your old bones, can't you?"

The two girls, who had been standing in the ruined watch-tower that
spanned the gateway, tore down the broken corkscrew staircase at a
speed calculated to imperil their necks seriously, and reached the
bottom at the identical moment that a motor char-a-banc rounded the
corner and drew up in front of the entrance. Sixteen jolly faces were
grinning under sixteen school hats, and at least a dozen excited
voices were pouring forth a perfect babel of exclamations.

"How ripping!"

"Oh, I say!"

"This is top-hole!"

"What a chubby place!"

"I'd no idea it would be like this!"

"Oh, hold me up! This child's knocked me over entirely!"

The opening day of a fresh term is always more or less of an event,
but this particular reunion was a thrillingly important occasion, for
during the Easter holidays the school had removed, and the girls were
now having their first peep at their new quarters.

The vision that greeted them through the old gateway was certainly
calculated to justify their ecstatic remarks. A grassy courtyard,
interspersed with box-edged flower beds and flagged footpaths, led to
a large, gray old Tudor house, whose mullioned diamond-paned windows,
twisted chimney stacks, irregular moss-grown roof, ivied bell-tower,
stone balls and carved porch offered the very utmost of the romantic
and picturesque. The change from the humdrum, ordinary surroundings of
their former school was supreme. Miss Beasley had promised them a
pleasant surprise, and she had undoubtedly kept her word. The sixteen
new arrivals grasped their handbags and small possessions, and set off
up the flagged pathway with delight written large on their
countenances. Raymonde Armitage and Aveline Kerby, in virtue of half
an hour's longer acquaintance with the premises, trotted alongside and
did the honours.

"Yes, it's topping! Regular old country mansion sort of a place. Might
have come straight, slap-bang out of a novel! You should see the
Bumble Bee! I can tell you she's pleased with life! Buzzing about no
end! Even the Wasp's got a smile on! Fact! You needn't look so
incredulous. I'm not ragging."

"It's true," confirmed Raymonde. "The Wasp's quite jinky to-day.
Actually said 'my dear' to me when I arrived. Of course, Mother was
there, but even then it gave me spasms. Gibbie, of all people in this
wide world, to call me 'my dear'! I nearly collapsed! 'Goodness! what
next?' I thought. 'Wonders will never cease