ed, daughter. May you keep the White
Feast with joy."

It seemed to Lloyd that that "Godspeed" followed her like a
benediction.

CHAPTER VII.

HOMEWARD BOUND

"O Warwick Hall, dear Warwick Hall,
Thy happy hours we'll oft recall!
No time or change can break thy tie,
Though for awhile we say good-bye--
Good-bye! Good-bye!"

AMID a flutter of handkerchiefs and a babel of parting cries, each
'bus-load of girls departed from the Hall to the station singing the
farewell song of the school.

A dozen times on the way home Allison, humming it unconsciously, found
the rest of the party joining in. It was an uneventful journey, but a
merry one to the five girls, travelling for the first time without a
chaperon. For the first few hours they had the observation car to
themselves. Even the porter mysteriously disappeared.

"He's curled up asleep somewhere, rest his soul," said Gay, when she had
rung for him several times.

"All the better," answered Kitty. "We don't really need the table, and
it's nice to have him out of the way. This is as good as travelling in
a private car. We can 'stand on our head in our little trundle-bed, and
nobody nigh to hinder.' Oh, girls, I'm so crazy glad that we're on our
way home that I'm positively obliged to do something to let off steam.
I've exhausted my vocabulary trying to express my delight, so there's
nothing left but to howl."

"Or to wriggle," suggested Gay. "Why not try facial expression? How is
this for transcendent joy?"

The grotesque smile which she turned upon them was so ridiculous that
they screamed with laughter.

"Oh, Gay, do stop!" begged Betty. "You're as bad as a comic valentine."

"I'd like to see you do any better," retorted Gay.

"Let's all try," suggested Kitty. "Line up in front of this mirror,
girls. Now all look pleasant, please. Now let your smiles express
rapture. Now, frenzied delight!"

Fascinated by their own ugliness, the five girls stood in a row
distorting their pretty faces with hideous grins and grimaces until they
were weak from laughing. The banging of the car door sent them scuttling
into their seats. A portly old gentleman passed through the car to the
rear platform, and, slamming the door behind him, stood looking down
the rapidly vanishing track. Evidently it was too breezy a view-point
for the old gentleman, even with his coat-collar turned up and hat
pulled down to meet