bs, the
wheels of the carts did not quite correspond, the windmills were apt to
stick, or the puzzles would not quite fit. In spite of their
imperfections, however, they looked attractive, and would, no doubt,
give great pleasure to the little people who were to receive them, and
who were hardly likely to be very critical of their workmanship.

To make the afternoon more festive, there was to be a tea stall, to
which the girls brought contributions of cakes, and music was to be
given from the platform, so that the scene might resemble a cafe
chantant. Ingred had been chosen as one of the artistes, and arrayed in
her best brown velveteen dress, with a new pale-yellow hair ribbon, she
waited about in her usual agonies of stage fright. Learning from Dr.
Linton, however improving it might be to her touch, was hardly conducive
to self-complacency, and, after having suffered much vituperation for
her imperfect rendering of a piece, it was decidedly appalling to have
to play it in public, especially with the horrible possibility that at
any moment her master might happen to pop in to view the exhibition and
arrive in time for her performance.

"I shall have forty fits if I see him in the room, I know I shall!" she
confided to Fil. "You've no idea how he scares me. I have my lessons on
the study piano generally, and if only he would sit still I shouldn't
mind, but he _will_ get up and prowl about the room, and swing out his
arms when he's explaining things; he only _just_ missed knocking over
that pretty statuette of Venus the other day. I'm sure if Miss Burd knew
how he flourishes about, she wouldn't let him loose among her cherished
ornaments!"

"Perhaps he won't turn up to-day!"

"Oh yes! He said he should make a point of buying a toy for his little
boy. If I break down suddenly in the midst of my piece, you'll know the
reason. I'm shaking now."

"Poor old sport! Don't take it so hard!"

By three o'clock the lecture hall was filled with what Lilias Ashby (who
had undertaken to write a report for the school magazine) described as
"a distinguished crowd." Fathers indeed were as few and far between as
currants in a war pudding, but mothers, aunts, and sisters had responded
nobly to the invitations, and were being conducted round by the girls to
see their special exhibits.

Mrs. Saxon had been unable to come that afternoon, but Quenrede had
turned up, looking very pretty in a plum-colored hat, and giving herself
slight