n the Principal relaxed her rule in
their favour. Marjorie, nearly wild with excitement, came flying into
the sitting-room at St. Elgiva's to tell the news to her friends.

"Another exeat! You lucky thing!" exclaimed Betty enviously. "Why can't
my brother come to Whitecliffe?"

"Can't you bring him to school and introduce him to us?" suggested
Irene.

"Or take some of us out with you?" amended Sylvia.

"We're simply dying to meet him!" declared Patricia.

"He has only the one afternoon to spare," replied Marjorie, "and has
promised to take just Dona and me out to tea at a cafe, though I don't
mind betting Elaine goes too. I wish I could bring him to school and
introduce him. The Empress is fearfully mean about asking brothers.
Brackenfield might be a convent."

Chrissie also seemed tremendously interested in Leonard's arrival. She
walked round the quad with Marjorie.

"How glorious to have a brother home from the front!" she said
wistfully. "If he were mine, I'd nearly worship him. There'd be such
heaps of things I'd want to ask him, too. I'd like to hear all about a
tank."

"You've seen them on the cinema."

"But only the outside, of course. I want to know exactly how they work.
Don't laugh. Why shouldn't I? Surely every patriotic girl ought to be
keen on everything in connection with the war. I wish you'd ask him."

"Why, I will if you like."

"You won't forget?"

"I'll try not."

"And there's a new shell we've just been making. I wonder how it
answers. I heard we've some new guns too. Would your brother know?"

"Really, I shall never remember all this! Pity you can't come with us
and ask him for yourself."

"I believe I could get an exeat----" began Chrissie eagerly.

"I'm sure you couldn't!" snapped Marjorie. "Dona and I are going just by
ourselves."

The sisters spent a somewhat disturbed morning. It was difficult to
concentrate their minds on lessons when such a delightful outing awaited
them in the afternoon. Immediately after dinner they rushed to their
dormitories to don their best dresses in honour of Leonard. They knew he
would not care to take out two Cinderellas, so they made careful
toilets. Marjorie, in front of her looking-glass, replaited her hair,
and tied it with her broadest ribbon, chattering all the while to
Chrissie, who sat on the bed in her own cubicle.

"Leonard's an old dandy. At least, he was a year ago--the war may have
changed him. He used to be most fearfully partic