nd remarked:

"I'm glad to hear that you are interested in co-operation. This is
certainly a practical demonstration of the theory, and Fauvette ought
to be grateful to you. Be quick and finish straightening the things,
and, if anybody asks questions, you may say that you have my
permission to remain here until tea-time."

The girls sat at attention till the door closed upon their mistress,
then their mingled amazement and gratitude burst forth.

"Good old Gibbie!"

"She's an absolute sport to-day!"

"Never known her in such a jinky mood before!"

"The fact of the matter is," observed Raymonde sagely, "I believe
Gibbie absolutely loathes Mademoiselle, and that for once in a way
she's not above taking a legitimate chance of paying her out."

When the French mistress came round that evening on her tour of
inspection, she found Fauvette's drawers in apple-pie order right to
the very bottoms--beads, ties, and collars carefully arranged in
boxes, and nicely mended stockings placed in a row.

"It only show vat you can do ven you try!" she commented. "In a woman
to be untidy is--ah! I have not your English idiom?"

"The limit!" wickedly suggested Raymonde, who was standing close by.

But Mademoiselle, who had been warned against the acquisition of
slang, glared at her till she beat a hasty retreat.

It was growing near to the end of the term, and examinations loomed
imminently on the horizon. They were to be conducted this year by Miss
Beasley's brother, a clergyman, and a former lecturer at Oxford. He
had made a special study of modern languages, so that his standard of
requirement in regard to French grammar was likely to be a high one.
Up till now the Fifth Form had plodded through Dejardin's exercises in
an easy fashion, without worrying greatly about the multitude of their
mistakes, over which their mistress had indeed shaken her head, but
had made no special crusade to amend. Now, in view of the
awe-inspiring visit of the Reverend T. W. Beasley, M.A., Mademoiselle
had instituted an eleventh-hour spurt of diligence, and kept her
pupils with reluctant noses pressed hard to the grindstone. Irregular
verbs and exceptions of gender seemed much worse when taken in such
large doses. The girls began to wish either that the Tower of Babel
had never been attempted, or that the world had reached a sufficient
stage of civilization to adopt a universal language. Over one point in
particular they considered that they had