ir scorn stood at the farther end of the wire-net
fence: all five fingers of her right hand were thrust through the holes
of the netting, and held oddly and unconsciously outspread; she stood
on one leg, and with her other foot rubbed up and down behind her
ankle; mouth and brow were sullen, her black eyes bent wrathfully on
her faithless friend.

"A regular moon-calf!" said Cupid, looking up from THE TEMPEST, which
was balanced breast-high on the narrow wooden top of the fence.

"Mark my words, that child'll be plucked in her 'tests'," observed M. P.

"Serve her right, say I, for playing the billy-ass," returned Cupid,
and killed a giant mosquito with such a whack that her wrist was
stained with its blood. "Ugh, you brute! ... gorging yourself on me.
But I'm dashed if I know how Evelyn can be bothered to have her always
dangling round."

"She's a cipher," repeated Mary, in so judicial a tone that it closed
the conversation.

Laura, not altogether blind to externals, saw that her companions made
fun of her. But at the present pass, the strength of her feelings quite
out-ran her capacity for self-control; she was unable to disguise what
she felt, and though it made her the laughing-stock of the school. What
scheme was the birdlike Lolo hatching against her? Why did Evelyn not
come back?--these were the thoughts that buzzed round inside her head,
as the mosquitoes buzzed outside.--And meanwhile the familiar, foolish
noises of the garden at evening knocked at her ear. On the other side
of the hedge a batch of third-form girls were whispering, with choked
laughter, a doggerel rhyme which was hard to say, and which meant
something quite different did the tongue trip over a certain letter. Of
two girls who were playing tennis in half-hearted fashion, the one next
Laura said 'Oh, damn!' every time she missed a ball. And over the
parched, dusty grass the hot wind blew, carrying with it, from the
kitchens, a smell of cabbage, of fried onions, of greasy dish-water.

Then Evelyn returned, and a part, a part only of the cloud lifted from
Laura's brow.

"What did she want?"

"Oh, nothing much."

"Then you're not going to tell me?"

I can't.

"What business has she to have secrets with you?" said Laura furiously.
And for a full round of the garden she did not open her lips.

Her companions were not alone in eyeing this lopsided friendship with
an amused curiosity. The governesses also smiled at it, and were
surprised