book so badly."

"Poor old Cuckoo! I understand. I'll order it at once at Smith's."

"You don't think me greedy?"

"Not a bit of it! I wish I'd known about the calendar. There, wipe your
eyes, and go back to your own bed. It's striking ten, and you ought to
have been asleep an hour ago!"

CHAPTER X

A Sinister Incident

'Twixt home and The Gables, Lorraine found her life that autumn a very
busy one. As head girl, the demands made on her time were considerable.
She sometimes thought it would have been easier to be at a boarding
school, where her whole energies could have been focused upon school
matters; private interests, though very enthralling, were certainly a
hindrance. And there were so many of them--her painting lessons and
delightful intimacy with Margaret Lindsay, and the rich art world that
had thereby opened its doors to her; an increasing friendship with
Morland Castleton, whose musical genius spurred her on to fresh efforts
at her violin; her affection for Claudia and for the rest of the merry
crew of the Castleton family; to say nothing of the dear home people who
claimed her attention: Richard and Donald fighting in France, Rodney
making his first flights in the Air Force, Rosemary hard at work in the
college of music, and writing ecstatic weekly budgets of her
experiences, Mervyn with his fun and nonsense and gossip from the
Grammar School, and Monica, who was the spoilt darling of the family.

Whatever her faults, Lorraine possessed to the full that intense zest of
life that the French call "using up one's heart". It is a gift
that--thank God!--the war has given to most of our British girlhood. The
old, fashionable attitude of boredom, that at one time spread like a
blight over certain classes of society, is happily passing away, purged
by the common need of sacrifice. It is incredible that at one time girls
could exist in this world, possessed of eyes and ears, and pass by the
touching, dramatic, joyous human comedy as though they were blind and
deaf. All the things we learn at school are of no value to us unless
with them we learn to love life--life in all its aspects of joy and
sorrow, laughter and tears, work and pleasure.

There was so much going on at The Gables, both in lessons and games. The
hockey season had begun, and every Wednesday afternoon the school played
in a field on the cliffs which they rented; under the coaching of Miss
Paget, a new mistress, the teams were improvin