would have fallen out had her fictions
been fact, her ascetic hero the impetuous lover she had made of
him.--In other words, lying prostrate on the sand, Laura went on with
her story.

When, towards the end of the third week, she and Pin were summoned to
spend some days with Godmother, she had acquired such a gusto for this
occupation, that she preferred to shirk reality, and let Pin pay the
visit alone.

XX.

WIE SOLLTE EIN STROM NICHT ENDLICH DEN WEG ZUM MEERE FINDEN!

NIETZSCHE

Sea, sun and air did their healing work, as did also the long, idle
days in the home garden; and Laura drank in health and vigour with
every breath.

She had need of it all when, the golden holidays over, she returned to
school; for the half-year that broke was, in many ways, the most trying
she had yet had to face. True, her dupes' first virulence had
waned--they no longer lashed her openly with their tongues--but the
quiet, covert insults, that were now the rule, were every bit as hard
to bear; and before a week had passed Laura was telling herself that,
had she been a Christian Martyr, she would have preferred to be torn
asunder with one jerk, rather than submit to the thumbkin. Not an eye
but looked askance at her; on every face was painted a reminder of her
moral inferiority; and even newcomers among the boarders soon learnt,
without always knowing what her crime had been, that Laura Rambotham
was "not the thing".

This system of slight and disparagement was similar to what she had had
to endure in her first school term; but its effect upon her was
different. Then, in her raw timidity, she had bowed her head beneath
it; now, she could not be so lamb-like. In thought, she never ceased to
lay half the blame of what had happened on her companions' shoulders;
and she was embittered by their injustice in making her alone
responsible, when all she had done was to yield to their craving for
romance. She became a rebel, wrapping herself round in the cloak of
bitterness which the outcasts of fortune wear, feeding on her hate of
those within the pale. Very well then, she said to herself: if her
fellows chose to shut her out like this, she would stop outside, and
never see eye to eye with them again. And it gave her an unholy
pleasure to mock, in secret, at all they set store by.

Her outward behaviour for many a day was, none the less, that of a
footlicker; and by no sign did she indicate what she really was--a very
unhappy g