ent to an amazed Head Mistress. Miss Meredith thought and acted
quickly. Major Phillips was welcomed with both hands and tucked into the
car. Catherine was summoned.

"My compliments to Mrs. Bronson, Catherine, and please ask her if she
can provide you all with hot cocoa and cake after your walk. Miss
Ashwell is coming home with me for tea."

The car drove off, and though the line moved on decorously towards the
much-desired rest and cocoa, Major Phillips would have been considerably
surprised if he could have heard its sudden galvanization into speech.

Catherine, who took Miss Ashwell's place at the end of the line, was
obliged to send a runner ahead with the request,

"Less noise till we reach bounds, please."

But the instant they reached the school gates the line dissolved and
Judith was surrounded by an excited mob.

"Oh, go on, tell us, Judy."

"Whatever were you doing on the platform?"

"Who is he, anyway?"

"Don't be a piker! Tell us, Judy."

"Fancy Miss Meredith whisking him off like that."

"Is he really Miss Ashwell's?"

But Judith, though triumphant, was loyally discreet. He was an old
friend of her Uncle Brian's. She had to speak to Uncle Tom, and then
Uncle Tom and Major Phillips came down to speak to Miss Ashwell.

There were some who felt that this was not all, but Catherine supported
Judith and adjured them not to go into their own houses and spread
romantic tales.

But there are some things which even a popular prefect cannot achieve.
The affair was discussed in all its details by the tired forty as they
consumed much cocoa and cake in the sitting-room, and even later, when
the running of many bath-taps proclaimed loudly the fact that forty
tired bodies were being refreshed, scraps of conversation floated over
the bath partitions.

"Good thing it's his left arm that's hurt."

"Isn't his hair lovely? I adore hair that is slightly greying!"

"Is it a V.C. he's got?"

"When do you suppose they'll be married?"

"Did you say he was an artist or an engineer?"

"Won't she look lovely in a wedding gown?"

"_I_ wouldn't be married in anything but white."

"Judith Benson thinks she's _it_. What is she doing in it anyhow?"

Judith smiled happily in her bath. She had decided on her bridesmaid's
frock.

CHAPTER XIV

JUDITH WINS THE TENNIS CUP

SPRING came early this year and the school spent much time out of doors
during the last term. Many classes were held in the big sun