an sat Hilary, and the two girls had seemingly a great
deal to say to each other, for though now and again they joined in the
general conversation, for the most part they talked together in
undertones audible to themselves alone. Hilary's face was a pale likeness
of Maud's. Her eyes were not so blue, nor was her complexion so tanned as
her sister's, and though her features resembled Maud's sufficiently
closely to cause them to be easily recognised as sisters, Hilary's face
lacked the look of sparkling vivacity which made Maud's face so
attractive. On the other side of Hilary and next to Maud sat Jack, with
his brother Noel, the other naval cadet, facing him. Then came Nancy, the
girl who had offered Margaret chocolates and advice the previous evening,
and when she caught Margaret's eyes now she smiled and nodded as much as
to say she quite understood the latter's desire to find out what they
were all like.

Nancy was not the only person who had noted the way in which Margaret's
eyes had been travelling round the table, for when the turn of the boy
next to her came to be inspected, she was startled to hear Geoffrey on
the other side of her say:--

"Don't waste time on him, Miss Carson. He's not worth it, I assure you;
that's only Edward--Silly Ned as we call him. You must call him that too;
he never answers to any other name."

"Oh!" said Margaret, glancing with some apprehension at the small boy on
her left as though she feared that he might think she was really going to
call him anything of the sort.

Though he, too, was unmistakably a Danvers, he was more like Hilary than
any of the others. He was a small, thin, delicate-looking boy, and he
wore spectacles.

"Yes, we call him Silly Ned because he has all the brains of the family.
He looks a mere child, doesn't he? But he's a sixth form boy at his
college, and he got a Mathematical Exhibition last term. He's also a
brilliant member of the cricket eleven. We try to take him down a peg or
two in the holidays, but it isn't much good. His prizes and his cricket
combined have made him too big for his boots. A nice little boy ruined,
that's what he is."

"Oh, shut up, Geoffrey," Edward said; "sarcasm isn't really your line,
you know."

"Meaning that it is his, or one of his," commented Geoffrey; "you see for
yourself what a bumptious babe it is, Miss Carson. Well, and now that you
have taken silent stock of us all, won't you tell us what you think of
us? But answer