'She's going to stay for ever,' said Jasper, 'except of course in the holidays. She has taken Ardshiel, and she is going to turn it into a great school, a great, monstrous, magnificent school; and we are all going—we, and you, and heaps more children besides; and mother is nearly off her head with delight. Of course, as far as I am concerned, I shall only be able to stay at such a school for one year, for I must then go on to a public school. But Mrs Macintyre has been talking to mother, and says she can prepare me for Eton with perfect ease in a year from now.'
'Oh, bother!' said Jasmine. 'We don't want other boys and girls. We are quite happy by ourselves.'
'But mother thinks we must mix with the world, girls; and so does Mrs Macintyre,' continued Jasper.
'Well, I'm not going to school, anyhow,' said Hollyhock. 'You and your mother may go into raptures over Mrs Macintyre as much as ever you please, but I stay at home with Dumpy Dad. Why should he be left out in the cold? He is the dearest Dump in the world, and I 'm not going to have him slighted. You are very fond of romancing, Jasper, and I don't believe a word of your story.'
'All right,' said Jasper, looking with his honest, Scots face full into the eyes of Hollyhock. 'There they are—the principals, I mean.'
'Principals! What nonsense you do talk!'
'I mean my mother, your father, and Mrs Macintyre.'
'And what are they principals of?' asked the angry girl.
'Why, the school, of course.'
'The school? There's no school.'