e herself with her schoolfellows; nor were they
anxious to push themselves under her notice. Gabrielle Helm, on the
contrary, claimed acquaintance with Dorothy and Alison, and introduced
her brothers, Percy and Eric, who attended the Coleminster Boys'
College. The young people were keen on golf, and from them Dorothy
received her first lessons on the links, laughing very much over her
mistakes and false strokes, and enjoying every moment of the time. She
had never spent such holidays, or dreamed that they were even possible;
and the days did not seem half or a quarter long enough for all the
delightful things there were to do in them.

"It was good of you to bring me," she said sometimes to Mrs. Longton.

"It's a pleasure to see your bright face, my dear," replied her kind
chaperon. "You're so rosy, your aunt will hardly know you when you
return."

"Dorothy is growing quite pretty," said Gabrielle Helm to Alison. "I
used to think her rather a scrawny-looking girl, but she's suddenly
developed into almost a beauty. Percy said last night he thought her
ripping, and he's a fearful old 'hard-to-please'."

"Yes," said Alison contemplatively, "Dorothy has changed. Of course, her
eyes were always lovely, but her face has filled out lately, and she
does her hair more becomingly. That's made a difference. And that blue
dress suits her. I think she's prettier now than Hope Lawson."

"Hope wouldn't allow that."

"Rather not!" laughed Alison.

Dorothy was indeed having "the time of her life", and very great
happiness is often an aid to good looks. Though she found Mrs. Clarke
rather chilly and distant, she liked Alison's Uncle David immensely.
Sometimes the two girls would accompany him and the doctor on a fishing
expedition, or a walk through the pine woods, where he proved the
pleasantest and most humorous of companions; or, better still, they
would catch him in the half-hour before dinner, decoy him into one of
the small sitting-rooms generally empty at that time in the evening, and
then cajole him into telling some of his experiences in the jungle. To
Dorothy these Indian stories were thrilling; she was never tired of
hearing about tigers and elephants, ruined temples, fakirs, coolies, and
midnight adventures.

"Of course, Uncle David draws the long bow considerably," laughed
Alison. "He expects one to take ten per cent discount off all his
traveller's yarns. But they're very fascinating, even if they're not
true! He