father acted as a weekly soporific to his congregation.

"I wonder who gave her that perfectly _horrible_ charm?" she added
sleepily.

"The ayah, I _think_," came an equally sleepy answer. "Did I tell you
that I found it in the bath-room the other night? It's an eye--a
cat's-eye, you know--a perfect beast of a thing; I would swear it
winked at me when I dropped it on the floor. Anyway I left it there
and simply _flew_ out of the room to tell Leonie, and Jessica pinched,
I beg Principal's pardon, took my bath. Ugh! and she wears it night
and day--oh! look, here she comes----"

"Oh!" sighed plain Annie Smith, "isn't she _beautiful_!"

She was!

Unaware that anyone was watching, Leonie stopped in front of a bush of
red roses. She neither touched or sniffed them; she just flung out her
arms, lifted her face to the blazing sun and laughed.

The simple school frock showed the wonder of her figure, with the
beautiful rounded bust, the slender waist, and the moulded limbs; the
sun drew red and yellow lights out of the heavy russet hair, gold
flecks out of the green eyes, and a flash of crimson from the rather
full clear-cut mouth with its turned-up corners.

Her skin was like ivory with the faintest tinge of pink just on the
very tip of the rather pronounced cheek-bones; her hands were small and
fine, and the fingers were like pea-pods, long and slender and slightly