ilpin", and made a
horrible mistake in my Christmas piece; but Miss Kaye said I might
tell you that she thought I had done very well, but my report will
come in a day or two, so then you can see everything for yourself."

Sylvia had a particularly happy holiday, and thought she enjoyed home
twice as much with having been away from it for a whole term. Her
father found time to label the specimens in her museum, and to show
her how to develop her photographs and print them afterwards, and her
mother gave up the afternoons specially to be with her. All her
friends came to her New Year's party, and to her astonishment she
found she got on perfectly well with the once-detested Fergusson boys,
who now seemed hardly more lively than Connie or Stella Camden, and
who did not tease her, since, as they described it, "she had left off
putting on airs". Her experiences with the little ones at school made
her quite motherly with Bab and Daisy Carson, and she enjoyed the
games with Effie and May as much as they did.

"You said you wouldn't care to run about when you came back," they
reminded her, "but you play more with us now than you did before."

"I believe Sylvia has learnt it as part of her lessons," said Aunt
Louisa, who looked on with much approval, adding quietly to Mrs.
Lindsay: "The child is immensely improved. She is brighter and
stronger and better in every way. I was sure Miss Kaye would soon work
a change, and I think we may feel that so far our experiment has been
a complete success."

CHAPTER XII

The Secret Society

School re-opened on January 18, and Sylvia found herself driving up to
the well-known door with very different feelings from those she had
experienced on her first arrival there. On the whole she was quite
pleased to be back again, to meet all her friends, and compare notes
about the holidays. There was one change in the third class which,
however it might affect others, seemed to Sylvia a decided
improvement. Hazel Prestbury had left. An aunt residing in Paris had
offered to take her for a time to give her the opportunity of special
study in French and music, and her parents had arranged for her to go
at once, sending Brenda, a younger sister, to Heathercliffe House in
her place. Brenda was a very different child from Hazel, and had soon
sworn eternal friendship with Connie Camden, so that at last Sylvia
felt she had her dear Linda absolutely and entirely to herself.

"I don't know how it