e she would confess and put things
all right; there was nothing else to be done. Nevertheless, after a
vast amount of arguing on the part of Jasmine, who assured her that if
she told the simple truth _now_, Leucha might and probably would become
most alarmingly ill, and that she would certainly hate poor Hollyhock
to her dying day--for Jasmine well grasped the true character of the
English girl--Meg began to waver.

'Still, I _ought_ to confess,' said Margaret Drummond. 'I 'm willing
to accept any punishment Mrs Macintyre chooses to put upon me.'

'Oh, dear Meg,' exclaimed Jasmine, 'I've been thinking the matter over
all night--backwards and forwards have I been twisting it in my
mind--and though I do think you did wrong, and Holly did _worse_ than
wrong, yet she has achieved a wonderful victory. She has secured for
herself the passionate love of the coldest and most uninteresting girl
in the school.'

'I do not care for that,' said Margaret. 'She's just nothing at all to
me; and I did wrong, and I ought to confess, for the good of my soul.'

'Oh, nonsense, Meg; don't be such a little Puritan. Leucha is far from
well now, and the only person who can calm and control her is Holly.
If you take Holly away from her, which you will do by confession, you
may possibly have to answer for Leucha's very life. Be sensible, Meg
dear, and wait at any rate until I come back on Monday morning.'

'I 'll wait till then,' said Meg; 'but it's a mighty heavy burden, and
Holly had no right to put it on to me, and then to act the part of
comforter herself. My word! she is a queer lassie.'

'Well, let things bide as they are till to-morrow at least,' said
Jasmine. 'And now I _must_ go home or father will wonder what is the
matter.'

Jasmine, having made up her mind that Leucha was not to be told, went
with her usual Scots determination to work. She visited poor ghostie's
trunk in the hut, and having secured from her favourite Magsie a large
sheet of brown paper and some string, she not only locked the trunk,
but took away all signs of the adventure of the night before. The bits
of chalk, the sticks of black charcoal, the cloak, the pointed hat, the
wig, were all removed. The hut looked as neglected as ever, and the
trunk, empty of all tell-tale contents, had its key hung on a little
hook on the wall.

Then Jasmine returned to The Garden, bearing ghostie's belongings with
her. All this happened at so early an hour that Jas