"Poor old Kipper!" murmured Raymonde. "It's a little rough on you that you daren't exhibit your talents. Can't you show a doctor's certificate prohibiting you from entering for public exams. and limiting your prep.? The kind of thing one brings back to school after scarlet fever, you know." Morvyth shook her head dolefully. "It's no go! The Bumble would be capable of sending for the doctor and thrashing the matter out with him. My only safety lies in modesty. No school laurels for me. They cost too dear." Valentine Gorton and Ardiune Coleman-Smith, known familiarly as "Salt" and "Pepper," were inseparable friends in spite of the fact that they quarrelled on an average at least three times a day. Their tiffs were very easily made up, however, and they always supported each other in upsets with anyone else, merging what might be termed tribal disputes in national warfare. Being well supplied from home with chocolates, and liberal in their dispensation, they were favourites in their Form, and indeed throughout the school wore the hallmark of popularity. Raymonde's particular set of chums was completed by Katherine Harding, a damsel whose demure looks belied her character. Katherine's innocent grey eyes and doll-like complexion were the vineyards that hide the volcano. She could always be relied upon to support any enterprising project or interesting hoax that was presented for her approval. These seven comrades, close chums in the past, banded themselves together anew to enjoy life to the best of their ability, and to obtain the maximum of fun and diversion out of the forthcoming term. It is with their immediate adventures that this book is largely concerned. CHAPTER II The Mystic Seven "D'you know," said Morvyth, flopping down disgustedly on to a form, and addressing an interested audience of three; "d'you know, my children, that I consider these two new girls the very limit?" "Absolute blighters!" agreed Raymonde hastily, "I was thinking so myself only this morning. I can't decide which is the worst." "Not a pin to choose between them!" commented Aveline with a yawn. "I gave Cynthia Greene credit for shyness during the first twenty-four hours," continued Morvyth. "I thought in my own mind, 'the poor thing is suffering, no doubt, from home-sickness and general confusion, and we must be gentle with her', but I kept a wary eye upon her, and I've come to a conclusion. It's not shyness--it's swank!" Ardiune nodded her head approvingly. "Swank, and nothing else," she confirmed. "I know something about it too, for I heard her expounding to her own Form this morning. It almost made me ill. I had to take a run round the garden before I felt fit again. It seems she's come from some much smaller school, where she's been the head girl and show pupil, and the rest of it. She said the younger ones had all looked up to her, and the Principal had treated her as a friend, and that she'd always worked hard to keep up the tone of the place."