n octagonal napkin-ring, so Carlington Road
congratulated itself. In addition to athletic practice there were
several good fights with 'cads' and a disagreeable Colonel had his
dining-room window starred by a catapult. Other notable events included
a gas explosion at Number 78, when the front door was blown across the
street and flattened a passer-by against the opposite wall. There was a
burglary at Number 33 and the housemaid at Number 56 fell backwards from
the dining-room window-sill and bruised her back on the lid of the
dustbin in the area.

With all these excitements to sustain the joy of life Michael was very
happy and, when school broke up for the summer holidays, he had never
yet looked forward so eagerly to the jolly weeks by the sea. Miss
Carthew and Michael and Stella went to Folkestone that year, and Michael
enjoyed himself enormously. Miss Carthew, provided that she was allowed
a prior inspection, offered no opposition to friendship with strange
children, and Michael joined an association for asking everybody on the
Leas what the time was. The association would not have been disbanded
all the holidays if one of the members had not asked the time from the
same old gentleman twice in one minute. The old gentleman was so acutely
irritated by this that he walked about the Leas warning people against
the association, until it became impossible to find out the time, when
one really wanted to know. Michael moved inland for a while after this
and fell into Radnor Park pond, when he returned to the sea and got
stung by a jelly-fish while he was paddling, and read Treasure Island in
the depths of his own particular cave among the tamarisks of the Lower
Sandgate Road.

After about a fortnight of complete rest a slight cloud was cast over
the future by the announcement at breakfast one morning that he was to
do a couple of hours' work at French every day with a French governess:
remembering Madame Flauve, he felt depressed by the prospect. But Miss
Carthew found a charming and youthful French governess at a girls'
school, where about half a dozen girls were remaining during the
holidays, and Michael did not mind so much. He rather liked the
atmosphere of the girls' school, although when he returned to Randell's
he gave a very contemptuous account of female education to his masculine
peers. An incident happened at this girls' school which he never told,
although it made a great impression on his imagination.

One a