n a hurry.

"It was well bowled, certainly," said Dora, meeting her defeat with
dignity. "I didn't think Patty could have done it. Oh, I don't grudge
you a wicket! I'm only too glad to see good play, I assure you, for the
credit of the school."

"It was nothing but luck, I believe," said Patty, when her friends
crowded round to rejoice over her. "I daresay I couldn't do it again."

"Yes, you could," declared Enid. "It was that peculiar twist that bowled
her. You'll have to teach it to us. Where did you learn it?"

"An uncle from Australia stayed with us last summer, and he showed us.
Basil and I used to practise it every evening. Basil can do it far
better than I can."

"You do it quite well enough. You've made your reputation this
afternoon, and you're sure to be put in the Lower School eleven. Miss
Latimer never says much, but I can see she's pleased with you. I'm so
glad, because this really settles the question. You mustn't think of
tennis again, but stick to cricket."

Patty was glad to have scored such a success. She had not been specially
good at hockey during the winter, and was only a moderate tennis player,
so it was pleasant to find one game in which she had a chance of
excelling, and of gaining credit for her team as well as for herself.
For once she tasted the sweets of popularity, and had the satisfaction
of hearing even Vera Clifford offer her congratulations.

"I suppose I couldn't expect Muriel to do so," she thought. "She knows
about it, though she wasn't watching the match, because I heard Cissie
Gardiner telling her. She's the only one in the class who hasn't
mentioned it. Of course it doesn't matter in the least; still, it would
have been so nice, when I'm her own cousin, if she had said just a
single word to show that she cared."

CHAPTER XII

Playing with Fire

The Fourth Class, including the members of both upper and lower
divisions, was by far the largest at The Priory, and, in the opinion of
Miss Lincoln, the most unruly and difficult to manage. During her many
years of teaching, she had always found that girls between fourteen and
sixteen gave more than the usual amount of trouble. They were too old to
be treated as children, and had already begun to set up standards of
their own; indeed, they thought they knew most things a little better
than their elders. They were impatient of discipline, yet their ideas
were still crude and unformed, and they had not the judgment nor
s