the shop, but Mrs. Baldwin declared she could not wait.

"I don't see that Miss Herbert can mind. We're quite ready to go, and it
will save one taxi," urged Bertha.

So it was hastily decided for Joyce, Bertha, Doris, and Carmel to go in
the car, and Noreen ran upstairs to tell Miss Herbert of the
arrangement. The latter, with Hester and Ida, was choosing lamp-shades
and fancy candlesticks. It was only when Noreen had gone that Carmel
remembered suddenly that she had never bought the packet of chocolates
which she had promised to bring back for Dulcie. She stopped with her
foot on the step of the car, and excused herself.

"There's something I still have to do!" she explained. "I must come back
in the taxi with the others after all! I'm so sorry!"

Mrs. Baldwin had an appointment at home, and was impatient to start, so
the door was slammed on Joyce, Bertha, and Doris, and they drove away
all smiles, and waving a good-by through the window. There was a sweets
department close at hand in the Stores, and Carmel bought a present of
chocolate for Dulcie and of butterscotch for Lilias, then went upstairs
to the lamp-shade counter to rejoin Miss Herbert and the other girls. To
her surprise she found they had gone. She searched for them all round
the upper story of the shop, but did not see them anywhere. She had kept
a watchful eye on the stairs when buying the sweets, and was quite sure
that they had not passed down while she was there. She returned to the
lamp-shade counter and questioned the assistant, who told her that she
had noticed the lady and the three girls in school hats walk down
another staircase which led to a side door of the stores. In much alarm,
Carmel hurried that way into the street, but not a trace of them was to
be seen. She walked as far as the railway station, hoping to catch them
there engaging a taxi, but not a solitary conveyance of any description
was on the stand. She was indeed in a fix. She saw clearly that, of
course, they all supposed she had gone with Mrs. Baldwin in the car, and
by this time they were probably on the road to Chilcombe without her. It
was nobody's fault but her own.

The feeling that she had only herself to blame did not make the
situation any less unpleasant. She was four and a half miles away from
school, and unless she could secure a taxi, she would be obliged to walk
back. She inquired from a porter, but he shook his head, and said it
was unlikely there would be any c