She walked into the Upper Fifth Form room one Monday morning, looking very shy and lost and strange, and stood forlornly, not knowing where to sit, till somebody took pity on her, and pointed to a vacant desk.

It happened to be on a line with Ingred's, and the latter watched her settle herself.

She looked her over with the critical air that is generally bestowed on new girls, and decided that she was particularly pretty.

Bess was the image of one of the Sir Joshua Reynolds' child angels in the National Gallery.

The likeness was so great that her mother had always cut and curled her golden-brown hair in exact copy of the picture.