As a matter of fact, though the delicate fiction of asking for the holiday was preserved, it was such a _sine qua non_ that the cook was prepared for it.

She had baked jam tartlets and made potted meat the day before, and was already cutting sandwiches and packing them in greaseproof paper.

Every girl at The Woodlands possessed a basket, just as she owned a penknife or a French dictionary.

It was equally indispensable.

She would carry out her lunch in it, and bring it back filled with flowers, berries, or nature specimens, as the case might be.