they hurried on they might reach Lyvern before the rain came down.

"More than a mile," said Agatha scornfully, "and the rain coming down
already!"

Someone else suggested returning to the college.

"More than two miles," said Agatha. "We should be drowned."

"There is nothing for it but to wait here under the trees," said Miss
Wilson.

"The branches are very bare," said Gertrude anxiously. "If it should
come down heavily they will drip worse than the rain itself."

"Much worse," said Agatha. "I think we had better get under the veranda
of the old chalet. It is not half a minute's walk from here."

"But we have no right--" Here the sky darkened threateningly. Miss
Wilson checked herself and said, "I suppose it is still empty."

"Of course," replied Agatha, impatient to be moving. "It is almost a
ruin."

"Then let us go there, by all means," said Miss Wilson, not disposed to
stand on trifles at the risk of a bad cold.

They hurried on, and came presently to a green hill by the wayside. On
the slope was a dilapidated Swiss cottage, surrounded by a veranda on
slender wooden pillars, about which clung a few tendrils of withered