spense! Six pairs of ears pricked uneasily at the sound of that word;
six hearers seemed to hear in it the knell of a cherished hope. Even
Dreda was awed into silence. The "horrid things" were evidently not yet
finished. What was going to happen next?

CHAPTER THREE.

In the schoolroom the young people flocked together, eager to discuss
the news apart from the restraint of their parents' presence. Round the
great fireplace stood one of those delightful fenders whose top is
formed by a wide-cushioned seat. Hereward pulled it forcibly back, with
a fine disregard of cinders, until it was sufficiently distant from the
blaze to be comfortable, when the six young people seated themselves and
prepared to talk in comfort. They made a pretty picture as the leaping
flame lighted up their fair blond faces, but for the moment the general
expression was far from cheerful. The twins were all eyes and gaping
mouths, devoured with curiosity to hear what their elders might have to
say with regard to the thrilling intelligence just given; the two
schoolboys looked cross and thundery, and it was difficult to say which
was the more exasperating to beholders--Rowena's angry frown or Dreda's
artificial smiles.

Gurth stamped a smoking cinder into the hearthrug, taking a malicious
pleasure in the scorch and smell which ensued. He was never too
patient, and this afternoon he felt that he had reached the end of his
tether.

"Oh, chuck it, Rowena!" he cried savagely. "What's the use of sitting
there looking like a tragedy queen? A jolly example _you_ set, for the
eldest of a family. You look as if the whole thing was got up on
purpose to annoy you, and nobody had a right to be pitied except your
precious self. I don't see it a bit! I think you come off best of all.
Your education is finished, so you're bound to be all right!"

"Education!" echoed Rowena, in the tone of ineffable scorn natural to a
young woman who for months past had been basking in the prospect of a
presentation at court. "Education, indeed! Who cares for education?
If it _is_ finished, what has it all been intended for, pray? To
prepare me for a life which I am not to have! Other girls have the best
time of their lives when they come out. They are taken about to see
everything and do everything which they have longed for all the time
they have been shut up at school. It's no wonder I feel bad at coming
home to find I have only escaped one prison for