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 vivacious¹ little Russian lady one of the best teachers they had ever had, and treasured her accordingly, while most of the girls still revolved² round her orbit. She was undoubtedly³ very clever and fascinating. There is a certain type of pretty woman who can be adorable to her own sex. Madame liked admiration⁴, 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 sentimentally⁶. "The little love letters! Ah, they are tout⁷ à 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 [224]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 mere⁸ waste of time and paper!"
 
Madame shrugged⁹ her shoulders eloquently¹⁰.
 
"What will you? We all have our own methods! As for me, I win their funny little hearts, then they will work at their lessons for love—yes, for sheer love. In but a few months they have made beaucoup de progrès! N'est-ce pas? Ah, it is my theory that we must love first, if we will learn."
 
Though Miss Janet might sniff¹¹ at Madame's sentimental⁵ method of education, she nevertheless could not deny its admirable results. In French and music the school had lately made enormous strides. The elder girls had begun to read French story-books for amusement, and the juniors had learnt to play some French games, which they repeated with a pretty accent. Both violin and piano students played with a fire and spirit that had been conspicuous¹² by their absence a year ago, under the tame instruction of Miss Parlane.
 
Madame did not confine herself entirely¹³ to her own subjects. She took an interest in all the activities of the school. It was she who arranged a ramble¹⁴ on the cliffs.
 
"They get so hot, playing toujours at the cricket," she said to Miss Kingsley. "Of what use is it to hit about a ball? Let them come with me for a promenade¹⁵ upon the hills and we shall get flowers to press for the musée. It is not well to do always the same thing."
 
[225]A ramble for the purpose of gathering¹⁶ wild-flowers was a suggestion that appealed to the Sixth. The museum was not too well furnished with specimens¹⁷. There was scope for any amount of further collecting.
 
Since the curious episode of the cut telephone wires during the Easter holidays, there had been no further happenings at the museum. Miss Kingsley inclined to Madame Bertier's view, that some spy, finding the window had been left open, had taken a ladder and forced an entrance that way. She had caused a screw to be placed in the window, and the door was kept carefully locked except when the room was in use.
 
To Lorraine the place felt haunted. She had a horror of being there alone, and never ventured to go there unless accompanied by two or three of her schoolfellows. She had an unreasonable¹⁸ idea that the little trap-door in the corner might suddenly open, and a sinister¹⁹ face peer down out of the darkness. The nervous impression was so strong that she held the monitresses' meetings in the class-room instead of in the museum. When the mid-term beano came round, she suggested that they should assemble in the summer-house.
 
It had been an old-established custom at the school that once in each term the seniors should hold a kind of bean-feast. They met to read aloud papers, and suck sweets. Their doings were kept a dead secret from the juniors, who naturally were exceedingly curious, and made every effort to overhear the proceedings²⁰. On this occasion the seniors [226]took elaborate precautions against intrusion from the lower school. Two monitresses stood in the cloak-room and sternly chivvied the younger girls to hasten their steps homewards. They went unwillingly²¹ and suspiciously.
 
"Why are you in such a precious hurry to get rid of us to-day?" asked Mona Parker, pertly. "You're not generally so keen on us going off early."
 
"There's been too much loitering about the cloak-room lately," vouchsafed²² Dorothy.
 
"Bow-wow! How conscientious²³ we are, all of a sudden! You've something up your sleeve, I think, Madam Dorothy!"
 
"Mona Parker, put on your boots at once, and don't cheek your betters!"
 
"But there is something going on, I'm sure!" piped up Josie Payne. "Nellie, be a sport and tell us!"
 
"Mind your own business, and don't butt²⁴ in where you're not wanted! How long are you going to be in lacing those shoes?"
 
"There, there! Don't get ratty! I'm ready now!"
 
The dilatory²⁵ juniors, by dint²⁶ of much urging, were at last hustled²⁷ off the scenes. The ringleaders among them departed in rebellious²⁸ spirits, which fizzed over in the playground into a series of aggressive cock-a-doodle-doos, significant of their attitude of annoyance²⁹.
 
The monitresses wisely took no notice. They were too glad to be rid of the younger element to [227]follow into the playground and do battle. Having cleared the premises³⁰, they passed the signal "all serene³¹!" and repaired to the summer-house. It was a good place for a secret meeting, for it was at the bottom of the garden, facing the main path and a patch of lawn, so that it would be quite impossible for anybody to come from the house or the gymnasium without being seen. The accommodation was limited, but some of the girls sat on the floor, and some on the gravel³² in front. It had been a matter of considerable difficulty to procure³³ sweets, and every likely shop in the town had been foraged³⁴. The result, though not very great, was quite wonderful for war-time: there was actually some chocolate, some walnut³⁵ toffee, two ounces of pear drops, and some gum lozenges. The contributions were pooled, and shared round impartially³⁶.
 
The members were sucking blissfully while Lorraine went round and collected the literary portion of the entertainment.
 
"Only eight papers to-day! You slackers! Audrey, where's yours? Haven't had time to think of anything? How weak! Doreen, I expected the Fifth to do its duty. Thanks, Phœbe, I'm glad you've written something, and you too, Beryl."
 
"Please keep mine till the very last, and don't read it at all if there isn't much time!" implored³⁷ Phœbe.
 
"You mustn't read mine first!" fluttered Dorothy.
 
"Nor mine!"
 
"Nor mine!"
 
[228]"Look here! Somebody has got to come first! I shall do it by lot; I'll write your names on slips of paper and shuffle³⁸ them. Lend me a pencil, Patsie. There! I'll stir them round, and Audrey shall draw one."
 
Audrey picked out at random³⁹ one of the little twisted scraps⁴¹ of paper, and the lot fell upon the protesting Dorothy. She rose apologetically.
 
"They're not much," she murmured. "Just a few 'Ruthless Rhymes', that's all.
 
Anna Maria
Fell into the fire,
She was burnt to a cinder⁴².
Pa said: 'Let's open winder!'
In a river in the city
Jack⁴³ was drowned
And never found.
Mother said it was a pity
His new boots went down with him.
They'd have fitted Brother Jim.
A bomb dropped on to the house and blew
Beds, tables and chairs to Timbuctoo.
'Dear, dear how annoying!' murmured Aunt May,
'We'd spring-cleaned the place only yesterday!'
Poor little Johnnie, he swallowed his rattle⁴⁴,
It stuck in his throat and he gave up life's battle;
They couldn't get Johnnie to 'ope eyes and peep'
But they shook up the rattle and sold it off cheap."
The next on the list was Lorraine's own contribution.
 
[229]DIARY OF A GIRL IN THE YEAR a.d. 4000
 
To-day I used my new air wings, and flew up the Thames valley to see the remains⁴⁵ of ancient London, recently excavated⁴⁶. It is an extraordinary sight, and certainly seems to throw some light upon the manners and customs of that

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