On the following Monday afternoon the Reverend T. W. Beasley arrived in readiness to begin, on Tuesday morning, his task of examining the school. There was great fluttering in the dove-cot, and much anxiety on the part of the girls to catch the first glimpse of him. They had decided that, as the brother of their good-looking Principal, he would be tall, fair, and clean-shaven, with classical features, gentle blue eyes, and a soft, persuasive manner--the ideal clergyman, in fact, of the storybook, who lives in a picturesque country rectory and cultivates roses. To their disappointment he was nothing of the sort, but turned out to be a short, broad-set little man, with a grey beard and moustache, and keen dark eyes under bushy eyebrows, and a prominent nose that was the very reverse of romantic. He cleared his throat frequently in a nervous fashion, and when he spoke he snapped out his remarks abruptly, in a very deep voice that seemed to rise almost out of his boots. "He isn't half as nice as Professor Marshall!" decided the Fifth unanimously. "Looks as if he had a temper!" ventured Fauvette. "Oh! it's cruelty to give us viva voces! I'll never dare to answer a question!" wailed Aveline. "I'm afraid he'll be strict," admitted Katherine. "Perhaps he's nervous too, and scared of us!" suggested Morvyth. "Don't you believe it!" laughed Raymonde scornfully. "I flatter myself I'm pretty good at reading faces, and I can see at a glance he's a martinet. That frown gives him away, and the kind of glare he has in his eyes. I'm a believer in first impressions, and I knew in a second I wasn't going to like him." Aveline sighed dramatically. "It's rough on a poor young girl in her early teens to be put through an ordeal by a stern and elderly individual who'll have absolutely no consideration for her feelings." "Feelings! You'll have your head snapped off!" prophesied Raymonde. "Why couldn't the Bumble have examined us herself, or at any rate let the Professor do it?" "Ask me a harder, child!" "Well, I think it's very unnecessary to have this Mr. Beasley. Bumble Bee, indeed! He's a regular hornet!"