the sunshine glancing on
the sands, the sparkling water in the distance. And Miss Neale was full
of such good ideas. She taught them a new play of trying to walk
blindfold, or at least with their eyes shut, in a straight line, which
_sounds_ very easy, does it not? but is, I assure you, very difficult;
then they had a capital game of puss-in-the-corner, though the corners
of course were only marks in the sand; and with all this it was time
to go home to tea almost before they knew where they were.

'How pretty it must be up in the lighthouse to-day,' said Celestina as
they were turning away.

This was the signal for Bridget's quarrelsomeness again.

'Miss Neale,' she said, shading her eyes from the sun, as she gazed out
towards the sea, 'Celestina does talk such nonsense. She says you can't
walk over the sands to the lighthouse. Now _can't_ you? I can _see_ sand
all the way.'

Miss Neale was anxious not to contradict Biddy just as she seemed to be
coming round again, and she was really not quite sure on the point.

'I can't say, my dear,' she replied. 'It does look as if you could--but
still----'

'There now,' said Biddy to Celestina contemptuously, 'Miss Neale's
bigger than you, and she thinks you _can_; don't you, Miss Neale?'

'Yes, yes, my dear,' Miss Neale, who was on some little way in front
with Alie, replied hastily; 'but come on--what does it matter?'

But Biddy's tone had roused Celestina, gentle as she was.

'I know you _can't_,' she said, 'and whether a big or a little person
says you can, I just _know_ you can't,' and she turned from Biddy and
walked on fast to join the others. Seeing her coming, Rosalys called to
her.

'Celestina, I want to ask you something,' and in a moment the two were
talking together busily.

'It's only the secret, Biddy,' said Alie laughingly; she did not know of
Biddy's new ill-humour. 'You mustn't mind.'

Down came the black curtain thicker and thicker over Bridget's rosy
face; firmly she settled herself on her unmanageable steed.

'I don't care,' she said to herself as she trudged along in silence
beside Miss Neale; 'they're horrid to me--_horrid_. And I'll be as
horrid as I can be to them. But I'll let that nasty Celestina see I'm
right and she's wrong. I _will_.'

CHAPTER X

BIDDY'S ESCAPADE

'And Dick, though pale as any ghost,
Had only said to me,
"We're all right now, old lad."'
_Author of 'John Ha