'I'm sure it wasn't,' said Valetta; 'I can't bear being boxed up with
horrid rude boys.'

'Because you are only a girl!'

'Now, Gill, they shot with---'

'Val, if you tell---'

'Telling Gill isn't telling. Is it, Gill?'

She assented.

'They did, Gill. They shot at us with pea-shooters,' sighed the
girl.

'Oh! it was jolly, jolly, jolly!' cried the boy. 'Stebbing hit the
girl who made the sour face on her cheeks, and they all squealed, and
the cad looked in and tried to jaw us.'

'But that dreadful boy shot right into his mouth,' said Val, while
Fergus went into an ecstasy of laughter. 'Wasn't it a shame, Gill?'

'Indeed it was' said Gillian. 'Such ungentlemanly boys ought not to
be allowed in the omnibus.'

'Girls shouldn't be allowed in the 'bus, they are so stupid,' said
Fergus. 'That one---as cross as old Halfpenny---who was she, Val?'

'Emma Norton! Up in the highest form!'