ilar position she herself would have wished to pay, but it was
inconceivable that she should ever be in such a position. However
hurried a man might be-- She rubbed her hand on her knee with a little
shudder of distaste. "Wretch! He would make love to me, too, if I
would allow it! How can Cecil possibly care for such a man?"

And then she forgot Cecil's feelings to ponder on a more perplexing
problem.

Why had the man called Vavasour looked so amused, and why had the sweet-
faced woman looked so distressed?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

A DOUBLE INVITATION.

Janet Willoughby sent Claire a picture postcard, all white snow and
strong shadow, and dazzling blue sky, and little black figures
pirouetting on one leg with the other raised perilously in the rear.
"This is me!" was written across the most agile of the number, while a
scrawling line across the top ran, "Happy New Year! Returning on
Tuesday. Hope to see you soon." Tuesday was the day on which school
re-opened; but Janet's holiday was year long, not a short four weeks.

Cecil moaned loudly, but Claire was tired of aimless days, and welcomed
the return to work. She determined to throw her whole heart into her
task, and work as no junior French mistress had ever worked before; she
determined never to lose patience, never to grow cross, never to indulge
in a sarcastic word, always to be a model of tact and forbearance. She
determined to wield such an ennobling influence over the girls in her
form-room that they should take fire from her example, and go forth into
the world perfect, high-souled women who should leaven the race. She
determined also to be the life and soul of the staff-room--the general
peace-maker, confidante, and consoler, beloved by one and all. She
determined to seize tactfully upon every occasion of serving the Head,
and acting as a buffer between her and disagreeables of every kind. She
arranged a touching scene wherein Miss Farnborough, retiring from work
and being asked by the Committee to name a worthy successor, pronounced
unhesitatingly, "Claire Gifford; she is but young, but her wisdom and
diplomacy are beyond all praise." She saw herself Head of Saint
Cuthbert's, raised to the highest step of her scholastic ladder, but
somehow the climax was not so exhilarating as the climb itself. To be
head mistress was, no doubt, a fine achievement, but it left her cold.

Inside Saint Cuthbert's all was life and bustle. Girls streaming alon