The knock was repeated. We said, "Come in!" and a girl with a very curly head of dark hair, bright eyes to match, and a radiant face, first peeped at us, then entered, shut the door with a noisy vehemence, and came towards as with both her hands extended. Half-way across the room she deliberately shut her eyes. "Now, I wonder which of you I shall feel first. One is Dumps and the other Hermione. I am expected to adore Dumps because she is so jolly and plain and sensible and--and awkward; and I am expected to worship Hermione because she is exactly the reverse. Now--ah! I know--this is Hermione!" She clasped her arms round my somewhat stout waist. "Wrong--wrong!" I cried. She opened her eyes and uttered a merry laugh. "I have been introduced to you," she said, "by special letter from my friend Lilian St Leger. And you _are_ Dumps?" "Of course," I said. "Good! You do look jolly. I am Rosalind Mayhew. I am a great friend of Lilian's. Of course, I am younger than she is--I am a year younger-- and I am going to be at school for another year, so I'll see you through, Dumps; Lilian has asked me to." "Sit down and tell us about every thing," I said. "You know we are such strangers." "Washed up on this inhospitable shore, we scarcely know what we are to do with ourselves, or what savages we are to meet," said Hermione very merrily. "Then I'll just tell you everything I can. You know, Mademoiselle Wrex would be wild if she knew that I had come up to see you this evening. She said I was not to do so, but to leave you in peace. Well, I could not help myself. I slipped out to come here, and I told Elfreda and Riki and Fhemie and Hortense that I could not resist it any longer." "What queer names!" I said. "Oh, Riki--she's a German comtesse; and Elfreda is a baroness; but we always call them just Riki and Elfreda. They are very jolly girls. Then as to Fhemie, she is more English than I am; and Hortense is French of the French. There are all sorts of girls at our school. The Dutch girls are some of the nicest. I will introduce you to them. Then there are Swedes, and several Americans. The Americans are very racy." "How many girls are there altogether at the school?" I asked. "Well, between twenty and thirty. You see, the Baroness Gablestein is exceedingly particular." "Who is she?" "My dear Dumps! You don't mean to say that you have come to this school without knowing the name of our head-mistress?" "A baroness? Gablestein?" I exclaimed.