Lesbia. You've been
here longer than anybody else, and it seems a pity you can't go through
the Sixth. We shall miss you very much, and we hope you'll accept this
good-bye present from us."

She handed Lesbia a beautiful leather dispatch case, with the initials
L. F. stamped upon it in gold.

Lesbia received it with amazement. She had never expected any present,
and the magnificence of this almost took her breath away.

"It's too good of you! I really don't know how to thank you all," she
stammered.

"We thought it might be useful on the journey," explained Theodora.
"It's nice when you're travelling to have a few things always handy."

"I shall value it immensely, for its own sake, and because you all gave
it to me," said Lesbia.

Then began the good-byes. The girls crowded round her, and wished her
well, and asked her to write, and not to forget her old school.

"I don't know who's to finish the stencilling in VA," said Kathleen
Wilcox.

"I wish you could have heard the song-drama before you went," mourned
Aldora Dodson.

"It's the biggest shame in the world that you're going, I shall always
say they oughtn't to have taken you," declared Marion, throwing her arm
around Lesbia's shoulder as they left the gymnasium.

The last evening in the old home was a forlorn experience even to Paul
and Minnie, who had bright hopes for the future. Lesbia lay awake for
hours crying, and woke with a nervous headache. She had packed a few
clothes, brush and comb, and some other necessaries, in her new dispatch
case, for they were to spend the night at a hotel in Liverpool, and go
on board the _Roumania_ on the following morning. Nurse had stayed till
the last, to help with the preparations. She wept as she put her little
charges into the taxi.

"God bless you! I almost wish I was going with you," she murmured,
mopping her eyes.

The whole family looked solemn as they drove through the city, but the
bustle of the railway station restored their spirits. Lesbia had to
cling on to Bunty with one hand, and to hold her dispatch case with the
other. When they were settled in a compartment and the train had
started, she felt that her last link with Kingfield was severed. What
would happen in her unknown future she could not tell.

It was a long journey to Liverpool, and the children were sleepy and
cross before they at last reached the busy station and drove through
the lighted streets to their hotel. The manageress had made