ace more
flushed than ever. Miss Todd came and looked at her critically.

"Yes, the rash is coming out very nicely," she observed.

"It's nettle-rash, not measles!" affirmed Diana defiantly.

"That's for the doctor to decide, not you. I'm afraid you must have
caught it the day you went in the omnibus to Glenbury. It takes nearly
a fortnight to incubate."

Diana shivered with anxiety lest Miss Todd should wish to inspect the
progress of the rash on her chest as well as on her face, and thus
discover that she was half clothed beneath her nightdress, but
fortunately the head mistress did not descend so far in her
investigations. Instead, she turned to Diana's drawers, and began
filling a hand-bag with various necessaries. She did not mention the
Fever Hospital, probably judging it better not to prepare the patient
beforehand, but to wait until the ambulance arrived. Diana, of course,
knew why she was collecting the garments, but feigned to ignore the
matter, and made no comment. She wished Miss Todd would be quick and go.
She was so terribly afraid that the ambulance might drive up before she
had the chance to make her escape. Flight seemed certainly preferable to
a struggle.

The mistress at last found a sufficiency of nightdresses and other
garments, and, telling Diana to keep herself covered up and warm, took
her departure.

The moment she was safely out of the way the invalid sprang up and
resumed her interrupted toilet. Diana had suffered from nettle-rash
several times before, and the treatment had not included stopping in bed
or even staying indoors. Her complaint was really more in the nature of
dyspepsia. She felt as if fresh air would do her good. She did not dare
to walk downstairs in case she might meet anybody, so she decided to
adopt the method she had found effective last autumn, and climb out
through the window and down the ivy. Lessons were in progress, so nobody
would be in the garden to watch her, except Miss Carr and Miss Ormrod,
who would probably be engaged with the horse or the hens. She swung
herself out, therefore, and let herself down by the thick stems. Then
she dodged round the house to the bicycle-shed. She did not yet possess
a machine of her own, but Wendy's stood handy, and she knew her chum
well enough to borrow it. She wheeled it through the back gate,
fortunately without meeting Miss Carr, and then set off at top-speed for
Petteridge Court.

Mrs. Burritt was naturally much surpris