trenches. When the excitement of
choosing her a wedding present was over, matters seemed to settle down
pretty much as before. Except in an increased anxiety for news from the
front, Mrs. Gifford had differed in no degree from Miss Housman. To the
school the Major was a mere abstraction; his leave had always occurred
during the holidays, and up to this time his existence--apart from the
element of romance with which it invested their head mistress--had not
affected the atmosphere of Pendlemere in the least. It had occasionally
occurred to some of the girls to question what would happen when the war
was over, but they generally ended by deciding: "He'll have to come and
live here, I suppose, and turn the junior room into a smoke-room". Some
of the more imaginative had even ventured the suggestion that he might
teach drilling and Latin. It never struck any of them that instead of
settling down at the school he would want to whisk away his bride to the
other side of the world. The unexpected had happened, however. Pretty
Mrs. Gifford had decided that the claims of matrimony outweighed all
consideration for her pupils, and had gone without even a good-bye,
leaving Miss Todd to reign in her stead.

There was no doubt that Miss Todd was admirably fitted to fill the post.
Possibly, unknown to the girls, she had been gravitating towards it ever
since her principal's hasty war wedding. Certainly she was ready, with
the utmost calm, to take over the school at the critical moment, and
transfer the connection from Mrs. Gifford's name to her own. She was a
woman of decided character, at her prime intellectually and physically,
tremendously interested in reconstruction problems, and longing to try
some educational experiments. So far, her ambitious schemes had been
much hampered by her Head. Mrs. Gifford, pleasant and popular both with
girls and parents, had clung to old-fashioned methods, and had been very
difficult to move in the matter of modern innovations. She had always
put on the curb when the second mistress's fertile imagination had
pranced away on Utopian lines. To an ardent spirit, steeped in new
race-ideals, and longing for an opportunity of serving her generation,
it was a proud moment when she suddenly found herself in a position to
carry out her pet schemes unchecked. On this first day of the new term
she moved round the school with the satisfaction of an admiral reviewing
a battleship.

It was much to Miss Todd's cre