e ever come back?"

"I shouldn't think it's likely now."

"Then we're left for evermore to the tender mercies of Toddlekins?"

"That's just about the size of it. Toddlekins has taken the whole thing
over."

"She's been longing and yearning to seize the reins and drive the coach
ever since she came," commented Tattie.

"Well, she's got her chance now."

"And she'll use it, too! You bet there'll be changes!"

"Changes! There are changes already, although Mrs. Gifford can hardly
have reached Marseilles yet."

"It's going to be a queer term," grunted Wendy.

The five girls were sitting in a retired corner of the garden at
Pendlemere Abbey. On one side, above the tops of the rhododendron
bushes, they could see the tall, twisted chimneys and flagged stone roof
of the old house; on the other side, below the lawn and across the
paddock, gleamed the silver waters of the lake, with its banks of rushes
and alders, and beyond lay a range of grey hills that seemed to melt
away into more distant peaks that merged into the mists on the horizon.
It was a beautiful view, and on this hazy September afternoon, with the
hidden sun sending long shafts of light from behind radiant masses of
cloud, it formed a prospect that should have afforded keen aesthetic
satisfaction to anybody who cared to look at it. Usually the girls
appreciated its changeful glories, but to-day--this first day of a new
term--they were too much taken up with their own grievances to think
about scenery. In fact, they sat huddled together in the wheelbarrow
with their backs towards the view.

It had certainly been a considerable shock to the girls to find, on
arriving after the holidays, that their popular Principal had deserted
them in so sudden a fashion. It was not indeed the first surprise which
she had given them. Two years before she had been Miss Housman, with a
purely educational outlook in life, and a horizon bounded by her school;
but Cupid, who plays strange pranks even with head mistresses, brought
her fate along in the shape of a major from the temporary camp by the
lake, and shot his arrows with such deadly aim that the whole romantic
business--courtship, engagement, and war wedding--took place in the
course of a few weeks, almost under the very noses of her interested
pupils. They had gone home for their Easter holidays much thrilled about
her engagement ring, and had returned to school to find her a war bride,
with her husband already in the