months the lad would be liable for
military service, so until the war should be over it seemed scarcely
worth while to start him in any special career. Doing nothing, however,
is a bad training, and even Mr. Castleton's artistic friends--not prone
as a rule to proffer good advice--tendered the occasional comment that
Morland was "running to seed". Morland himself was perfectly happy if he
was left alone and allowed to sit and improvise at the piano; he never
troubled his head about his future career, and was as unconcerned as the
ravens regarding the sources of food and raiment.

He played Lorraine's accompaniments easily at sight, with a delicacy
of touch and an artistic rendering such as Rosemary had never put into
them. It inspired Lorraine, and yet half humiliated her; she was a
painstaking but not a very clever student of the violin; no touch of
genius ever flowed from her fingers. To listen to Morland was to gain a
glimpse of a new musical world in which he flew on wings and she
stumbled on crutches. She sighed as she threw down her violin, for she
had all the ambition that he unfortunately lacked.

CHAPTER V

A Question of Discipline

At school Claudia rapidly became one of Lorraine's best allies. She made
no undue fuss, but she could always be depended upon for support. Being
a new girl, she was more ready to take up new ways than were the other
monitresses, who remembered the regime of Lily Anderson, and were
inclined to judge everything by former standards. The chief bone of
contention was the bar between seniors and juniors. Hitherto it had not
been etiquette for the upper and lower school to mix more than was
absolutely necessary; the elder girls had held themselves aloof, and
even in the too numerous guilds and societies had insisted upon senior
and junior branches.

Having broken the ice with the social gathering, at which every one
alike showed exhibits, Lorraine began to run all her organizations on
more popular lines. She persuaded a few volunteers to superintend the
little girls' games; she set aside two special pages for their efforts
in the manuscript magazine, and allowed them to vote for their own
captain in their basket-ball club. These fresh departures did not pass
without opposition. Some of her colleagues hinted broadly that Lorraine
was making a bid for popularity.

"Monitresses should be loyal to the Sixth!" sniffed Vivien. "We don't
want to mix with Dick, Tom and Harry!"

"D