ng tied round its waist--all
the dwarf roses in bloom--hardly any strawberries--we shall see you
soon--everybody sends."

Miriam got up and swung the half-read letter above her head like a
dumb-bell.

She looked about her like a stranger--everything was as it had been
the day she came--the little cramped basement hall--the strange German
girls--small and old looking, poking about amongst the baskets. She
hardly knew them. She passed half-blindly amongst them with her eyes
wide. The little dressing-room seemed full of bright light. She saw
everyone at once clearly. All the English girls were there. She knew
every line of each of them. They were her old friends. They knew her.
Looking at none of them she felt she embraced them all, closely, and
that they knew it. They shone. They were beautiful. She wanted to cry
aloud. She was English and free. She had nothing to do with this German
school. Baskets at her feet made her pick her way. Solomon was kneeling
at one, sorting and handing out. At a little table under the window
Millie stood jotting pencil notes on a pocket-book. Judy was at her
side. The others were grouped about the piano. Gertrude sat on the
keyboard her legs dangling.

Miriam plumped down on a full basket.

"Hullo, Hendy, old chap, _you_ look all right!"

Miriam looked fearlessly up at the faces that were turned towards her.
Again she seemed to see all of them at once. The circle of her vision
seemed huge. It was as if the confining rim of her glasses were gone
and she saw equally from eyes that seemed to fill her face. She drew all
their eyes to her. They were waiting for her to speak. For a moment it
seemed as if they stood there lifeless. She had drawn all their meaning
and all their happiness into herself. She could do as she wished with
them--their poor little lives.

They stood waiting for some word from her. She dropped her eyes and
caught the flash of Gertrude's swinging steel buckles.

"Wasn't Fraulein angry?" she said carelessly.

Someone pushed the door to.

"Sly old bird."

"Fancy imagining we shouldn't see through Mademoiselle leaving."

"H'm," said Miriam.

"I knew Mademoiselle _would_ sneak if she had half a chance."

"Yes, ever since she got so thick with Elsa."

"Oh!--Elsa."

"You bet Fraulein looks down on the two of them in her heart of hearts."

"M'm--she's fairly sick, Jemima, with the lot of us this time."

"Mademoiselle told her some pretty things," laughed Gertrud