That, after all, was their real reconciliation; and this time there was no doubt about it. If there had been, it would have been ended finally by Margaret Hulme herself, that same afternoon, in the cloakroom. The head girl had been taking off her own muddy boots for more than a fortnight now; and that in itself was enough to quicken her observation of events in the junior playroom.
'Isn't there anybody over there who would like to unlace my boots for me?' she said in a loud voice, as the younger ones came trooping into the cloakroom after the hockey practice.
There was silence in the ranks of the juniors. The big girls were smiling, the little ones looked at one another doubtfully, and the head girl waited with her foot put forward. The etiquette of the junior playroom was tremendous, and although forty-five sets of fingers were itching to be at the knot in the head girl's bootlace, nobody could move until Jean Murray did.
'You can do it, if you like,' she said to Barbara indifferently.
'Oh, no,' said Barbara, quickly. 'I shouldn't think of it.' This time, her sacrifice was genuine, for Margaret had kissed her just before dinner and told her she was a 'good little soul,' and the feeling of the youngest girl in the school had considerably changed in consequence with regard to the head girl's boots.
'Of course,' said Margaret Hulme, drawing back her foot, 'if nobody _wants_----'
A murmur ran along the ranks of the juniors, and Babs suddenly whispered something in Jean's ear. Then the two children joined hands and presented themselves solemnly before the head girl.
'Please,' said Barbara, quickly, 'we've settled it.'
'We're going to halve it,' added Jean, in a great hurry.
The wit of the head girl produced a storm of laughter in the cloakroom. When it subsided, Barbara was ready with her explanation.
'Jean's going to do them four days, and I'm going to do them the other three,' she said. 'And Jean's going to begin,' she added, and walked away heroically.
But Margaret smiled and pinched her ear. 'You begin, child,' she said; and Jean fairly loved the new girl from that moment onwards.
'It's all very well to tell you to do things for other people; but when nobody wants anything done, how are you going to carry it out?' demanded Charlotte Bigley of a circle of attentive listeners.