"I'm sorry. I have been endeavouring to attract your attention for some moments. Are you aware of the time?" Alwynne glanced at the clock. The hands stood at an impossible hour. "There!" she remarked penitently, "it's stopped again!" She smiled at the class, all ears and interest. "One of you children will just have to remind me. Helen? No, you do the chalks already. Millicent!" She singled out a dreamy child, who was taking surreptitious advantage of the interruption to pore over the pictures that had slid from the desk to the floor of the rostrum. "Milly! Your head's a sieve too! Will you undertake to remind me? Each time I have to be reminded--in goes a penny to the mission--and each time you forget to remind me, you do the same. It'll do us both good! And if we both forget--the rest of the class must pull us up." The little girl nodded, serious and important. Alwynne turned to Henrietta. "Excuse me, Miss Vigers, were you wanting to speak to me? I'm afraid we're in rather a muddle. Children--pick up those pictures: at least--Helen and Milly! Go back to your desks, the rest of you." And then, to Henrietta again, "I suppose the gong will go in a minute?" She was being courteous, but she was implying quite clearly that she considered the interruption of her lesson unnecessary. Henrietta's eyes snapped. "The twelve-fifteen gong went a long time ago, Miss Durand. It's nearly one. Miss Hartill wishes to know what has happened to her class." "My hat!" murmured Alwynne, appalled. It was the most rudimentary murmur--a mere movement of the lips; but Henrietta caught it. Justifiably, she detested slang. She stiffened yet more, but Alwynne was continuing with deprecating gestures. "This is dreadful! I'm awfully sorry, Miss Vigers, but, you know, we never heard the gong! Not a sound! Are you sure it rang?" (This to Henrietta, who never slackened her supervision of the relays of prefects responsible for the ever-punctual gong. But Alwynne had no eye for detail.) She continued agitatedly, unconscious of offence-- "But of course I must go and explain to Miss Hartill at once. Children--get your things together, and go straight to the Lower Second. I'll come with you. Miss Vigers, I am so sorry--it was entirely my fault, of course, but we none of us heard the gong." But as she spoke, and the girls, attentive and curious, obediently gathered up their belongings and filed into the passage, the gong, audible enough to any one less absorbed than Alwynne and her class had been, boomed for its last time that morning, the prolonged boom that was the signal for the day-girls to go home. The children dispersed hurriedly, and Alwynne was left alone with Henrietta. Alwynne was grave--distinctly distressed. "I must go and explain to Miss Hartill at once," she repeated, making for the door. "You needn't trouble yourself," Henrietta called after her. "Miss Hartill went home half-an-hour-ago."