ill. Wasn't it jolly of
Finny to put them right in the front row of the gallery?'

Her companions forgot Margaret for a minute or two in their efforts to
stand on tiptoe and catch a glimpse through the open door of Barbara
Berkeley's five brothers. The various relatives who came to the
break-up parties, and never seemed to exist at any other time except on
letter-writing days, always caused a good deal of excitement among
the girls, and added a temporary importance to the most insignificant of
them, provided she was lucky enough to possess a parent or even a cousin
among the visitors.

'They're all mine,' said Babs, glowing with the joy of possession. 'I'll
introduce them to you at supper, if you like.'

'I'm rather glad I haven't any one belonging to me here,' said Jean,
cheating herself into a brief forgetfulness of the little home in
Edinburgh. 'I'm so frightened of the introducing part; I never know
what to say, and it makes me feel such a goat.'

'Oh,' said Mary Wells, placidly; 'how funny of you, Jean. I always say,
"Here's my sister, and this is Charlotte Bigley." That's quite easy,
surely.'

'Yes, but it isn't right,' responded Jean, frankly. 'You should hear
Margaret Hulme do it--that's something like! It reminds you of mothers,
and callers, and At Home days when you wear your best frock and hand
the scones.'

Their talk was interrupted by the retirement from the gymnasium of the
senior division. Margaret marched into the anteroom, with her eyes
staring straight in front of her, and an exaggerated air of confidence in
her bearing. There was an obvious lack of enthusiasm among her followers,
who were all whispering and looking significantly at their leader; but
the noise produced by Scales, who seemed to think that a Beethoven sonata
was an appropriate solo to play in the interval, made conversation
impossible; and the section that was to do the horizontal bar, led by
Ruth Oliver, returned to the gymnasium before the juniors were able to
satisfy their curiosity. During the second event of the competition,
Margaret and the vaulting-horse section exchanged very few remarks, and
the feeling that there was something unusual in the air had considerably
increased by the time Ruth, looking flushed and totally unlike herself,
marched her section back again. The rumour ran down the junior file that
Ruth Oliver had been distinguishing herself, and that as much of the
clapping as Scales allowed to be heard was on he