now, maybe, and it's no use
risking missing the 'bus at Glenbury, and having to walk it after all."

A very tired Diana, and an equally weary Wendy arrived at the school
just when Miss Todd was getting absolutely desperate about their
absence. She had sent Miss Chadwick to Athelton to meet the seven
o'clock omnibus, and the teacher had returned to report that they had
not come on it. Miss Todd forbore to scold two such limp wrecks, and
sent them straight upstairs, with orders for hot baths, bed, and basins
of bread-and-milk. Explanations were reserved for next day, and they did
not get off scot free by any means. Miss Todd had an aggravatingly
mathematical mind. She calculated the time the omnibus left the
market-place, the exact moment when she herself started in the trap from
the Queen's Hotel, the distance between these two given points, and in
how many minutes at the rate of not less than three miles an hour two
ordinary walkers should accomplish it. The answer left ten whole minutes
to spare, and of that ten minutes of the afternoon she demanded a strict
account from Diana and Wendy.

The sinners, whose bones still ached after their adventure, appeared in
such crushed spirits that they did not receive the entire scolding their
head mistress had intended, and were for once dismissed with a caution.

"She didn't say we mightn't go to the bonfire," sneezed Wendy, on their
way down the passage. Wendy as usual had taken a cold in her head.

"I kept the squibs dry, thank goodness!" sighed Diana. "Nobody knows
about them yet, so we'll let them off as a surprise. Won't they all just
jump when they hear them? I'm looking forward to that bonfire as the
event of my life!"

CHAPTER IX

Diana's English Christmas

Diana had fondly hoped that the armistice meant an immediate declaration
of peace, that her father and mother would return post-haste from
France, take her away from Pendlemere, and cross at once to America, so
that they might spend Christmas in their own home. To her immense
disappointment, nothing so nice happened. The peace conferences were
lengthy. Mr. and Mrs. Hewlitt remained in Paris, and did not even speak
of booking passages to New York. They wrote instead to make arrangements
for Diana's holidays in England. It was at first decided that she should
spend the time with her cousins, the Burritts, but influenza broke out
so badly at Petteridge Court that all in a hurry the plans had to be
changed.