126 IX THE BIDIXG-SCHOOL. 



IX. 



" Left wheel into line ! " and they 

 wheel and obey. 



Tennyson. 



[HEN you arrive at the school for your 

 second class lesson, Esmeralda, you 

 find the dressing-room pervaded by 

 a silence as clearly indicative of a 

 recent tempest as the path cloven through a 

 forest by a tornado. From the shelter of 

 screens and from retired nooks, come sounds 

 indicative of garments doffed and donned with 

 abnormal celerity and severity, but never a word 

 of joking, and never a cry for deft-fingered 

 Kitty's assistance, and then, little by little, even 

 these noises die away, and the palace of the 

 Sleeping Beauty could not be more quiet. No 

 girl stirs from her lurking-place, until you your- 

 self issue from your pet corner, and then Nell, 

 a warning finger on her lip, noiselessly emerges 

 from hers, and you go into the reception room 

 together, and she explains to you that, despite 



