CHAPTER V
Lesbia Burns her Boats
There was so much to be done before the Hiltons set sail for Canada that the brief fortnight seemed to slide away like a few days. Lesbia attended school, but her lessons went to the winds, amply justifying Miss Tatham's decision that the news of her impending departure would unsettle her work. Unsettle her? How was it possible to do any work at all when she could count the days and say "This time next week I shall be upon the ocean"? She dreaded the voyage. On the few occasions, during summer holidays, that she had been for a sea trip, she had proved a poor sailor. Though Paul assured her the motion would be far less on a big steamer than on a small yacht, she would not take his word for it.
"I shall wish myself at the bottom before we've passed Queenstown," she declared tragically.
At school some little mystery was apparently going on. The girls would be talking, then would stop suddenly when she approached. She wondered about it vaguely. It was explained on her last day, when, at four o'clock, she was asked by Theodora Johnson to come into the gymnasium. Her own form and quite a number from the Sixth and from Vb and IVa were assembled there. To her surprise she seemed to be the centre of attraction. Everybody looked first at her, and then at Theodora, who began to make a speech.
"We're all very sorry you're leaving the school, Lesbia. You've been here longer than anybody else, and it seems a pity you can't go through the Sixth. We shall miss you very much, and we hope you'll accept this good-bye present from us."
She handed Lesbia a beautiful leather dispatch case, with the initials L. F. stamped upon it in gold.
Lesbia received it with amazement. She had never expected any present, and the magnificence of this almost took her breath away.
"It's too good of you! I really don't know how to thank you all," she stammered.
"We thought it might be useful on the journey," explained Theodora. "It's nice when you're travelling to have a few things always handy."