hree weeks ago, so I was well primed, and brought out
all Miss Percy's best remarks. I heard her tell Mrs. Marshall afterwards
that she had rarely met a more intelligent girl, and she thought I
should make an ideal clergyman's wife!"

"I had the doctor," I said; "and he's so jolly, he just made fun all the
time, and I enjoyed myself immensely. He asked me a riddle he said he'd
made up himself: 'Why are school-girls like bottles of medicine? Because
they are meant to be shaken.' It's not very good, but of course I had to
smile."

"I had Judge Saunders," said Cathy. "He started upon the weather, but I
didn't think that was classical enough, so I tried to bring the
conversation round to poetry and Shakespeare. But he shook his head and
laughed. 'It's no use, my dear,' he said, 'I used to be thrashed at
school for my defective Latin verses, and I have preferred plain prose
ever since. Now you have done your duty, and you will please me better
by telling me how you are going to spend your holidays.' So I began
about home and the boys, and I'm afraid I didn't remember to 'choose my
sentences' or 'keep to the subject', but he patted my shoulder, and said
he would tell me a secret, and then he whispered: 'Just forget all your
conversation lessons, and be your natural little self; it's ever so much
nicer. Only don't let Mrs. Marshall know I said so!'"

If we regarded the conversazione as somewhat of an ordeal, we all
thoroughly enjoyed the breaking-up party which took place on the last
day before the holidays. It was quite an informal affair, to which no
visitors were invited, and we were not expected to keep up such a severe
standard of ceremonious behaviour. Indeed, on that day all rules were
relaxed--we talked in our bedrooms, we sang in the passages, we sat on
the school-room desks, and lolled about in easy attitudes under Miss
Percy's very nose. During half the term the members of the dramatic
society had held secret rehearsals in the small class-room, from which
outsiders were rigidly excluded, for they were to contribute part of the
evening's entertainment, and were busily preparing for the event. It had
been a great disappointment to me that I was not permitted to join the
society. I had been so successful in the elocution class, that many of
the girls would have been willing to include me, but Ernestine Salt, who
seemed no more friendly towards me than before, had always exerted her
influence very strongly against it,