A Harum-Scarum Schoolgirl by Angela Brazil Page B

like unquiet spirits.
    "It's the limit to be an intermediate!" groused Wendy gloomily. "Seniors and juniors get all the fun! Did you ever hear of
our
form being taken to do anything special while the others stopped at school? Of course you didn't, because we never are! The seniors get first innings, and we only have the crumbs that are left, and those juniors are treated like babies though they're nearly as tall as we are. I'm fed up with it!"
    "We'd better have a demonstration--parade the corridor with a placard: 'Fair play for Intermediates! Equal treats for all!'" suggested Diana, who was always ready with ideas.
    "Much good it would do us! We should only get sat upon by everybody. Hullo! Here's Peggy wandering down. What's the matter with you, chucky? You look disturbed."
    "I hate coming out in a wind," said Peggy, holding her hands over her rumpled hair. "I say, did you, or did you not see Miss Chadwick, Miss Ormrod,
and
Miss Carr bike off to Glenbury? Are they all three gone?"
    "Of course they're gone!"
    "You saw them with your own eyes?"
    "Helped to blow up their tyres, which we thought was really saintly, when we weren't asked to go with them," said the still injured Wendy.
    "Well, it's a pretty go they're all off! Bunty's just had a telegram from Toddlekins. She's coming back this afternoon, and wants the trap to meet the four-thirty train."
    "She should! She's in a precious hurry to leave her beloved London. Whence this thusness?"
    "I don't know. She's coming, at any rate," said Peggy, rather crossly. "Bunty sent me to find out if everybody had really gone. Toddlekins will have to get a taxi, that's all. Whew! I'm being blown to bits! I want to get back to my pen-painting. I'm making a birthday present for my cousin. Ta-ta!"
    Diana stood watching Peggy's retreating figure as the latter raced up the garden and into the house.
    "Toddlekins will be rather savage not to be met," she commented.
    "Yes; she's so keen on the trap, and the amount it saves in taxis and carriers."
    "It does seem rough on her, especially when she's sent a telegram. Look here, old thing, let's take it to meet her ourselves!"
    "What? You and me?"
    "Why not? I can drive, and I know how to harness Baron. I have helped to put him in the trap heaps of times. Bunty? Best not tell her anything about it; she's always such a scared rabbit, and she'd only have fits!"
    Wendy's eyes shone like stars.
    "It
would
be a stunt! Fancy driving in state to the station and fetching Toddlekins! She'd be pleased to save a taxi."
    "Bless her, she shall! We'll show her that her girls have some spirit and self-reliance at a crisis. It's only making a practical demonstration of our new agricultural course! What's the use of learning if you can't apply it at the right moment? Run and fetch our coats and hats and gloves, that's a cherub, while I go and tell Baron all about it."
    Wendy, much thrilled, and fired with the excellence of Diana's notion, went indoors, and, taking elaborate precautions not to meet anybody, secured outdoor garments worthy of the occasion. She rolled them in a Union Jack for camouflage, and bore them off to the stable.
    "I've brought 'bests'," she said. "Toddlekins wouldn't thank to be met by two Cinderellas!"
    Diana was standing with her arms thrown round Baron's neck, whispering sweet nothings into his twitching ear. If he did not understand the substance of her remarks, he realized the force of her affection, and kept rubbing his nose against her shoulder in a sort of caress, very gently catching her jersey with his lips and pulling it.
    "I've told him, and he's delighted to go," declared Diana. "He's just pining for a run. It's so dull for him standing here with no one to talk to. It takes away his appetite. He'll enjoy his supper twice as much when he comes back. Won't you, dear old man?"
    "We mustn't be all day about starting. If you've finished making love to him, let's get out the trap."
    "Right you are!"
    Diana was perfectly capable of