ver, and there was
nothing more to see, she fell back in her seat with an audible sigh.

It was too late after this for the winding of the snaky line about the
streets and parks of East Melbourne, which constituted the boarders'
daily exercise. They were despatched to stretch their legs in the
garden. Here, as they walked round lawns and tennis-courts, they
discussed the main event of the afternoon, and were a little more
vociferous than usual, in an attempt to shake off the remembrance of a
very unpleasant half-hour.

"I bet you Sandy rather enjoyed kicking up that shindy."

"DID you see Puggy's boots again? Girls, he MUST take twelves!"

"And that old blubber of a Ziely's handkerchief! It was filthy. I told
you yesterday I was sure she never washed her neck."

Bertha, whose tears had dried as rapidly as sea-spray, gave Laura a dig
in the ribs. "What's up with you, old Tweedledum? You're as glum as a
lubra."

"No, I'm not."

"It's my belief that Laura was sorry for that pig," threw in Tilly.

"Indeed I wasn't!" said Laura indignantly.

"Sorry for a thief?"

"I tell you I WASN'T!"--and this was true. Among the divers feelings
Laura had experienced that afternoon, pity had not been included.

"If you want to be chums with such a mangy beast, you'd better go to
school in a lock-up."

"I don't know what my father'd say, if he knew I'd been in the same
class as a pickpocket," said the daughter of a minister from Brisbane.
"I guess he wouldn't have let me stop here a week."

Laura went one better. "My mother wouldn't have let me stop a day."

Those standing by laughed, and a girl from the Riverina said: "Oh, no,
of course not!" in a tone that made Laura wince and regret her
readiness.

Before tea, she had to practise. The piano stood in an outside
classroom, where no one could hear whether she was diligent or idle,
and she soon gave up playing and went to the window. Here, having
dusted the gritty sill with her petticoat, she leaned her chin on her
two palms and stared out into the sunbaked garden. It was empty now,
and very still. The streets that lay behind the high palings were
deserted in the drowsy heat; the only sound to be heard was a gentle
tinkling to vespers in the neighbouring Catholic Seminary. Leaning thus
on her elbows, and balancing herself first on her heels, then on her
toes, Laura went on, in desultory fashion, with the thoughts that had
been set in motion during the afternoon. She wonder