The half-hour's visit pa.s.sed like a dream.

"You'll come and see me again, dear, won't you?" said Miss Carrington, as she held Avelyn's hand in good-bye.

The hot colour flooded the girl's face. Her eyes shone like stars.

"Oh, may I?" she cried impulsively.

That afternoon marked an epoch. Friendship is a matter more of temperament than of years. That the Lavender Lady was middle-aged, and Avelyn barely sixteen, made not the slightest difference to either of them. Each character dove-tailed comfortably into the other. Miss Carrington had a great sympathy for girls, and she seemed to understand Avelyn at once. As for the latter, she had utterly lost her heart. But for the fear of making herself a nuisance she would have nearly lived at the bungalow. She went there very often by special invitation, and spent glorious, delightful afternoons sitting in the garden, talking about art and books and music, and the foreign places Miss Carrington had visited.

It fascinated Avelyn to hear about Venice and Rome and Sicily and Egypt, and made her long to go and see them for herself.

"You shall, some day, when the war's over," said the Lavender Lady confidently.

Sometimes they would go for walks together, or Avelyn would wait with a book while Miss Carrington sketched, or--what she loved immensely--would sit in the twilight while her friend improvised soft dreamy music at the piano. The little volume of poems, _Cameos_, by Lesbia Carrington, she already knew almost by heart; the small, white-and-gold edition, with its signed autograph, was her greatest treasure. To Avelyn it was a most inspiring friendship, that roused dormant hopes and ideals in her nature which promised to make rapid growth afterwards. Her Lavender Lady proved the most delightful of confidantes. It was possible to tell her everything. She never laughed at Avelyn's secrets, though she was merry enough on occasion.

One evening she and Avelyn sat in the little garden, watching the red glow of the setting sun fade away behind the dark boughs of the yew trees. The air was heavy with the scent of flowers; from the fields came the caw of rooks, as long flights pa.s.sed homeward to roost. Avelyn squatted on the gra.s.s, with her head against the Lavender Lady's knee, and held her hand tight.

"Next week I shall be back at Silverside," she whispered. "I just hate the thought of it!"

"Poor little woman!"

"It isn't as nice there as it ought to be, somehow. Things seem always at sixes and sevens, and it's so horrid."

"What's the trouble?"

"The old school and the new school won't mix. The Silversiders look down on the Hawthorners, and the Hawthorners resent it, of course, and just detest the Silversiders. It's a constant bickering the whole time. I think it's almost worse since Annie and Gladys were made prefects. It's perfectly wretched for me, because I'm between two stools."

"How's that?"

"Well, you see, in a way I'm a boarder, but then I'm the only weekly boarder, so the others who stay there the whole term rub it into me that I'm not quite one of themselves. They can't forget that I used once to go to The Hawthorns, even though it's a long time ago, and they keep bringing it up against me as if I were a sort of traitor in their midst.

Then it's quite as awkward for me with the day girls. I like some of them very much; they used to be old chums of mine, and I'd like to go on being friends with them. But if I even speak to them in school, Laura or Janet are down on me like anything, and ask me if I've forgotten I'm a member of the Silverside League."

"What is the League, please?"

"It's a kind of blood-brotherhood among the boarders to keep up Silverside traditions. When the day girls heard of it, they started an 'Old Hawthorners' League' in opposition."

"But surely you're all Silversiders now?"

"We are in name, but nothing else. We still feel two separate schools.

The day girls wouldn't play hockey with us in the winter. They got up a club of their own, and wore their old school colours. They won ever so many matches, and the Silverside Club did so badly. Adah was dreadfully sick about it. She thought them so mean to desert."

"Perhaps they felt they wouldn't be welcome."

"That's exactly the point. Instead of pulling together, it's always boarders versus day girls; and as for poor little me, I'm neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red herring!"

The Lavender Lady smiled, and then looked thoughtful. She stroked Avelyn's hair.

"Poor little woman!" she said again.

"I feel like Mohammed's coffin, slung between earth and heaven."

"Can't something be done to bring these rival factions into harmony?

You're one school now, and ought to work together for the common good."

"That's what Miss Thompson says, but it doesn't make any difference."

"Girls often won't listen to teachers. The movement must come from within, not without. It seems to me, Ave, you're the one to set it in motion."

"I?"

Avelyn turned up her face in the greatest amazement to meet the Lavender Lady's calm eyes.

"Yes, _you_, darling! Don't you see you have an absolutely unique opportunity? You're the only girl in the school who is in touch with both sides. You can get at both the boarders and the day girls. The hockey season is over, and I suppose next term you'll be starting tennis and cricket?"

"Yes, so we shall."

"Well, suppose directly you get back to Harlingden you propose a United League of all Silversiders to win credit for the school. You could set about it very tactfully, and sound your princ.i.p.al parties first."

"_I?_ But they'd think it such cheek! A Fifth Form girl, and only a weekly boarder."

[Ill.u.s.tration: AVELYN AND THE LAVENDER LADY]

"And Gideon said, 'Wherewithal shall I save Israel? I am the least in my father's house'," quoted Miss Carrington. "On the contrary, I think it's the chance of a lifetime. I believe you're the one girl to do it. It would be something worth accomplishing, wouldn't it, to unite the school?"

"Rather!"

"Is there any public occasion when you could bring forward the suggestion?"

"Yes; there's the School Council on the first Wednesday of term. Anybody is allowed to put things to the meeting, and votes are taken."

"You couldn't have a better opportunity. Talk in private to the girls first, and persuade a number of them from both sides to be ready to back you up. Then state your proposal. By the by, what are the Silverside colours?"

"Pale-blue and navy."

"And the old Hawthorn colours?"

"Navy and pink."

"If you're wise, you'll amalgamate them, and ask Miss Thompson to let you have new badges of pale-blue, pink, and navy. I believe it might just make all the difference to the state of feeling."

"Perhaps you're right. But I still feel afraid--it's a big thing to attempt, and I don't know whether I can screw up the courage. Suppose I fail? Suppose they only laugh at me, and tell me to mind my own business?"

"You won't fail! You mustn't _think_ failure! Make up your mind beforehand that you're going to succeed, and that what you say will persuade them. Oh, Ave darling, do try! It would be such a grand thing.

There are those two great streams of girls, each running its own way.

They only need a thin barrier removed to make them into one mighty river. Some common purpose should unite them. Perhaps in their heart of hearts they're all secretly longing for union. Who knows? Can't your hands lead them together? You said once you'd do anything for my sake."

"So I did--and I mean it!"

"Then take up this crusade, and be a Red Cross Knight for the School Colours!"