about their own concerns.

"Well, you'll get off sometime, I suppose," returned Edith airily.
"There are twelve of us, all going together as far as Colminster. We
mean to cram into one carriage if we can. Don't suppose the train will
be full, as it's so early. I thought you were coming with us, Bertha,
but Miss Hardy says you're not!"

"Dad changed his mind at the last minute, and promised to send the car
to fetch me. It's only forty miles by road, you know, though it takes
hours by the train. He seemed to think I should lose either myself or my
luggage at Sheasby Junction, and it is a horrid place to change. You
never can get hold of a porter, and you don't know which platform you'll
start from."

"How are you going home, Lilias?" asked Noreen, who with several other
girls had joined the group at the fire.

Lilias, squatting on the fender, stretching two cold hands towards the
blazing sticks, looked up brightly.

"We're riding! Astley and Elton are to fetch Rajah and Peri over for us.
Grandfather said they needed exercise. I don't suppose he'd have thought
of it, only Dulcie wrote to Cousin Clare and begged her to ask him.
Won't it be just splendiferous? We haven't had a ride the whole term,
and I'm pining to see Rajah!"

"Grandfather had promised to let us ride to school in September," put in
Dulcie, "but Everard and a friend of his commandeered the horses and
went to Rasebury, so we couldn't have them, and we were so disappointed.
I do hope nothing will happen to stop them this time! Everard was to
arrive home yesterday, so he'll be before us. I shan't ever be friends
with him again if he plays us such a mean trick!"

"It's 'coach--carriage--wheelbarrow--truck,' it seems to me, the way
we're all trotting home!" laughed Edith. "If I could have my choice, I'd
sprint on a scooter!"

"Next term we'll travel by private aeroplane, specially chartered!"
scoffed Noreen.

"I don't mind how I go, so long as I get off somehow!" chirped Truie.
"Thank goodness, here come the urns at last! I began to think breakfast
would never be ready. We want to have time to eat something before we
start."

Miss Walters' excellent arrangements had left ample time for the healthy
young appetites to be satisfied before the taxis arrived at the door to
convey the first contingent of pupils to the station. Sixteen girls,
under the escort of a mistress, took their departure in the highest of
spirits, packed as tightly as sardines, but