e when Lesbia advanced her
idea. This was self-expression with a vengeance. Rather a startling
proposal certainly, yet it seemed to show such initiative that it was a
hopeful sign of progress under the new regime.

"I'll consider it, Lesbia," she said thoughtfully. "I must see some of
your stencil work first, and have a talk with Miss Joyce. I'm always
glad when girls wish to do anything for the school, but, of course, the
quality of the work must be very high before it's worthy of a place in a
form room."

"Lesbia's the oldest pupil at the school," ventured Marion rather
inconsequently.

"That unfortunately doesn't guarantee proficiency in Art," twinkled Miss
Tatham; "if everything went by seniority there would be no prizes."

Feeling half-crushed and half-encouraged Lesbia beat a retreat,
expecting to hear nothing more about the matter, and doubting whether
she had done herself any good at head-quarters. Miss Tatham, however,
examined her work privately, and after a long talk with Miss Joyce
summoned Lesbia to the study and announced that she would be allowed to
stencil a border in VA under the close superintendence of the Art
Mistress. This was indeed a triumph for Lesbia. Her disappointment about
the dado for the nursery faded into nothingness now that she might
actually decorate her own form room. Fortunately for her peace of mind
she had no rivals in her own particular field. The only other girls in
VA who took stencilling were Lizzie Logan and Laura Birkshaw, and both
were such hopeless amateurs at it that they realized their own lack of
skill, and would never have ventured to touch the schoolroom walls.
Grace Stirling of the Sixth, however, and Alice Orton in VB, were so
fired with enthusiasm that they later asked and received permission to
perform the same artistic service for their own forms. Lesbia was the
pioneer, however, and won considerable credit for the idea, though she
had the honesty to tell everybody that the original suggestion was
Marion's.

Of course, the first and most thrilling step was to choose a good
design. Both Lesbia and Miss Joyce decided that it ought to be original,
and that they would evolve it between them.

"I have all sorts of sketches at my studio that would be helpful," said
Miss Joyce. "Suppose you come back with me one day after school, and
we'll look them over."

"Oh, may I?" said Lesbia, delighted. "Thanks immensely."

So on the following Thursday at four o'clock, in