embers of each house who had been honoured with
tablets, to ask for portraits taken as nearly as possible about the date
of leaving school. Irene, of course, would communicate with Tom to
inform her of the step about to be taken by her companions, and to
direct her to be photographed at the first possible moment.

"And--er--you might just drop a hint about her attire!" said Rhoda,
anxiously, as a remembrance of the dress and coiffure of Erley Chase
rose before her. Nothing more likely than that Tom would elect to do
honour to her companions by putting on her very best clothes for their
benefit, and imagine the horror of the Blues at seeing their old Head
decked out in such fashion! "We should like best to see her as she used
to look here."

"She must wear the old blue dress, and stand with her back to the
fireplace, with her hands in her pockets," cried Kathleen firmly. "We
don't want to see Tom lying in a hammock against a background of palms,
or smirking over a fan--not much! It's the genuine article we want, and
no make-up. What will she say, I wonder, when she hears she is going to
have a tablet? Will she be pleased or vexed?"

"She must be pleased--who could help it?--but she will pretend she is
not. Mark my words, she'll write back and say it's a piece of
ridiculous nonsense."

So prophesied Irene; but the result proved that she was wrong, for Tom,
as usual, refused to be anticipated. Instead of protesting that she had
done nothing worthy of such an honour, and beseeching her companions not
to make themselves ridiculous, she dismissed the subject in a couple of
lines, in which she declared the proposed scheme to be "most laudable,"
and calmly volunteered to contribute half-a-crown!

The Blues agreed among themselves that such behaviour came perilously
near "callousness," but Rhoda recalled that last peep through the bars
of the station gate, and could not join in the decision. She believed
that Tom would be profoundly touched by the honour, so touched and so
proud that she dared not trust herself to approach the subject from a
serious view. And she was right, for if imagination could have carried
her old companions to the study where Tom was then domiciled, they would
have seen her chalking an immense red cross on her calendar against the
date when Irene's letter had arrived, and mentally recording it as the
proudest day of her life.

No mention was made of the photograph, but in due time it arriv