can't import him over here to give the cook a lesson," said
Janet. "But I expect there's something in the quality, and how much you
put in the pot. Will you have another cup, Milly?"

"No, thank you! One is enough of this brew. Here comes the
bread-and-butter plate. I hope it'll all be finished before it comes to
me, for I don't want any more."

Among many rules at The Hollies there was a law that nothing must be
left upon the table, and the bread-and-butter was always severely passed
round till the plate was empty. On this particular day I was not hungry,
and when the last piece was offered to me I promptly declined it. Cathy
quickly and quietly handed it on to Janet, who was in the very act of
taking it when Miss Percy's voice bade her pause.

"Did I notice you refuse that piece of bread-and-butter, Philippa
Seaton?" she asked.

"Yes, Miss Percy," I replied.

"And why?"

"I'm not hungry," I said nervously.

"But you know the rule?"

"I suppose I do."

"Then why did you not take it?"

"I've had enough, Miss Percy," I blurted out. "I simply can't eat any
more!"

She looked at me with infinite scorn.

"Cannot eat any more! Then you _must_ have been greedy if you find it
absolutely impossible to finish even this little piece. I will not urge
you after such a plea, but I think you may well be ashamed of your
excuse."

I felt keenly the injustice of the suggestion, but I was powerless to
retort. It was but a sample of her methods of training us, and to have
"answered back" would have been an offence liable to be visited with
heavy punishment. So far from over-eating myself I had generally little
appetite for breakfast, and made the merest apology for a meal. As a
result of this, by eleven-o'clock recreation I would find I was wildly
hungry, but as we had no lunch at The Hollies I was obliged to wait
until the one-o'clock dinner, by which time I was almost faint for want
of food. How often have I evaded Miss Percy's sharp eye, and, dodging
down the back-staircase, have begged a piece of bread or a hot potato
from the sympathetic cook, to be eaten surreptitiously behind my
pocket-handkerchief in the playground! I have even bribed the housemaid
to buy me biscuits and smuggle them into my locker, incurring thereby
both the risk of her dismissal and my own disgrace, for it was one of
the strictest rules of the school that the girls should obtain no
private supplies.

It is, I suppose, almost impossible for an