The bell rang for us to return to school. "I'll come," I said. "I'll have quite a nice tea for you--that is, if you care for food." "I do--I love it," I said in a stout voice. Augusta did not smile. She went very gravely back to the school. She had forgotten me; she was a sort of female Professor. I certainly did not like her, and yet I would get her the tickets and go to her house. She was better than the Swans. Agnes Swan came up to me when school was over. "You have been nasty in your ways to-day, Dumps," she said. "Can't you stay a minute now?" "No," I said, "I cannot I must run all the way home; I am late." "Nonsense! Well, will you come to tea with us to-night?" "No, thank you," I replied; "I have an engagement." "Oh, she'll have heaps of engagements from this out!" said Rita. "Don't worry her. She'll be much too grand to speak to us by-and-by." "I have an engagement," I replied. "I am going to tea with Augusta Moore." "Oh, with that old frump!" "She is an exceedingly clever girl." "But you and she have nothing in common, Dumps." "Yes, we have," I replied. "Have we not a Professor in common?" I murmured to myself; and then I left the Swans standing discomfited, their faces all agog with longing to tell me something which I would on no account hear from their lips. I hurried back to the house. To my joy, father was in. He was very neatly dressed. I had not seen him so smart for a long time. "Why, father!" I said. "I am leaving home to-night," was his remark. "I shall be away for a little. I shall be back presently. You will get a letter from me." "But, father, the lecture at the Royal Society?" I said. "That is not until next Wednesday, this day week. I shall be back again by then. I shall return probably on Sunday, or Monday morning. My dear child, don't gape. Another man is taking my place at the school. Here, Dumps, here; you'd like five shillings, wouldn't you?" "Oh yes, father." It did not really greatly matter to me whether my dear father was in the house or not. I was bewildered at his going; it was quite amazing that he should get any one else to take his boys in the middle of term, but it did not seriously affect my interests or my peace. "You have a very smart coat on," I said. "Have I?" he replied, shrugging his shoulders. "Well, if it pleases you it will please other women. Can't understand why people look so much at the exterior. Exterior matters nothing. It is how the brain is worked, how the mind tells on the body, how the soul is moved. Those are the things that matter." "Father, have you had any food?" "Yes; Hannah gave me a chop." There was a bone from a mutton-chop on a plate near by, but there seemed to be no appearance of a meal for me, and I was very hungry. "The boys are dining at the school to-day," said my father. "Now, my child, it is time for me to be off." "But one minute first. There is a girl at school--"