The shopping was really great fun; the girls swarmed about the counters and wandered about the shops, going into raptures over this thing and hesitating about buying that thing, until it really seemed as though all the purchases never would be made.  Yet by degrees they somehow acquired a great many curious possessions.

Kitty bought a nice pocket-book for her father, a little brooch for Betty, a book for Tony, and a penknife for Anna; but it took so long to decide on these that she left her presents for the servants to get another day, for she still had to buy her flowers for Miss Hammond, and teatime was fast approaching.  The flower-shop was perhaps the most fascinating of all; the cut flowers, the ferns, and the plants in the pots were perfectly bewildering in their beauty.  Kitty was in raptures, and almost wished she had bought flowers to take home to them all, instead of the things she had got.

“Father would simply love that fern,” she cried, “and Betty would go wild over that little white basket with the ferns and hyacinths in it.  O Pamela, I do so want it for her!  I want them all!”

Pamela had not lost her head as Kitty had.  “Well, the hyacinths will have faded long before you go home, Kitty, and the brooch is easier to pack.”

Kitty laughed somewhat shamefacedly.  Her eye was already caught by a lovely little flowering rose-bush in a pot.  “I must buy that,” she said with determination, “and I am going to.”

“For Miss Hammond?  Oh, how nice!  Stupid me had never thought of a plant for her.  I always get cut flowers for her room.”

“It isn’t for Miss Hammond,” said Kitty rather shyly; “I have bought violets for her.  I think I will take the rose back to Miss Pidsley.”

“Miss Pidsley!  You funny girl, Kitty.”

“Well, at any rate I will offer it to her, and if she doesn’t like it—­ she can’t hurt me; and it does seem rather hard that she should miss all this, and not have anything taken back to her either.  She seems to have all the dull, disagreeable things to do, and none of the nice ones.”

“I had never thought of that,” said Pamela.  “I suppose she chose what should be her work, and what should be Miss Hammond’s.”

“Then she must be a good sort to have given all the nicest things to others to do, and have kept all the dull ones for herself,” said Kitty, with the frankness with which schoolgirls discuss their elders in private.

“Come along, girls,” called Miss Hammond, returning to the shop.  “I have ordered tea, and it will be ready in five minutes.”

By this time it was getting dark, and it was very pleasant to turn from the cold, windy streets into the snug, brightly-lighted room where tea was laid for them at a couple of tables placed in the window.  The blinds were up, and they could watch the people and the busy life in the streets, or could turn their eyes inwards and look at that in the room, where every table was occupied.  They were all very hungry and pleased and excited.  The food was good and the tea was good, and the girls could talk and laugh to their hearts’ content.