The Villa Bleue always felt radiant with kind and cheery impulses, and its flower-covered walls seemed almost to shine as the girls, secure of a welcome, parted from Miss Brewster, and ran up the steps to the pleasant veranda. Mrs. Clark made them at home at once. She had six cosy basket-chairs waiting for them, and a plateful of most delicious almond taffy, and she installed them to sit and admire the view, while she talked and put them at their ease. Schoolgirls are notoriously bashful visitors, and in certain circumstances all six would have been mum as mice and entirely devoid of conversation except a conventional yes or no, but with dear Mrs. Clark's beaming face and warm-hearted manner to disarm their shyness they were perfectly natural, and enjoyed themselves as entirely as if they were at a dormitory tea or a sorority supper. The best part about Mrs. Clark was that she had the happy knack of forgetting her age and throwing herself back into the mental environment of sixteen. She was certainly not a stiff hostess; indeed her treatment of her guests was less conventional than that adopted by Rachel Moseley at the prefects' parties; she laughed and chatted and asked questions about the school, till in a few minutes the girls were chattering like sparrows and behaving as if they had known her for years. Tea was set out on little basket tables in the veranda, and there were all the delicious home-made things for which the Villa Bleue had gained a just reputation--brown scones and honey, potato cakes, Scotch shortbread, buttered oatmeal biscuits, iced lemon sandwich cake, and chocolate fingers. When tea was taken away and the basket tables were once more free, Mrs. Clark produced dainty cards and scarlet pencils and organized a competition. It was entitled "Nursery Rhymes," and contained twenty questions to be answered by the competitors. These ran as follows: NURSERY RHYMES COMPETITION 1. Who made Cock Robin's shroud? 2. Who was exhausted by family cares? 3. Who disliked insects? 4. Who showed an interest in horticulture? 5. Who summoned an orchestra? 6. Who pursued matrimonial intentions without the parental sanction? 7. Who showed religious intolerance? 8. Who took a joint that did not belong to him? 9. Who deplored the loss of hand gear? 10. Whose salary was restricted owing to slackness in work? 11. What animal pursued horological investigations? 12. Who made the record high jump? 13. Who wore a superfluity of jewelry? 14. Whose culinary efforts were temporarily confiscated? 15. Who pulled Pussy from the well? 16. Who slept instead of attending to business? 17. Who exhibited sanctimonious satisfaction over a meal?