ve been fun? Life's not a scrap romantic nowadays. I do
think men are slackers. Why don't they wear their ladies' colors at
football, and let whoever gets a goal carry a wreath of flowers to the
pavilion and crown his girl 'Queen of Beauty'? There'd be some
excitement in looking on then. As it is it's nothing but a scrimmage;
and I never care a button which side wins. You needn't laugh. Why
shouldn't a footballer look gallant and present trophies? The world
would jog on a great deal better if there were more chivalry in it."

"The girls want to play games themselves nowadays instead of looking on
and receiving trophies," giggled Verity.

"I don't!" declared Fil emphatically. "I hate tearing about at hockey,
or running at cricket. I'd far rather let my knight do the work for me."

"Chilly work looking on in this weather. The games keep one warm," said
Ingred, who was still only half thawed.

In spite of boisterous March winds and late spring frosts the sun
climbed steadily higher in the sky and the days lengthened. Ingred, who
used to arrive home in the twilight at Wynchcote on Friday afternoons,
could now dig in the garden after tea. She liked the scent of
newly-turned earth, and was happy working away with a trowel
transplanting roots of wall-flowers and forget-me-nots to make a display
in the bed near the dining-room window. At school the various forms vied
with one another in shows of hyacinths grown in bowls, the best of which
were lent to the studio on drawing days and figured as models for
water-color sketches, together with daffodils and hazel catkins.
Lispeth, who did not relax the activities of The Rainbow League, revived
her idea of a Posy Union, persuaded some of the girls to bring little
pots of gay crocuses or blue squills to school, and after these had been
duly exhibited on a table in the lecture-hall, sent them through the
agency of a "Children's Welfare Worker" to brighten the bedsides of
various small invalids in the poorer quarters of the town and let them
know that spring had arrived.

Easter-tide was very near now, and the school would break up for three
weeks. Miss Burd was going away to allow her tired brains to lie fallow
for a while, and most of the other teachers were looking forward to a
well-earned rest apart from their forms. It came as a surprise to
everybody when Miss Strong--alone--among the staff--suggested the
project of taking some of her pupils for a short walking tour. They were