"We will take the Etudes de la Velocite next, if you please, ladies."

Immediately a girl in a holland dress shot down through space; whirled
round the curve with a fearless centrifugal toss of her ankle; and
vanished into the darkness beneath. She was followed by a stately girl
in green, intently holding her breath as she flew; and also by a large
young woman in black, with her lower lip grasped between her teeth, and
her fine brown eyes protruding with excitement. Her passage created a
miniature tempest which disarranged anew the hair of the lady on the
landing, who waited in breathless alarm until two light shocks and a
thump announced that the aerial voyagers had landed safely in the hall.

"Oh law!" exclaimed the voice that had spoken before. "Here's Susan."

"It's a mercy your neck ain't broken," replied some palpitating female.
"I'll tell of you this time, Miss Wylie; indeed I will. And you, too,
Miss Carpenter: I wonder at you not to have more sense at your age and
with your size! Miss Wilson can't help hearing when you come down with a
thump like that. You shake the whole house."

"Oh bother!" said Miss Wylie. "The Lady Abbess takes good care to shut
out all the noise we make. Let us--"

"Girls," said the lady above, calling down quietly, but with ominous
distinctness.

Silence and utter confusion ensued. Then came a reply, in a tone of
honeyed sweetness, from Miss Wylie: