e
_would_ cry, but it was hard work to resist it during the next half-
hour, when every second bore her further from home, and the strangeness
of her surroundings pressed more heavily upon her. Other girls were
beginning to cheer up and exchange confidences with their companions,
but she had no one with whom to talk. Two girls opposite--the foxey one
and the affected one--were chatting quite merrily together. The
affected one, whose name appeared to be Hilda, had spent part of her
holiday at Boulogne, and was discoursing on the delights of Continental
bathing, while Foxey, not to be outdone, would have her know that
Scarborough kept pace with all the Continental methods.

Another girl made the harrowing discovery that she had left her
spectacles at home, and announced the same to a chum, who remarked that
it was "a ripping joke!" The violin girl had had a bicycling accident,
and exhibited her scars with pride. The shock of parting over, they all
seemed very happy together, very friendly, very absorbed; far too much
absorbed to notice a new-comer, or trouble themselves on her behalf.
The governess stood by Rhoda's side for a few minutes and made remarks
in an aggressively cheerful manner, but her reception was not
encouraging, and presently she went away, and did not return.

Rhoda looked at the pictures in her magazines, or pretended to look, for
her brain was so much occupied with other matters that she could not
grasp their meaning, and after five minutes' inspection would hardly
have been able to say whether she had been studying the features of a
country landscape or those of a society beauty. Then she turned and
cautiously examined her neighbours. The girl to the right was a square,
stolid-looking creature, square-faced, square-shouldered, with square
toes to her boots, and elbows thrust out on each side in square,
aggressive fashion. Her eyes were small and light, and her nose a
defiance of classic traditions; the corners of her mouth turned down,
and she had at once the solemnest and the most mischievous expression it
is possible to imagine. After a critical survey of her charms, Rhoda
felt that she was not the person with whom to force a conversation, and
turned her attention to the neighbour on her left.

A recruit, surely; for, though her hat-band was in order, there was in
her mien an absence of that brisk, independent air which seemed to
characterise the old Hurst girl. A pretty damsel, too, with