anded Dr. Mary, with an
effort to be severe. "Ah! 6 stone 5 lb. is rather a difference. It's
lucky for you I didn't put you on starvation diet to reduce you. Don't
try to be so clever again, or I shall have to perform an operation to
get rid of your cheek!"

Madge, Ruth, and Chatty had sat chuckling with subdued delight during
the interview, and the moment they were out of the room they published
the story abroad, for the edification of the others.

"She thinks of such funny things!" laughed Madge, "things that nobody
else would ever dream of doing."

"I was afraid she'd get into a fearful scrape," confessed Chatty.

"Oh, Dr. Mary Forbes is too jolly to mind!" said Ruth. "She was far
more amused than cross. If it had been Miss Maitland, or Miss
Cavendish, now! But I should imagine that even Honor Fitzgerald would
scarcely dare to play a practical joke upon either of them!"

CHAPTER V

A Riding Lesson

The College had reopened on a Tuesday, so that by her first Sunday
Honor had been at school five days. In her own estimation it seemed
more like five months, but as she had left home on 24th April, and the
Shakespeare calendar in the recreation room (a leaf of which was torn
off punctually each morning by the monitress) only recorded 29th April,
she was obliged reluctantly to acknowledge the evidence of the almanac,
and realized that twelve whole weeks must intervene before the joyful
termination of what she considered her banishment from Erin.

Sundays were made very pleasant at Chessington. In the morning the
girls attended the parish church at Dunscar. In the afternoon they
might read, or stroll about the grounds where they pleased, an
indulgence not permitted on weekdays. During the summer term they were
allowed to carry their four-o'clock tea into the garden. All was laid
ready by the servants in the dining-hall, and each girl might pour out
her own cup, and, taking what bread and butter she wished, retire with
a few select companions to some nook under the trees, or a seat in an
ivy-covered arbour.

From half-past four to half-past five was "silence hour", which
everyone was required to devote to reading from a special library of
books carefully chosen for the purpose by Miss Cavendish.

"I won't call them Sunday books," she sometimes said, "because I
consider our religion would be a very poor thing if it were only kept
for one day in the week. What we learn in this quiet time we must apply
in ou