thing! I wish I'd asked Father to send me to a
boarding-school. I'm sick of The Gables!"

Patsie, whose shoe-lace was now triumphantly mended, chuckled softly.

"Poor old Gables!" she remarked. "I don't know that you'd find a 'better
hole' so easily. It's a very decent kind of school. _I_ intend to have
some fun here this term, if _you_ don't. When's that rhythmic dancing
that Kingie talked about going to begin? I saw some in London, and I'm
just wild to do it. This is how it goes!"

And Patsie, flinging out her arms and swaying from side to side, made a
series of most extraordinary gyrations. Vivien and Dorothy burst out
laughing.

"If _that's_ what you call rhythmic dancing, give me the good
old-fashioned sort!" hinnied Vivien. "You look about as graceful as an
elephant!"

"And as jerky as a wound-up waxwork!" declared Dorothy
uncomplimentarily.

"Well, of course, the movements are done to music; they look quite
different when you've got a sort of classic Greek dress on, and
somebody's playing a study by Chaminade or Debussy."

"It would need very good music indeed to make _those_ antics look
anything! I fancy you'll shine more at hockey, Patsie. I wonder what's
going to happen to the team. I can't fancy Lorraine taking Lily
Anderson's place. It'll be a let-down all round this term with
Lorraine----"

"Sh, 'sh! Here's Lorraine herself!"

"Then I'm off! Come along, Dorothy!"

Vivien rammed her hat on anyhow, seized her pile of new books, and
bolted from the cloak-room almost as her cousin entered. Patsie,
following more leisurely, stopped en route to give the new head girl a
hearty smack on the back.

"Cheero, Lorraine!" she remarked. "Just at the moment you look like
Atlas shouldering the heavens. Haven't you got over the shock of the
announcement yet? Did Kingie spring it on you all at once? Or had she
prepared you beforehand for your laurels?"

"As a matter of fact, she sent for me yesterday and told me," smiled
Lorraine.

"And I suppose, like Julius Caesar, you waved away the crown? Or was it
Oliver Cromwell, by the by? My history's always shaky!"

"Well, I felt inclined to have a few dozen fits, certainly!"

"I don't say it's exactly a cushy post, but you're a lucker all the
same! Old Dolly and the Duchess would have liked to butt in, I can tell
you. They're absolutely green, the pair of them!"

Lorraine's face clouded.

"I was afraid Vivien would be disappointed. She thought--and so did
I-