came along the passage; and she had only just time to spring to her feet
before one of the little girls appeared at the door.

"You're to come down at once."

"Don't you know you're not ALLOWED to stay upstairs?" asked Miss
Zielinski crossly. "What were you doing?" And as Laura did not
reply: "What was she doing, Jessie?"

"I don't know," said the child. "She was just standing there." And all
the little girls laughed, after the manner of their elders.

Before Laura had finished arranging her belongings on the shelves that
were assigned to her, some of the older girls began to drop in from the
study. One unceremoniously turned over her books, which were lying on
the table.

"Let's see what the kid's got."

Now Laura was proud of her collection: it really made a great show; for
a daughter of Godmother's had once attended the College, and her
equipment had been handed down to Laura.

"Why, you don't mean to say a kid like you's in the Second Principia
already?" said a big girl, and held up, incredulously, Smith's black and
red boards. "Wherever did YOU learn Latin?"

In the reediest of voices Laura was forced to confess that she had never
learnt Latin at all.