Page:The Lark - E Nesbit, 1922.djvu/25

26 let all your actions be such as shall make the school proud of you."

"Yes, Miss James," said the two girls meekly.

Outside her door they fell into each other's arms, breathless with whispered ecstasies.

"How quite too perfectly ripping!" said Jane.

"To-morrow!" said Lucilla. "It's like something in a book—a bolt from the blue."

"A bolt from the blue-stockings," said Jane. "Come away, or she'll catch us."

"I feel as if someone had left me a fortune . . ."

"I feel as if I were going to elope."

It was not till most of their books and work and little possessions had been collected and set ready for the packing that they were sufficiently sobered to question the future.

"I wonder where we're going to live, though?" Lucilla said over the pile of books she was carrying.

"What does that matter," said Jane, "so long as it's not here? When persons escape from the Bastille they never ask where they're going to live. With him, perhaps. Keep his house and entertain his clients. I say, Lucilla, let's keep a salon, and make dear Guardian's invitations the most sought after in London."

"I don't think!" said Lucilla. "I expect he's engaged a tabby to chaperone us. I hope she's an engaging tabby."

"Oh, don't let's bother," said Jane, turning a drawer full of ribbons and gloves on to the floor. "Help me to sort these. I nearly cried yesterday when all the other girls kept going away in cab after cab—to say nothing of the motors—and we left behind, and dear Emmie in Norway on her wedding tour and nobody to lend us a helping hand. And now ours very truly, Arthur Panton, has turned up trumps. May the choicest blessingsLook out, those chocs. are sticky. Don't let them loose among my collars!"

Glad as wild birds released from their cage, the cousins parted from Miss James. Their faces were serious and respectful, but each heart danced like the sea on a breezy