THE PRINCESS OF THE SCHOOL

Contents


CHAPTER PAGE

I THE INGLETON FAMILY 1

II A STOLEN JOY-RIDE 15

III A VALENTINE PARTY 33

IV DISINHERITED 50

V THE NEW OWNER 61

VI PRINCESS CARMEL 73

VII AN OLD GREEK IDYLL 88

VIII WOOD NYMPHS 100

IX THE OPEN ROAD 114

X A MEETING 129

XI A SECRET SOCIETY 145

XII WHITE MAGIC 157

XIII THE MONEY-MAKERS 171

XIV ALL IN A MIST 190

XV ON THE HIGH SEAS 201

XVI THE CASA BIANCA 215

XVII SICILIAN COUSINS 229

XVIII A NIGHT OF ADVENTURE 242

XIX AT PALERMO 261

XX OLD ENGLAND 271

XXI CARMEL'S KINGDOM 283




THE PRINCESS OF THE SCHOOL




CHAPTER I

The Ingleton Family


On a certain morning, just a week before Christmas, the little world of
school at Chilcombe Hall was awake and stirring at an unusually early
hour. Long before the slightest hint of dawn showed in the sky the lamps
were lighted in the corridors, maids were scuttling about, bringing in
breakfast, and Jones, the gardener, assisted by his eldest boy, a sturdy
grinning urchin of twelve, was beginning the process of carrying down
piles of hand-bags and hold-alls, and stacking them on a cart which was
waiting in the drive outside.

Miss Walters, dreading the Christmas rush on the railway, had determined
to take time by the forelock, and meant to pack off her pupils by the
first available trains, trusting they would most of them reach their
destinations before the overcrowding became a serious problem in the
traffic. The pupils themselves offered no objections to this early
start. The sooner they reached home and began the holidays, so much the
better from their point of view. It was fun to get up by lamp-light,
when the stars were still shining in the sky; fun to find that rules
were relaxed, and for once they might chatter and talk as they pleased;
fun to run unreproved along the passages, sing on the stairs, and twirl
one another round in an impromptu dance in the hall.