tty lips.

The other Flower Girls had been liked very much indeed, but they had
not stirred a certain naughty spirit in the breasts of the girls. They
honestly, all four of them, wanted to learn hard and to repay their
beloved father for all the expense he was put to on their account; but
Hollyhock's was a totally different nature. She had come to school to
lead, and lead she would.

On the afternoon of the first day, Lady Leucha Villiers, who was a
delicate, refined-looking girl, came up to Jasmine. 'Well, what queer
changes have taken place in the school!'

'What do you mean exactly?' replied Jasmine.

'Why, all those nice boys have vanished like smoke.'

'No, they haven't. They are alive and well. They are being taught at
the Annex. It has been considered best.'

Lady Leucha gave a sigh. 'I miss that dear Ivor,' she said, 'and I
also miss your cousin Jasper and that little chap you call Opal; but
what puzzles me most of all is the crowds and crowds of new girls who
have arrived at the school, and the newest of them all is your sister.'

'Yes,' said Barbara Fraser, 'your sister, Jasmine, is very new and very
remarkable. Whyever did she not come with the rest of you last week?'

'She did not wish it,' replied Jasmine. 'Girls, had we not better get
our French ready for Mam'selle?'

'Oh, bother Mam'selle!' said Lady Leucha. 'I am interested in your
sister. Fancy a girl not coming to school because she doesn't wish it.'

'Father never forces any of us,' said Jasmine in her sweet voice.
'Hollyhock began by disliking the school--I mean the idea of it--and
she was a bit lonesome with no one to talk to her, so she came back
with us this morning.'

'Hollyhock,' said Lady Leucha. 'A queer name!'

'Oh, it isn't her real name; it is her home name. Her real name is
Jacqueline.'

'That's much prettier,' said Leucha Villiers. 'Do tell her to come and
sit with us, Jasmine. I shall always call her Jack. I have taken a
great fancy to her.'

'Well, you'd best keep your fancy to yourself,' said Jasmine, 'for no
one _will_, and no one _can_, coerce Hollyhock.'

'Oh, she's not going to lord it over me,' said Lady Leucha. 'Am I not
an earl's daughter?'

'That will have no effect on Hollyhock, I can assure you.'

'Won't it? We'll see. My father has got a glorious mansion, and we
belong to the very greatest nobility in the whole of England. Our
cousins, the Frasers, are the daughters of the Marquis of