"Sorry, but I'm afraid it can't be done," yawned Rachel. "Bertha has been up and bagged first innings. I wrote it down, didn't I, Stella? Where's that list? Yes, here we are. The juniors are to come first, because Miss Morgan has trained them and she thinks they'll get the fidgets if they wait, and it's better to have their performance over. Then, of course, comes our stunt, and then the Transition." "Could we possibly have our half of the Transition stunt before yours? It would make more variety." "Most certainly not!" Rachel's brow was puckered in a frown, and Sybil, from the depths of the rocking-chair, murmured, "Cheek!" "We've got the program all fixed up, and we're not going to change it for anybody," chirped Erica. "Any one who isn't satisfied needn't act," endorsed Rachel, with such a very decided glance at the door that the two delegates could no longer obtrude their presence, and were obliged to beat an unwilling retreat. They walked along the passage very dissatisfied with the result of their mission. "We've got all the fag of painting these wretched programs, and gained nothing at all," groused Irene. "They might have told us first about Bertha. Isn't she an absolute Jacob--supplanting us like this?" "Those seniors are _most_ unsympathetic. I want to go back and tell Rachel what I think of her." "She'd only say, 'How foreign' if you got excited. And it wouldn't be an atom of use either." "They've taken the best place in the program for their stunt." "Trust the prefects to do that." "What's to be done about it?" "It will need some thinking over." Peachy's agile brains were rarely to be beaten. She slept upon the problem, and informed her friends afterwards that inspiration came to her at exactly 3 a.m. "I know, because I heard the convent clock strike. I sat up in bed and laughed. I wonder I didn't wake the dormitory, but nobody stirred a finger. Listen, and I'll explain. The situation at present is this: Bertha and her Starry Circle have cribbaged our idea and forestalled us on the program, and are going to act their wretched waxworks first, and are congratulating themselves that their piece will take the shine out of ours." "So it will, I'm afraid. The audience will have sat through the juniors' play, the seniors' stunt, and the waxworks. They'll be bored stiff to see our toy-shop straight away afterwards." "Well, they _shan't_ see it. That's my idea. Let's drop the toy-shop and do something quite different." "Drop our toy-shop! O-o-h!" "We'll do it some other time. But you see we've one advantage on the program at any rate. We come last." "That's what we're raving against."