, but why _need_ I
like old things? Did the Pompeians take their schoolgirls to look at
buried Greek cities, or were they satisfied with their own times? How
soon do you think we shall have tea? These chocs have saved my life, but
I'm longing for bread and butter and buns."

"Why, we haven't finished lunch very long."

"I ate more than half of mine in the carriage, so I hadn't much left.
Hello! Where have the others been? I didn't know there was a way up
there."

The rest of the party were clattering down a flight of wooden steps with
many expressions of admiration for what they had seen at the top.

"Perfectly beautiful! The finest view of all," purred Miss Morley.
"Renie and Delia, didn't you go up? You silly girls. You've missed a
treat. No, I'm afraid we can't wait now. The guide is anxious to take us
on. We haven't seen the House of Sallust yet or the Street of Tombs. I
want to ask him whether they've been doing any more excavations near the
Herculaneum Gate."

Miss Morley, deep in conversation with No. 24, passed on, in the full
belief that all her flock were following behind her. Irene and Delia,
however, were determined to have just one peep at the view from the top
of the wall, so both made a dash up the wooden staircase. From here
there was a glorious prospect of the entire city with its arches and
columns and broken temples, its cypress trees, and its somber background
of smoking mountain. They could see exactly the way they had come from
the entrance, and could tell which was the Street of Fortune and which
the Street of Abundance. It was so fascinating that they lingered rather
longer than they intended.

"They'll be waiting for us," ventured Irene at last.

"Oh, bother! So they will," exclaimed Delia, rushing down prepared for a
scolding.

But the others had not waited. They had all simply walked on, and the
custodian had locked the gate behind them. It was fast closed, and no
amount of shaking would move it.

"We're shut in," gasped Irene. "Where's the porter? He ought to be
somewhere about with the key."

The custodian, quite oblivious of the fact that anybody had been left
inside the House of Pansa, was reading a newspaper and eating bread and
garlic under his wooden shed farther down the street, where he would
remain till the next guide came along with a party and requested
admission. So he did not hear, though the girls thumped and called and
made a very considerable noise. They were both