"Everyone agreed that the day was just right for the picnic to — a shimmering summer morning warm and still, with s shrilling all through breakfast from the outside the dining-room windows and bees murmuring above the pansies bordering the drive. ... The boarders at Mrs Appleby's College for Young Ladies had been up and scanning the bright unclouded sky since six o'clock and were now fluttering about in their holiday s like a flock of excited butterflies. Not only was it a Saturday and the long awaited occasion of the annual picnic, but Saint Valentine's Day, traditionally celebrated on the fourteenth of February by the interchange of elaborate cards and favours."