d a cosy tea laid ready on the oak
table. After the storms and whirlwinds of school, home seemed such a
haven of refuge, and Aunt Barbara--who always understood--so utterly
different a personality from Miss Tempest.

"I'm cross and horrid and disagreeable and altogether fractious,
Auntie!" she said, squatting on the hearthrug after tea, with one of the
dear hands squeezed in hers, while she poured out her accumulation of
troubles. "I've got to keep that promise, but I can't do it with any
good grace, and I still feel that Miss Tempest was unjust, because
nobody had ever said we mightn't leave the Coll. in dinner-time. And I'm
barred the gym. It's too disgusting, because it puts me out of all
rehearsals, and I shall have to give up my part in the act."

"Poor old sweetheart, you've certainly been in the wars to-day! But
honestly, don't you think it is just the least little scrap your own
fault? I fancy at the bottom you knew that dinner girls aren't expected
to run out into the town whenever they like, even to look at
weddings--and it wasn't justifiable to speak rudely to Miss Tempest, was
it?"

Dorothy stared hard at the fire.

"No; I suppose I was cheeky. Auntie, when I'm at school and things are
horrid, I just flare up and explode--I can't help it. I'm quite
different at home. I wish I had lessons with you again, like I did when
I was a little girl. I'd be far nicer."

"A soldier isn't good for very much until he's tried, is he? School is
your battlefield at present, and the temper is the enemy. Won't you be a
Red Cross Knight, and ride out to do full and fair fight with it? It's
as ugly a dragon as ever attacked St. George."

"And a great deal harder to conquer, because every time I kill it, it
comes to life again, ready for another go at me. There, Auntie! yes,
I'll make a try; but I know I shall do lots more hateful things--I
always do!"

CHAPTER VII

Alison's Home

Dorothy was ready enough at making good resolutions--the difficulty
always lay in keeping them when they were made. At night in bed it would
seem fairly simple to practise patience, forbearance, charity, humility,
and many kindred virtues, yet the very next morning she would come down
to breakfast with a frown that caused Aunt Barbara to sigh. Full of high
ideals, she would dream over stories of courage and fortitude till she
could believe herself ready to accomplish the most superhuman tasks and
overcome innumerable difficulties. Sh