sleeping in rat-ridden barns, or
cruising the Channel to sweep mines. When she awoke in the night and
heard the rain falling, she would picture the wet trenches, and she
often looked at the calm still moon, and thought how it shone alike on
peaceful white cliffs and on stained battle-fields in Flanders. The
aeroplanes that guarded the coast were a source of immense interest at
Brackenfield. The girls would look up to see them whizzing overhead.
There was a poster at the school depicting hostile aircraft, and they
often gazed into the sky with an apprehension that one of the Hun
pattern might make its sudden appearance. Annie Turner came back after
the half-term holiday with the signatures of two Field-Marshals, a
General, a Member of Parliament, three authors, an inventor, and a
composer, and straightway set the fashion at St. Elgiva's for
autographs. Nearly every girl in the house sent to the Stores at
Whitecliffe for an album. At present, of course, specimens of caligraphy
could only be had from mistresses and prefects, except by those lucky
ones whose home people enclosed for them little slips of writing-paper
with signatures, which could be pasted into the books.

Nobody took up the hobby more hotly than Marjorie. Her album was bound
in blue morocco with gilt edges, and had coloured pages. The portion of
it reserved for Brackenfield was soon filled by the Empress, mistresses,
and prefects, who were long-suffering, though they must have grown very
weary of signing their names in such a large number of books. Outside
the school Marjorie so far had no luck. Her people did not seem to have
any very noteworthy acquaintances, or, at any rate, would not trouble
them for their autographs. She had thought it would be quite easy for
Father to secure the signatures of generals and diplomats, but in his
next letter he did not even refer to her request. Elaine secured for her
the name of the Commandant of the Red Cross Hospital, and of a lady who
sometimes wrote verses to be set to music, but these could not compete
with the treasures some other girls had to show. Marjorie began to get a
little downhearted about the new fad, and had serious thoughts of
utilizing the album as a book of quotations.

Then, one day, something happened. Sixteen girls were taken by Miss
Franklin for a parade walk into Whitecliffe, and Marjorie was chosen
among the number. Every week a small contingent, under charge of a
mistress, was allowed to go in