d English appellations from a beautiful glade, planted with
oaks, which formed the southern boundary of the property. Through this
park-like dell flowed a mountain stream, tumbling in little white
cascades between the big boulders that formed its bed, and pouring in
quite a waterfall over a ledge of rock into a wide pool. Its steady
rippling murmur never stopped, and could be heard day and night through
the ever-open windows, gentle and subdued in dry weather, but rising to
a roar when rain in the hills brought the flood down in a turbulent
torrent.

Through lessons, play, or dreams this sound of many waters was ever
present; it gave an atmosphere to the school which, if passed unnoticed
through extreme familiarity, would have been instantly missed if it
could have stopped. To the girls this stream was a kind of guardian
deity, with the glade for its sacred grove. They loved every rock and
stone and cataract, almost every patch of brown moss upon its boulders.
Each morning of the summer term they bathed before breakfast in the pool
where a big oak-tree shaded the cataract. It was so close to the house
that they could run out in mackintoshes, and so retired that it
resembled a private swimming-bath. Here they enjoyed themselves like
water-nymphs, splashing in the shallows, plunging in the pool, swinging
from the boughs of the oak-tree, and scrambling over the lichened
boulders. It was a source of deep regret to the hardier spirits that
they were not allowed to take their morning dip in the stream all the
year round; but on that score mistresses were adamant, and with the
close of September the naiads perforce withdrew from their favourite
element till it was warmed again by the May sunshine.

The house itself had originally been an ancient Welsh dwelling of the
days of the Tudors, but had been largely added to in later times. The
straight front, with its rows of windows, classic doorway, and
stone-balustraded terrace, was certainly Georgian in type, and the
tower, an architectural eyesore, was plainly Victorian. The taste of the
early nineteenth century had not been faultless, and all the best part
of the building, from an artistic point of view, lay at the back. This
mainly consisted of kitchens and servants' quarters, but there still
remained a large hall, which was the chief glory of the establishment.
It was very lofty, for in common with other specimens of the period it
had no upper story, the roof being timbered l