'll go and write to Rosemary now, and say I'm ready to
be her pupil to-morrow. Oh, it _is_ good of her!"

So the exercises and studies came out of their retirement in the dark
cupboard after all, and Rosemary grew so interested in "putting Claudia
through her paces", as she described it, that her own bitter
disappointment began somehow to soften and tone down. Claudia was a
pattern pupil. To begin with, her voice was such excellent material to
work upon; then she had a very world of young enthusiasm, and was
sufficiently modest to accept her teacher's dicta without argument. She
practised diligently, and the training soon began to tell. In quite a
short time there was marked improvement. Rosemary, listening to her
deliciously pure high notes, felt a vicarious satisfaction. They were so
exactly what she had always longed to produce herself.

"I shan't write to Signor Arezzo till we're through Book II," she
decreed. "If you go on at this rate, I think he'll be satisfied when he
hears you. If he accepts you, I _shall_ be proud!"

For answer, Claudia flung her arms round Rosemary's neck and hugged her.

"You're the sweetest, kindest, most unselfish darling in the whole of
the wide world!" she blurted out.

CHAPTER XVII

A Mid-term Beano

Though Lorraine and Claudia might regard Madame Bertier with more or
less suspicion, she was an immense favourite with the rest of the
school. The Misses Kingsley found the vivacious little Russian lady one
of the best teachers they had ever had, and treasured her accordingly,
while most of the girls still revolved round her orbit. She was
undoubtedly very clever and fascinating. There is a certain type of
pretty woman who can be adorable to her own sex. Madame liked
admiration, if it were only that of a schoolgirl, and she thought the
flowers and little notes that were showered upon her charming tokens of
her popularity.

"They practise their hearts upon me, these poor children!" she would
observe sentimentally. "The little love letters! Ah, they are _tout a
fait gentilles_! Wait a few years! They will be writing them to somebody
more interesting than their teacher! Oh, yes! I know well!"

"For goodness' sake don't put such ideas into their heads!" said Miss
Janet, who admired the open-air type of girl, and had no weakness for
romance. "I wish you wouldn't encourage them to write you those silly
notes. It's a form of sentiment I've no patience with at all--a mere
waste o