airs as of one who is now a finished young lady, and no longer a
mere schoolgirl. She chatted, in rather mincing tones, to Miss Burd
herself, while Ingred stood by in awe and amazement, and when she bought
a cup of tea from Doreen Hayward at the refreshment stall, she murmured:
"Oh, thanks _so_ much!" with the manner of a patroness, though only six
months ago she and Doreen had sat side by side in the Science Lectures.
It was a new phase of Quenrede, which, though accepted to some extent at
home, had never shown itself before with quite such aggravated symptoms.

Ingred, walking as it were in her shadow, was not sure whether to admire
or laugh. It was, of course, something to have such a pretty and
decidedly stylish sister; she appreciated the angle at which the
plum-colored hat was set, and the self-restraint that made the tiny iced
bun last such an enormous time, when a schoolgirl would have finished it
in three bites, and have taken another. A grand manner was certainly
rather an asset to the family, and Queenie was palpably impressing some
of the intermediates, who poked each other to look at her.

"It's my turn to play soon, and I'm just shivering!" whispered Ingred.

"Nonsense, child! Don't be such a little goose!" declared her sister
airily. "It's only a school party--there's really nothing to make a fuss
about!"

"_Only_ a school party!" That seemed to Ingred the absolute limit.
Quenrede last term had, in her turn, shivered and trembled when she had
been obliged to mount the platform! Could a few short months have indeed
effected so magnificent a change of front?

"All the same, it's I who've got to play, not she! It's easy enough to
tell somebody else not to mind," thought Ingred, as, in answer to Miss
Clough's beckoning finger, she made her way towards the piano to undergo
her ordeal.

One point in favor of the recital was that the audience moved about the
room and went on buying toys or cups of tea and cakes, and even talking,
instead of sitting on rows of seats doing nothing but watching and
listening. It was rather comforting to think that the concert was really
only like the performance of a band, a soothing accompaniment to
conversation. Ingred opened her music with an almost "don't care"
feeling. For one delirious moment she felt at her ease, then, alack! her
mood suddenly changed. In a last lightning glance towards the audience
she noticed among the crowd near the tea-stall the tall thin figure,
c