rom the eaves, the tennis courts were sodden,
and the orchard was a marsh. The girls had grown accustomed to
spending almost all their spare time out of doors, and chafed at their
enforced confinement to the house. They hung about in disconsolate
little groups, and grumbled. Miss Beasley, who was generally well
aware of the mental atmosphere of the Grange, registered the barometer
at stormy, and decided that prompt measures were necessary. To work
off the steam of the school, she suggested a good old-fashioned game
of hide-and-seek, and gave permission for it to be played on those
upper landings which were generally forbidden ground. Twenty-six
delighted girls started at once upstairs, and passed through the wire
door, specially unlocked for their benefit, to the dim and mysterious
regions that lay under the roof. It was the best place in the world
for the purpose--long labyrinths of passages leading round into one
another, endless attics, and innumerable cupboards. The smallness of
the latticed windows, combined with the wetness of the afternoon,
produced a twilight that was most desirable, and highly suited to the
game.

Hermie and Veronica picked sides, and the former's band stole off to
conceal themselves, while the others covered their eyes in orthodox
fashion, and counted a hundred.

"Cuckoo! We're coming!" shouted Hermie at last, and the fun began.

Up and down, and in and out, diving through doorways, racing along
passages, chasing one another round corners, groping in cupboards,
panting, squealing, laughing or shuddering, the girls pervaded the
upper story. There was a ghostly gloom about the old place which made
it all the more thrilling, and gave the players a feeling that at any
moment some bogy might spring upon them from a dark recess, or a
skinny hand be stretched downwards through a trap-door. Flushed,
excited, and really a little nervous, both sides at last sought the
safety of the "den." Two or three of them began to compare notes. They
were joined by others. In a very short time the whole school knew that
at least a third of their number had seen a "something." They were
quite unanimous in their report. "It" was a girl of about their own
age, in a dark-green dress with a wide white collar. Hermie and
Ardiune had noticed her most distinctly. She had smiled and beckoned
to them, and run along the passage, but when they turned the corner
she had disappeared; and Linda and Elsie, whom they had met comi