ing term. It is with
their immediate adventures that this book is largely concerned.

CHAPTER II

The Mystic Seven

"D'you know," said Morvyth, flopping down disgustedly on to a form,
and addressing an interested audience of three; "d'you know, my
children, that I consider these two new girls the very limit?"

"Absolute blighters!" agreed Raymonde hastily, "I was thinking so
myself only this morning. I can't decide which is the worst."

"Not a pin to choose between them!" commented Aveline with a yawn.

"I gave Cynthia Greene credit for shyness during the first twenty-four
hours," continued Morvyth. "I thought in my own mind, 'the poor thing
is suffering, no doubt, from home-sickness and general confusion, and
we must be gentle with her', but I kept a wary eye upon her, and I've
come to a conclusion. It's not shyness--it's swank!"

Ardiune nodded her head approvingly.

"Swank, and nothing else," she confirmed. "I know something about it
too, for I heard her expounding to her own Form this morning. It
almost made me ill. I had to take a run round the garden before I felt
fit again. It seems she's come from some much smaller school, where
she's been the head girl and show pupil, and the rest of it. She said
the younger ones had all looked up to her, and the Principal had
treated her as a friend, and that she'd always worked hard to keep up
the tone of the place."

"O Sophonisba!" ejaculated Raymonde. "Well, it strikes me we've got
the tone of this school to look after. We can't allow Fourth Form kids
to bring those notions and run them here. She won't find herself queen
of this establishment!"

"Hardly!" chuckled Aveline.

"Aren't her own Form attending to the matter?" enquired Morvyth.

"Naturally. They're giving her as bad a time as they know how, but
they don't make much headway. She tells them she fully expects to be
ragged, and she simply won't believe a word they say. They haven't
taken her in once yet."

"That's because they're not skilful," said Raymonde thoughtfully.
"They don't do the thing artistically. There's a finesse required for
this kind of work that their stupid young heads don't possess. I'm not
sure if it wouldn't be philanthropic to help them!"

"Set your own house in order first!" grunted Ardiune. "You'll have
your hands full with Maudie Heywood."

"I'm not going to neglect Maudie; don't alarm yourself! She's the best
specimen of the genus prig that I've ever come across in