"Both together, generally," replied Aldred. "I don't see how anybody could sleep through such a fearful clatter as the bell makes. It gives me a horrible start every morning. It's worse than an alarm clock?"
"Oh, you'll get used to it in time!" declared Phœbe. "And then perhaps you won't notice it any more than I do."
The conversation was interrupted at this point by Freda Martin and Blanche Nicholls, two of the prefects, who came past arm in arm.
"What are you four doing here?" asked Freda briskly. "Why aren't you playing tennis with the others?"
"There isn't room," replied Phœbe. "The Fifth Form girls have got up a tournament, and they'll keep the courts all the afternoon."
"Can't you have a round at croquet, instead?"
"We don't feel inclined."
"Basket ball, then?" suggested Blanche.
Dora leaned back against the stone shaft of the sundial, and yawned luxuriously.
"No, we're simply enjoying doing nothing," she confessed.