lices of bread and butter
to take with her.

"It's a tidy step for a young lady like you, and a-going quite alone
too," said the woman, eyeing Honor keenly as she led her round the side
of the cottage, to point out the right path. "You've come from over by
Dunscar, I take it?"

"Oh, I'm a good walker!" replied Honor, who did not wish to encourage
enquiries. "I shall soon get along. Thank you for coming so far with
me."

"You're welcome," said the woman. "I hope you'll keep the path, and
reach there safe; but if you'll take my advice, you'll turn round the
other way and go straight back to school. You'd just get there by
tea-time."

Honor started at this parting remark, and hurried on as fast as she
could. How did the woman guess she had run away from the College? Of
course!--she had forgotten her hat. Everyone in the neighbourhood of
Chessington knew the unmistakable "sailors", with their coloured
ribbons and badges. She might have remembered they would easily be
recognized, and blamed her own stupidity and lack of forethought. She
hoped no message would be sent to Miss Cavendish, and looked round
carefully to see if she were being followed. Yes, she could certainly
see the woman now, calling a boy from a field, and pointing eagerly in
her direction. They would perhaps try to take her back against her
will, and she would be marched ignominiously, like a prisoner, to St.
Chad's.

"That they shall never do!" she thought, and choosing a moment when the
pair were passing round the front of the house, she turned from the
path and scrambled up the bed of a small stream on to the hills again.
She decided that so long as she knew the right points of the compass,
it would be quite easy to find her way, as she could walk in a line
with the path, only higher up on the moor, where she would be neither
seen nor followed. She flung her hat away, determined that it should
not betray her again; and, on the whole, she liked to have her head
bare, the wind felt so fresh and pleasant blowing through her hair. For
a while she went on briskly, then, coming across a spring, which rose
clear and bubbling through the grass and sedges, she took off her shoes
and stockings, and sat dabbling her feet in the water, watching a pair
of dragon flies, and plaiting rings from the rushes that grew around.

She stayed there so long that when she happened to look at her watch
she was startled to find it was nearly half-past four.

"I must push o