lls'-
eyes or something. I'd be grateful to you as long as I live."

Dicky looked at me anxiously--evidently concerned for my health. But a
jerk of my head in the direction of the two little vixens, who were just
then trying to pull a solemn-looking day boy off one of the chairs by
main force, satisfied him that the case was an urgent one, and, like a
brick, he flew off to the rescue.

The solemn day boy stood his persecution as long as he could, and then
rounded sharply on his persecutors.

"Bother you, go away!" he growled.

Whereupon in floods of tears, the Misses Redwood made for me, and
insisted on being taken up one on each knee and "cosseted" because of
what the big ugly boy had done.

I complied with the energy of despair, conscious that in so doing I was
allowing the reserved seats one by one to be usurped, and was at the
same time rendering myself a spectacle of contempt to at least eight
young persons, whom, in the gap left between the two wet faces which
clung to my either cheek, I could see advancing in a body, clad in
running drawers and blazers, in our direction.

It was vain for me to try to escape from my false position. The nearer
the Philosophers approached, the more maudlin and effusive these
unprincipled young females became, flinging their arms tragically round
my neck, and bedaubing my face with their dewy kisses.

"Sarah _can_ go it a bit when he likes," said Langrish, with a cheerful
guffaw, standing in a conspicuous place, and calling public attention to
me in a way which only added to my sorrows.

"Rather. I wondered why he went down so early," said Coxhead.

"Birds of a feather," said the sententious Trimble, "play the fool
together. I say, what about our seats, though?"

"They are bagged," said I, getting my face clear for a moment. "I
couldn't keep them."

"I dare say. You mean you were so busy spooning about with girls you
never thought of it. All right, Miss Molly," said Warminster.

"I think we could squash up a bit here," said I meekly.

"Looks as if _you_ could," said Langrish. "Squash away then." And, to
the wrath and indignation of the whole stand, the Philosophers crowded
in, in a solid phalanx, and proceeded to accommodate their eight persons
in the space usually allotted to two. It took some time for the other
seat-holders to appreciate the humour of the manoeuvre, and before then
the bell had rung for the first race, and Dicky had returned with the
bran