"Absolutely topping!"
"Keep out of my way, you blue-bottle! I can't see!"
"All right, old thing! Don't get raggy!"
When the exhibits had been duly admired and notes compared as to their respective merits, a few of the best musical stars performed on the piano, then some round games were played, and the proceedings closed by the whole school forming a wide circle and singing "Auld Lang Syne" in the orthodox fashion with crossed hands.
The girls went unwillingly, and would have stayed for another half-hour if Miss Janet had not insisted upon their departure. Lorraine, putting on her boots in the cloak-room, decided that her first effort had been an unqualified success. It had certainly seemed to draw the school together in a bond of union, so far as she could judge. She could not resist a purr of satisfaction to Dorothy, whose coat hung next to hers. Dorothy's congratulations were, however, half-hearted.
"I suppose they enjoyed it," she admitted grudgingly, "though I dare say some of them felt it a bore to be obliged to stay after four o'clock. Vivien said you'd got the whole thing up to show off your own specimens."
The hot colour flamed to Lorraine's cheeks.
"Oh, what a shame! I didn't! I hardly showed any specimens myself, only a few ferns and photos, and one drawing. You know it wasn't for my own glorification!"
Dorothy straightened her collar outside her coat as if its arrangement were the main object in life.
"Oh, I'm not saying so!" she remarked carelessly. "I'm only telling you what I heard Vivien say. Effie Swan wondered you never asked her to play when you asked Theresa Dawson."