ldine and
attaching himself to her. And the lonely girl was glad enough of his
company during some of her solitary play hours.

Bruno was the cause of her making another queer friend in the person of
Bennett, the school porter. One wet Saturday morning--there were no
lessons at Wakehurst on Saturdays--the new girl was roaming rather
forlornly through the corridors, accompanied by her canine friend, when
Miss Oakley came upon her.

"Oh, here's that dog at last! I've been looking everywhere for him,"
said the headmistress. "He seems to have taken a great fancy to you,
Geraldine. But he's got to go and be washed now. It's his bath
morning, as he knows perfectly well. Take him along to Bennett, dear,
will you? He's waiting for him round by the lobby door."

Geraldine laid her hand obediently upon the dog's collar and led him
off in the direction of the lobby. Bennett, a grim-faced, middle-aged
individual, who appeared to disapprove of schoolgirls on principle, was
awaiting him, with a towel over his arm and a cake of soap in his hand.

"Miss Oakley told me to bring Bruno to you," said Geraldine shyly, as
she handed her charge over. It was the first time she had come across
Bennett, and she was duly impressed by the grimness of his appearance.
Bennett's manner did not relax at her shy approach.

"Thank you, miss," he said dourly. He made a grab at Bruno, who,
however, evidently did not relish the coming ordeal at all. In fact,
his weekly baths were the bane of his otherwise peaceful existence. He
deftly eluded the man's grasp, and, slipping by him, bolted back along
the corridor towards the boot-lobby, the door of which happened to be
ajar.

With a muttered imprecation Bennett stumbled after him, to find
himself, when he was through the door, in the midst of a group of Lower
School children changing into their gym shoes for an impromptu drill in
the gymnasium. The boot-lobby consisted of three large rooms opening
into each other and lined with boot-lockers. It afforded Bruno plenty
of space for dodging his pursuer, and an exciting hunt ensued, in which
Bruno's part was taken openly by the little girls, most of whom had
excellent reasons for disliking the surly porter. Bennett looked upon
the Wakehurst girls in general, more especially the smaller ones, as
the plague of his life, and was not by any means averse to reporting
their misdoings to authority. Many an order mark and conduct mark had
been gain