tooth-glass"--glancing towards the washstand in the adjoining room where
that article, inverted, capped the water-bottle--"and you, being the
honoured guest, shall luxuriate in the cup."

Bunty modestly protested, but Diana had her own way in the matter, and
when finally the little lady-help went downstairs to pour out tea in the
dining-room for the rest of the boarders, it was with that pleasantly
warm glow about the region of the heart which the experience of an
unexpected kindness is prone to produce.

Meanwhile Diana busied herself unpacking her clothes and putting them
away in the rather limited cupboard accommodation provided, and in fixing
up a few pictures, recklessly hammering the requisite nails into the
walls in happy disregard of Rule III of the printed list, which
emphatically stated that: "_No nails must be driven into the walls
without permission_."

By the time she had completed these operations a dressing-bell sounded,
and quickly exchanging her travelling costume for a filmy little dinner
dress of some soft, shimmering material, she sallied downstairs in search
of the dining-room.

Mrs. Lawrence met her on the threshold, warmly welcoming, and conducting
her to her allotted place at the lower end of a long table, around which
were seated--as it appeared to Diana in that first dizzy moment of
arrival--dozens of young women varying from twenty to thirty years of
age. In reality there were but a baker's dozen of them, and they all
painstakingly abstained from glancing in her direction lest they might be
thought guilty of rudely staring at a newcomer.