isting circumstances, which I shall
explain as fully and as briefly as I may, to send your pupils without
delay to their homes."

"All that have not already left," she assured him, "with the exception of
those whose parents reside in the town, or who have no living relatives,
and therefore do not leave us, go North and South by early trains
to-morrow."

"Ma'am," he said, "I am heartily glad to hear it." He added, as she
invited him to be seated: "Thank you, but I have been in the saddle since
five this morning, and if you have no objection I should prefer to stand.
And for another reason, I explain things better on my legs. But you will
allow me to find you a seat, if--any of these may be moved?" His glance,
with some perturbation in it, reviewed the stiff ranks of chairs severely
marshalled in Convent fashion against the varnished skirting-board.

"They are not fixtures," she said, with quiet amusement at his evident
relief, and he got her a chair, the largest and most solid that the room
offered, and planted himself opposite her, standing on the hearthrug, with
one hand resting on the corner of the high mantelshelf, and the toe of a
spurred riding-boot on the plain brick kerb.

"I may as well say ..."--he ran a finger round the inside of the collar
that showed above the khaki jacket--"that, though I have often had the
pleasure, and I will add, the great advantage, of meeting ladies of--of
your religious profession before, this is the first time that I ever was
inside a Convent."

"Or a boarding-school?" she asked, and her rare, sudden smile irradiated
her. His hand dropped from his collar. He looked at her with a sudden
warmth of admiration there was no mistaking. But her beauty went as
suddenly as it had come, and her arched, black brows frowned slightly as
she said, in tones that were very cold and very clear, and rather
ironical:

"Sir, you are good enough to waste valuable time in trying to break, with
due consideration for the nerves of a large household of unprotected
women, the news we have expected daily for months. You have come here to
announce to us the bursting of the cloud of War. Is it not so?"

He was taken aback, but hid it like a diplomat.

"Ma'am, it is so. The public notice was posted in the town this morning.
Forces of Boers are massed on the West Natal and East Baraland borders,
waiting until the British fire a shot. Their secret orders are to wait
that signal, but some unlooked-for event