“‘Nice dreams!’” Rene and Mona had by this time forgotten the existence of such things as brushes and combs. They had turned, like plants towards the sunlight, to stare through their drawn curtains at Sybil as she spoke. Geraldine, though she was gazing too, was dimpling so much at the same time, that Betty, catching sight of her face, guessed suddenly that Gerry must know what Sybil had come to say. “It was Gerry’s idea,” said Sybil (Gerry stopped dimpling instantly and began to brush her hair vigorously for a moment); “Gerry’s altogether. If she hadn’t thought of it, perhaps I never should. Not that I was not as disappointed as she was, I think, that we couldn’t fit Betty into the Daisy Patrol----” Oh! It was something about the Guides. Were they going to fit her into the Daisies after all? “We’re a full patrol, you see, Betty,” Sybil went on, speaking in her quiet, pretty voice. “Each patrol in our company has eight girls; and there were thirty-two girls here this term before you came. Well, that makes you--who bring the numbers up to thirty-three--a dear little extra one.” Sybil stopped. “There’s a ‘Lone Guide’ she could be. It’s in the Guiding Book. We were just telling her, Sybil,” burst in Mona informatively, “she could work up alone, and----” Perhaps Sybil felt the sudden shrinking in Betty’s form at the mention of the word as the child stood there under the protection of the head girl’s arm. Perhaps not. But, whether or no, there was suddenly a flash in Sybil’s eye as she spoke. “A ‘Lone Guide,’ Mona! What an idea! A Lone Guide at St. Benedick’s! With thirty-two Guides here already, who are only too delighted to welcome another! Why, if Betty lived all alone at the North or South Pole, or away at the Back o’ Beyond, she _might_ be a Lone Guide, just till she had a chance to join a company. But _here_! Just as though any one of us would _let_ Betty work at Guiding on her lonesome!” The strong, gentle arm felt very protective and kind. “Sorry, Sybil,” murmured Mona, suddenly remembering her brush. “It was me that thought of the Lone Guide,” piped up Rene. “I was reading about it in the holidays; Mona only followed on, Sybil. And it’s not that we don’t _want_ Betty in the Daisies.” “_Want_! I should rather think we do want her when Guides are friends of the whole world.” Sybil spoke quite indignantly. “The Cowslips want her, and the Foxgloves too, and the Buttercups, as well as the Daisies---in fact, the whole company wants her. So she mustn’t _think_ of being a Lone Guide again! The only difficulty is--or rather, _was_--that we wondered which patrol she should be attached to as a recruit while she works up for her Tenderfoot badge.” The words were still strange to Betty, but she didn’t mind now. She was listening breathlessly and happily. “Recruit; Tenderfoot; patrol.” Well, Sybil was there now, ready to help, and already Sybil had promised that she should not be a Lone Guide!