"What a good thing it is to be extravagant sometimes!" exclaimed Katrine. "I'm so glad I bought that cupboard from Mrs. Stubbs. If she'd sold it to a dealer in London, the secret might never have been discovered." "It's certainly the best bargain you could have made," agreed Captain Ledbury. * * * * * Monday morning saw the bringing out of thirty-six travelling trunks, and a corresponding number of damsels busy with the joyful employment of packing to go home. Rules had vanished to the four winds, and the girls flitted in and out of one another's dormitories, and talked to their hearts' content. "Father and Mother will be home in ten days!" proclaimed Gwethyn jubilantly, sitting on Rose Randall's bed amidst a litter of underlinen. "We're to go and stay with Aunt Norah until they come. Mother won't bring me the cockatoo--she says they're so noisy, and such a nuisance on board ship; but she's got another surprise for me, only it's not alive. Well, never mind! Perhaps Tony wouldn't have liked a cockatoo. He'd be frightfully jealous if I set up another pet, the poor darling!" "We're going to Windermere for our holidays," said Rose, wrapping up boots and stowing them inside her box. "We're to stay at a house close to the lake, and I mean to learn to row." "We shall be off to our country cottage in North Wales," announced Beatrix Bates. "And Bert and I have an invitation to Scotland," exulted Dona Matthews. "Girls!" cried Jill Barton, bursting suddenly into the room; "I've a piece of news to tell you. Oh, such news! You'd never guess!" "Well, fire away!" "Someone's engaged!" "Engaged for what?" "Engaged to be married, of course! What sillies you are! Can't you guess? Well, it's Miss Aubrey!" "Never!" "'To-who? To-who?' cried the owl!" "To Mr. Freeman." "Oh, I say! Hold me up!" "Not really?" "Mr. Freeman! Why, he's ever so old!" "Not so very," interrupted Gwethyn, taking up the cudgels for her artist friend. "He's only rather grey, and, of course, Miss Aubrey isn't very young herself--though she's a dear. I'm immensely glad!" "Why, so are we all! I hope she'll have the wedding during term-time, so that we can go and see her married. Wouldn't we cheer her, and throw rice and old slippers, just?" "I don't fancy anything's fixed yet; the engagement is only just announced." "It will be Mrs. Franklin's turn next, perhaps!" "No, no! Surely Ermengarde wouldn't permit it!" "Besides, what would become of the school?" "Joking apart, we shall miss Miss Aubrey dreadfully." Gwethyn, who rushed to impart the interesting news to her sister, found Katrine kneeling on the floor of their bedroom, packing canvases.