
+"Oh, hooray! Perhaps they'll ask us to go and see them there sometimes.
+I hated them at one time, but I'd be sorry now if I never saw them
+again. Funny how one turns round, isn't it?"
+
+"I never believe much in your violent hatreds," laughed Mavis. "You
+generally like people in the end."
+
+"Well, I liked Bevis in the beginning."
+
+"So did I. I've always felt what Jessop said about him was true, he's a
+'gentleman-born'! I don't mean that he's better than other people just
+because he's a Talland and owns the estate, but always, when he was
+quite poor and people jeered at him and called him a nobody, he behaved
+like a true gentleman. He stuck to Mr. and Mrs. Penruddock and helped
+them, though he hated the work on the farm, and he never spoke roughly
+and rudely like some of the boys about Chagmouth. He loves books and
+natural history and all those nice kinds of things, and he wanted to go
+on studying, and yet he didn't shirk a scrap at ploughing, and cutting
+hedges, and feeding the poultry. I'm sure if any one in this world
+deserves his good luck it's Bevis."
+
+The girls had been uncertain whether they were to go home with Father
+and Mother to Whinburn after Easter or stay in Devon, but Dr. Ramsay had
+declared that the improvement in Mavis's health was so marvellous that
+the experiment was worth continuing.
+
+"You look a different child," he said. "We'll leave you at Durracombe
+for another term at any rate."
+
+"And what about the next term after that?" asked Mavis. "It will be
+autumn then, and very cold at Whinburn."
+
+"That's a problem that needs carefully thinking out," answered Dr.
+Ramsay diplomatically.
+
+He would say nothing further at the time, but later on, before she
+returned north, Mrs. Ramsay had a secret to tell to Mavis and Merle.
+
+"How would you like to live always at Durracombe?" she asked them.
+
+"Always? Oh, Mummie! I'd adore it, if only it weren't for you and
+Daddy."
+
+"We've missed you loads, Muvvie darling!"
+
+"But suppose we were here, too?"
+
+"Here! All the time?"
+
+Then Mother, very proudly, revealed her great piece of news.
+
+"Father is going to help with the practice. Uncle David has too much
+work, and wants somebody to take part of it off his hands. He and Father
+will go into partnership as soon as we can sell the practice at
+Whinburn. We shall all live here at Bridge House. It's a splendid
+arrangement, because then I can take care of Aunt Nellie. She's such an
+invalid now that she needs constant nursing. Jessop wants to leave and
+keep house for a brother, who is a widower, and Aunt Nellie would be
+lost without Jessop, unless she had me to look after her instead. Don't
+you think it's a lovely plan?"
+
+"Lovely! It's absolutely splendiferous!"
+
+"And if Daddy brings the Ford car down here I can drive it for him,"
+sparkled Merle.
+
+"We'll see about that; you wouldn't have had that wild motoring
+expedition if I had been on the spot, you young madcap!"
+
+"But I fetched Mrs. Jarvis, and if I hadn't she might never have known
+it was her own son at the hospital, and then she wouldn't have told
+about the papers, and Bevis would never have got the Talland property.
+It's like the story of the old woman and her pig: the fire began to burn
+the stick, and the stick began to beat the dog, and the dog began to
+bite the pig, and the pig jumped over the stile, and she got home at
+last. We did Bevis a good turn when we tore over to Chagmouth that
+evening, didn't we, Mavis?"
+
+"Rather! Though we didn't guess it at the time."
+
+"So 'Whinburn High' will know us no more. Well, we've settled down quite
+comfortably at The Moorings. It's rather a decent school now Opal has
+gone."
+
+"I hope it will improve very much," said Mrs. Ramsay. "Miss Pollard
+tells me that in September she's going to have a first-class English
+teacher, a B.A. with plenty of experience, who will run the school on
+new lines. Funnily enough, it happens to be Eve Mitchell, who was
+educated at St. Cyprian's College, Cousin Sheila's old school. I've
+often heard her talk about Eve. _She_'ll soon reorganize The Moorings.
+They have such a splendid record at St. Cyprian's for games and musical
+societies, and literary clubs, and nature-study unions, and all the rest
+of it. It was a school in a thousand, according to Sheila. Miss Pollard
+has the promise of ever so many fresh boarders, elder girls, not little
+ones. The climate of Durracombe is getting quite a reputation, I hear,
+and specially suits anyone who has been born in India. If the numbers
+increase so much, particularly in the upper forms, it will give the
+school a far better opportunity in every way, especially in games."
+
+"Hooray," exulted Merle joyfully. "That's the one thing where The
+Moorings has been really slack. We could do nothing with only that crowd
+of kids. But with girls of our own age, and a mistress from St.
+Cyprian's, we ought to forge ahead now, and have topping times. I'm
+looking forward to the September term."
+
+"And yet I loved the last one," said Mavis. "I feel nothing will ever
+quite come up to my first peep at Devonshire, and those Saturdays at
+Chagmouth. It was like seeing a new world. It's been a first impression,
+a fresh experience, a gorgeous spring, an idyllic few months--what else
+can I call it?"
+
+"Call it a very fortunate term," finished Merle.
+
+
+    PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
+    _By Blackie & Son, Limited, Glasgow_
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+    Punctuation has been made consistent.
+
+    The use of "The Glyn Williams" and "The Glyn Williamses", and
+    spelling and hyphenation have been retained as they appear in
+    the original publication except as follows:
+
+    Page 168 to take you a walk _changed to_
+             to take you for a walk
+
+    Page 199 had brought a thermos flash _changed to_
+             had brought a thermos flask
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FORTUNATE TERM***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 36080.txt or 36080.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/6/0/8/36080
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/36080.zip b/36080.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..65d5441
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36080.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b70bac4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #36080 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36080)