ovely library, and a picture gallery, and ever so many
queer rooms and long passages upstairs," put in Nora Proctor. "I got
quite lost, and couldn't find my way down at first."

"So did I," said Beryl Austen. "I tried to explore a little, but it
looked so dim and dark I didn't dare to go alone, so I turned back. I
thought I might meet a Cavalier or a Roundhead on the landing!"

Beryl was not the only one to whom their new quarters seemed rather
weird and strange on this first evening of their arrival. After being
accustomed to electric light and modern bedrooms, it was a great change
to walk upstairs with candles to antique chambers that might have
belonged to the Middle Ages.

"Don't be silly, girls!" exclaimed Miss Russell indignantly, as they
scurried past the suits of armour in the picture gallery. "I shall not
allow any absurd nonsense of this kind. You have no more to be afraid of
here than you had at Winterburn Lodge. I will take you over the house
to-morrow and show you everything, and when you study the real history
of the place you won't want to concern yourselves with silly
superstitions."

Though the old Manor might look ghostly by night, it wore a bright and
cheerful aspect in the sunshine of next morning, and not even the most
ardent of Cockneys would have wished herself back among streets and
squares. It certainly seemed more interesting to learn lessons sitting
on tall-backed oak chairs at a carved table, than at desks in an
ordinary schoolroom, furnished with maps and blackboard. The teachers
enjoyed it as much as the girls, and everybody had a delightfully
romantic feeling of being transferred to the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

"We oughtn't to have science, or physiology, or anything up-to-date
here," said Cicely, as, in company with the rest of the third form, she
took possession of the panelled parlour that was to be their temporary
classroom.

"No, indeed," said Lindsay. "Girls in those days didn't have half our
work."

"You forget Lady Jane Grey," said Miss Frazer. "In the matter of
knowledge she would easily have put you to shame. If you want her
sixteenth-century studies you will have to begin Greek as well as Latin,
French, Italian, and some Hebrew and Arabic!"

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Lindsay, aghast at such a list of accomplishments.
"I'd rather stick to our own century."

"I thought ladies did nothing but go hunting and hawking then," said
Marjorie Butler. "Did they all know Greek and