nada with Paul and Minnie--Minnie who had been so sweet and forgiving,
and had written her such a nice letter from Belleville to say that
bygones must be bygones, and that at all costs they must keep friends
and correspond with one another. An extra lump rose in Lesbia's throat
when she thought of Minnie and the children. Well, she had cut herself
adrift from them at any rate. She had anchored herself fast to the
Kingfield High School, and, according to Mrs. Patterson, she might
consider herself extremely lucky to have the chance of continuing there
at all. She must make the best of it. That was the only thing to be
done. She washed her face, ate her supper, and, seeing her pile of books
on the tray, made a really creditable effort to prepare some of her
lessons, but her head ached, and the letters danced about on the pages.

Kitty, coming upstairs at 10.45 after the concert, peeped into the
bedroom, and found Lesbia lying asleep, fully dressed, and clasping a
Latin dictionary.

"This won't do at all," muttered Kitty, shaking her head.

She was not a demonstrative girl, and despised what she called
"sentimentality" in Lesbia, but she could be kind in her sensible way.
She woke her cousin, made her undress, and promising to call her early
next morning, turned out the gas, then went to her own room and set her
alarm clock for six o'clock. It was a sacrifice on Kitty's part, for she
detested early rising; she did it, however, without any fuss, just as
part of the day's work. She hauled Lesbia out of bed by gas-light, and
went over the whole of her home lessons with her before breakfast,
sending her off to school better prepared than she had been for many
weeks. After that a family understanding was arranged. Mrs. Patterson
had at first been inclined to veto entirely any work at the Scrap Album
Competition, but Kitty compromised by stipulating it should only be done
in absolutely spare time. Lesbia borrowed the alarm clock and often got
up early and did her preparation in her bedroom, so that she might have
leisure for her drawing after school hours. The cover began to make
substantial progress. Miss Joyce approved the design, and lent her a
book on "illuminating" to help her with the lettering of the title.

When the album was at last complete, VA regarded their joint effort with
satisfaction. It was quite a fat substantial book, written in their best
and clearest script, and illustrated with photographs, sketches, and