Dicky looked at me anxiously--evidently concerned for my health. But a jerk of my head in the direction of the two little vixens, who were just then trying to pull a solemn-looking day boy off one of the chairs by main force, satisfied him that the case was an urgent one, and, like a brick, he flew off to the rescue. The solemn day boy stood his persecution as long as he could, and then rounded sharply on his persecutors. "Bother you, go away!" he growled. Whereupon in floods of tears, the Misses Redwood made for me, and insisted on being taken up one on each knee and "cosseted" because of what the big ugly boy had done. I complied with the energy of despair, conscious that in so doing I was allowing the reserved seats one by one to be usurped, and was at the same time rendering myself a spectacle of contempt to at least eight young persons, whom, in the gap left between the two wet faces which clung to my either cheek, I could see advancing in a body, clad in running drawers and blazers, in our direction. It was vain for me to try to escape from my false position. The nearer the Philosophers approached, the more maudlin and effusive these unprincipled young females became, flinging their arms tragically round my neck, and bedaubing my face with their dewy kisses. "Sarah _can_ go it a bit when he likes," said Langrish, with a cheerful guffaw, standing in a conspicuous place, and calling public attention to me in a way which only added to my sorrows. "Rather. I wondered why he went down so early," said Coxhead. "Birds of a feather," said the sententious Trimble, "play the fool together. I say, what about our seats, though?" "They are bagged," said I, getting my face clear for a moment. "I couldn't keep them." "I dare say. You mean you were so busy spooning about with girls you never thought of it. All right, Miss Molly," said Warminster. "I think we could squash up a bit here," said I meekly. "Looks as if _you_ could," said Langrish. "Squash away then." And, to the wrath and indignation of the whole stand, the Philosophers crowded in, in a solid phalanx, and proceeded to accommodate their eight persons in the space usually allotted to two. It took some time for the other seat-holders to appreciate the humour of the manoeuvre, and before then the bell had rung for the first race, and Dicky had returned with the brandy-balls, which he deftly smuggled into my hand as he trotted past. It was now easy to "square" the Misses Redwood, who for a blessed half- hour cried truce. It was in vain that I suggested that they had better not plaster their faces and frocks more than could be helped with the sticky substance of their succulent pabulum. They contemptuously ignored my right to make any suggestion of the kind, and I finally abandoned them to their fate.