eaping-machine. In the Manor garden the roses had reached
perfection, and the flower-beds were a mass of colour. The girls spent
every available moment out-of-doors, making the most of the bright days,
and enjoying their country visit to the full.

One blazing half-holiday afternoon Lindsay and Cicely, allowed for once
in the select company of a few of the elder girls, were lounging
blissfully under the shade of a big hawthorn tree. The air seemed
dancing for very heat; the grasshoppers were chirping away at the edge
of the lawn, a lizard lay basking on the stones of the terrace wall, and
the sparrows for once were silent.

"It's far too hot to play tennis," said Irene Spencer. "One just wants
to sit somewhere where it's green and cool."

"I'm glad we're here, then, instead of at Winterburn Lodge," said Mary
Parkinson.

"So am I; and yet Winterburn Lodge is nicer than many other schools,"
remarked Mildred Roper.

"It's not half bad," assented Mary. "I like it better, at any rate, than
the French school I was at in Brussels."

"I didn't know you'd ever been in France," said Lindsay, idly picking a
dandelion clock and blowing it to find out the time.

"No more I have, goosey."

"Then why did you say you'd been at a French school? You're telling
fibs."

"No, I'm not, because Brussels doesn't happen to be in France--it's in
Belgium."

"I thought you were supposed to learn geography in the third class,"
laughed Irene Spencer.

"She said a French school, not a Belgian one," objected Lindsay.

"Well, everybody speaks French in Brussels."

"Don't they speak Flemish?"

"Only the poor people, and even they can generally talk French as well."

"How long were you there, Mary?" put in Mildred Roper.

"Only one term. I got ill, and had to come home."

"Was it nice?"

"Oh, just tolerable!"

"Had you to talk French all the time?"

"I had to try, because none of the girls knew anything else. They used
to laugh at me if I spoke English."

"How nasty! I shouldn't have cared to be you," said Cicely.

"Yes, it was horrid, when I was sure they were saying things about me
and I couldn't understand them. I used to get quite cross, and that made
my head ache."

"Was the school in the country?" asked Lindsay.

"No, I've told you already it was in Brussels, and that's a big city. It
was a large building, with a great high wall all round it, with spikes
on the top, as if it were a prison. Inside there was a courtyar