done to rouse Miss
Norah to her usual composure. The saucy little nose was tilted into the
air at once, and the red lips curled in scornful fashion.

"I wonder how it is that schoolboys are always so rude and unpleasant?"

Mr Rex laughed, and gave the horse a flick with the whip, which sent
him spinning round the corner at break-neck speed. Norah understood
that he was proud of his driving, and wished to impress her with the
fact that it was very unlike a schoolboy performance. She pressed her
lips together to stifle an exclamation of dismay at his recklessness,
and her silence pleased Rex, who liked to see "a girl with some
courage," so that presently he began to talk in quite a confidential
strain. "The professor will be at the house about half-past two, so you
won't have too much time to spare. He is a tall, lanky fellow, six feet
two, with a straggling black beard, goggle eyes, and spectacles. He
looks awfully bad-tempered, but I suppose he can't do more than rap your
knuckles with a pencil, and they all go as far as that."

"No one ever rapped my knuckles," said Norah loftily. "You told Hilary
a few minutes ago that none of you had seen him, and that your mother
had engaged him entirely on her friends' recommendation. So you can't
know what he is like, or anything about him!"

"How do you know that the friends did not describe him?" cried Rex
quickly. "You can't know what they said. I tell you he is a tall,
cadaverous fellow, with a stoop in his back and a white beard."

"Black! black! You said black last time," cried Norah in triumph. "You
are making it up, and I could imagine what he is like as well as you, if
I liked, but I won't, because it is so horribly uncomfortable when you
really meet. I tried that trick with Lettice once, when a friend of
Miss Briggs came to visit us. She was a very nice old lady, and awfully
kind (she made me a sweet little pin-cushion for my room), but she _was_
ugly! She looked just like a fat, good-natured frog, with light eyes
very far apart, big, big freckles spotted over her face, and such a
great, wide mouth. Well, I saw her first, and then I went upstairs, and
Lettice met me and asked me what she was like. I felt mischievous, so I
said that she was dark, and tall, and stately, with a long, thin face,
and beautiful, melancholy eyes. Lettice went rushing downstairs, and
when she saw her she stopped quite short, and began to choke and gurgle
as if she were goi