cided Gowan.
"Pick a bunch of early violets if you can find them, lay them on her
study table, talk about flowers and nature for a little while, then ask
if we may have a quiet little party in our bedroom to-morrow afternoon,
with cakes at our own expense."

"Quiet?" queried Lilias.

"Well, of course you couldn't call it rowdy, could you? We'll send you
to do the asking. Those dimples of yours generally get what you want,
and on the whole I think you're the pattern one of us, and the most
likely to be listened to."

Tea at Chilcombe Hall was a quite informal meal. It partook, indeed more
of the nature of a canteen. The urns were what the girls called "on tap"
from four to four-thirty, and during summer any one might take cup,
saucer, and plate into the garden, provided she duly brought them back
afterwards to the dining-hall. Special permission for a bedroom feast
was therefore not very difficult to obtain, and Lilias returned from her
interview in the study with her dimples conspicuously in evidence.

"Well?" asked the interested circle in the Blue bedroom.

"Sweet as honey!" reported Lilias. "She said 'Certainly, my dear!' We
may each ask one friend, and we may spend two shillings amongst us on
cakes, if we give the money and the list of what we want to Jones this
afternoon, because he's going into Glazebrook first thing to-morrow
morning."

"Only two shillings!" commented Gowan.

"It will go no way!" pouted Bertha.

"Well, I can't help it. Miss Walters said 'Two shillings' most
emphatically."

"You might have stuck out for more! Those iced cakes are always half a
crown!"

"I didn't dare to stick out for anything. I was so afraid she'd change
her mind, and say 'There's good plain home-made cake with your
schoolroom tea, and you must be content with that,' like she did to Nona
and Muriel."

"We could get twelve twopenny cakes for two shillings," calculated
Dulcie; "but if there are eight of us, that's only one and a half
apiece."

"Best get eight twopenny iced cakes, and eight penny buns," suggested
Bertha, taking pencil and paper to write the important order.

"Right-o! Only be sure you put _pink_ iced cakes, they are so much the
nicest."

"Whom shall we ask? It won't be much of a beano on two shillings. Still,
they'll be keen on coming, I expect."

Noreen, Phillida, Prissie, and Edith, the four finally selected
favorites, accepted the invitation with alacrity. Bedroom tea-parties
were indulgence