a kid, to cure me of sampling bottles in
the surgery."

"Is it nasty?"

"It smells like a defunct rat, so you can imagine the taste."

"Ugh!"

"He doesn't give such bad things to his patients, though. There's some
quite decent stuff in the dispensary, and sometimes the bottles are
coloured pink, especially if they're for girls. I'm going to be a
doctor when I grow up."

"I suppose you'll help your father. Have you any brothers and
sisters?"

"Not a single one."

"Oh, I should think that's rather slow!"

"I don't find it so. There's always plenty to do."

"Do you like North Ditton?"

"Oh, yes, pretty well! It's nicer than Essington, where we lived
before."

"Do you like the Grammar School?"

"Fairly. The chaps are rather a rotten set, and the Head's
unspeakable."

Chatting thus, Gwen found the four miles to North Ditton wonderfully
short ones, but when she had said goodbye to her new friend, and was
trudging along the road to Skelwick by herself, she had time for many
unpleasant reflections. At one blow this afternoon, she had sacrificed
not only all the money in her savings box, but had got into debt as
well--a debt which she had no present prospect of paying. It was most
aggravating to have to empty her private bank; the contents were the
accumulation of several little gifts that had been sent by her uncles
and aunts on her last birthday, and even so far back as last
Christmas. How would she explain, if Beatrice asked what had become of
her money? She groaned as she splashed, recklessly through the puddles
left by the morning's rain. She could foresee many difficulties ahead,
especially at Christmas time.

The family had finished tea when she reached home, and Beatrice, grown
uneasy at her absence, greeted her with upbraidings.

"Where have you been, Gwen? Why didn't you come with the others?
Winnie nearly lost the bus with going back to look for you. You know
quite well you mustn't stay behind like this. Answer me at once! Where
were you?"

"I went along the promenade with Netta Goodwin, then I missed the 5.30
and had to walk all the way home. That's where I've been, and you may
scold as much as you like--I don't care."

"Oh, Gwen!" exclaimed Winnie.

"I don't. I'm not going to be ordered about by Beatrice, and treated
as if I were a baby. I'm surely old enough to manage my own affairs!"

Gwen was tired out with her six-mile tramp, and hungry, and very
miserable, or I think she would not h