w, father, and, oh, so smooth--as smooth as
velvet, and on this grass, lit with fairy lamps, the girls dance all
kinds of stately, wonderful, old-fashioned dances, and the neighbors
sit round and watch, and then at the end we all go into the house, into
the great oak hall in the middle, and Mrs. Clavering gives the prizes
to the lucky girls.

"Of course, feasts of cherries are the order of the hour, and we wear
cherry ornaments if possible. You cannot imagine how full of cherries
we are in the school, even to cherry-colored ribbons, you know.

"Well, yesterday, when your dreadful telegram came, was the day when we
were to draw up a programme for the Cherry Feast, and when all we girls
came into the oak parlor in the evening--I mean all the girls of the
Upper school, for the little ones, although they enjoy the feast
splendidly at the time, are never allowed to know much of the
preparations--well, when we were all in the oak parlor who should come
in but Mrs. Clavering and such a tall, stately, splendid-looking man.
His name is Sir John Wallis, and it seems, father dear, that he knows
all about you, for he called me up afterwards and spoke to me, and he
put his arm round my waist, and when he said good-bye he even kissed
me, and he said that you and he were some of the heroes before
Sebastopol. Oh, father, he did speak so splendidly of you, and he
looked so splendid himself, I quite loved him, I did really. But
there, how I am digressing, father!

"Mrs. Clavering gave out the programme for the day--the usual sort, you
know, the dancing on the lawn in the evening, and the crowds of
spectators, and the assembling in the big hall for the prizes to be
given out to all the lucky girls who had won them.

"Of course, I won't get any this year. I have not been at school long
enough, although I am trying and working very hard. Well, Mrs.
Clavering read out the usual programme and we all stood by and
listened, and I could not help glancing at Sir John, although I had not
spoken to him then, and did not know, not a bit of it, that he knew
you, darling, precious father.

"But all of a sudden Sir John himself came forward and he took Mrs.
Clavering's place on the little rostrum, as they call it, and he spoke
in such a loud, penetrating, and yet beautiful voice, and he said that
he, with Mrs. Clavering's permission, had a scheme to propose.

"He began by saying how he loved the school, how he had always loved
it, how his o