have been
short-sighted when she blundered about hunting for Cupid; she'd have
found him in a decent pair of spectacles, poor girl! Clytie suffered
from earache, and couldn't motor without a veil; as for Venus, it's
giving her the vote that's forced a moustache; she's sent for a
safety-razor, but it hasn't arrived yet."

More girls had come in during Diana's explanation, and they wandered
round the room in explosions of laughter.

"Why has Perseus got a turban on?" demanded Tattie.

"Because his hair grew thin on the top, and even Tatcho didn't fetch up
another crop of curls, and Andromeda so objected to seeing him bald that
there was nothing for it but to turn Moslem and wear a turban. He did it
in self-defence, because she threatened to buy him a dark wig, and he
said it would make him look like a Jew."

"That's _my_ hat!" objected Vi, pointing to the straw that decorated
Juno.

"Excuse me--hers! The lady's gone on the land, working like a nigger
digging the ground for the potato crop. You see, Jupiter hasn't got
demobilized yet, and----"

The flower of Diana's eloquence suddenly withered and dried up as if
electrocuted. In the doorway, above the heads of the giggling girls,
appeared a vision in pince-nez--an avenging vision that passed rapidly
through the several stages of amazement, consternation, and wrath.

"Di-ana _Hew_litt!" snapped Miss Hampson. "Go down and report yourself
_instantly_ to Miss Todd. This is simply disgraceful! Girls, take your
seats! Tattie and Vi, help to remove those--those----" The irate mistress
paused for a word, but, failing to find one adequate to the occasion,
began instead, her fingers trembling with indignation, to strip the
turban from the classic head of Perseus.

Dead, awful silence reigned in the room. Not a girl dared to giggle; a
few began nervously to sharpen pencils, but most sat and stared while
the casts were denuded of their trappings. Miss Hampson removed the
moustache from Venus as if she were apologizing to that deity for
sacrilege, and, with her own handkerchief, wiped away from the lovely
lip the seccotine which had attached the masculine appendage to the
Queen of Beauty. She rolled up the hats in the towel which had served as
turban, set her pupils to work at their copies, then marched sternly
downstairs to lay the full enormity of the case before the
justly-shocked ears of Miss Todd. Nobody ever heard exactly what
happened in the interview; no coaxing or p