"I found myself chatting away with those cadets as if I had grown up with them" _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE "He turned around quickly, glanced up and caught my eyes, as I was looking down, quite distressed" 34 "When I turned to speak to him he was gone ... and I was immediately surrounded by other men asking me for dances" 196 "I swept past him with my nose in the air, trying to look like mother" 206 "Mr. Trowbridge took me to the beehives to get some honey and show me what a queen bee is like" 258 "Jim smiled and kept his seat without the least apparent effort" 302 LADY BETTY ACROSS THE WATER I ABOUT BEING BANISHED I don't know yet whether I'm pleased or not, but I do know that I'm excited--more excited than I've ever been in my life, except perhaps when Miss Mackinstry, my last governess, had hysterics in the schoolroom and fainted among the tea things. I suppose I shan't be able to decide about the state of my feelings until I've had more of them on the same subject, or until I've written down in this book of mine everything exactly as it's happened. I like doing that; it makes things seem so clear when you try to review them afterwards. The excitement began at breakfast by Mother having a letter that she liked. I knew she liked it by the way her eyes lighted up, as if they had been lamps and the letter a match. All the other letters, mostly with horrid, tradesmanny-looking envelopes, which had been making her quite glowery, she pushed aside. Mother won't have a crown on her envelopes; she thinks it's vulgar; besides, putting it only on the paper saves expense. This envelope had a great sprawly gold crest, but she didn't seem to disapprove of it. She read on and on, then suddenly glanced up as if she would have said something quickly, to Victoria; she didn't say it, though, for she remembered me. I am never taken into family conclaves, because I'm not out yet. I don't see what difference that makes, especially as I'm not to be allowed to come out till after Vic's married, because she was presented four years ago, and isn't even engaged yet; so for all I can tell I may have to stay in till I'm a hundred, or leak out slowly when nobody is noticing, as Vic says girls do in the middle classes. This time I didn't mind, however, for I couldn't see how the letter concerned me; and as I was dying for a sight of Berengaria's puppies, which were born last night, I was glad when Mother told me not to fidget after I'd finished breakfast, but to run down to the kennels if I liked.