you to stay with me, and we
will go somewhere nice every afternoon!"--and told herself reproachfully
that Lottie was more forgiving than herself.

"I don't feel in the least inclined to offer her treats, though I'm
sorry for her all the same. She does look such a woe-begone little
wretch! It's my belief she thought it was a good opportunity to examine
the scent-bottle when we were all upstairs, and that she put it down too
roughly or let it slip from her hands and hadn't the nerve to own up at
once. I don't wonder she is afraid to confess now; I should be myself.
You don't know what might happen--you might even be expelled! I don't
believe Miss Phipps would keep a girl who was so mean as to make all the
school suffer rather than face a scolding. There's one thing certain,
I'm not going to have Pixie O'Shaughnessy fagging for me until this
business is cleared up! I have tied my own hair bows before and can do
them again, and I shall tell Flora and Ethel not to allow her in their
cubicles either. If she is untruthful, how are we to know that she
might not be dishonest next!"

There is no truer proverb than that which says, "Give a dog a bad name
and hang him!" for it is certain that when once we begin to harbour
suspicion, a dozen little actions and coincidences arise to strengthen
us in our convictions.

It is also true that no judges are so unflinching as very young people,
who set a hard line between right and wrong, and are unwilling to
acknowledge the existence of extenuating circumstances. During the next
few weeks Pixie was sent to Coventry by her companions, to her own
unutterable grief and confusion. No one offered to help her with
difficult lessons; no one invited her to be a companion in the daily
crocodile; no one made room for her when she entered a room; on the
contrary, she was avoided as if her very presence were infectious, and
when she spoke a silence fell over the room, and several moments elapsed
before a cold, stern voice would vouchsafe a monosyllabic answer. She
was at the bottom of her classes too, being unable to learn in this
atmosphere of displeasure, and the governess's strictures had in them a
touch of unusual severity.

Curiously enough, it was Mademoiselle herself who showed most sympathy
with Pixie during those dark days. Like most people of impulsive
temperament, she had quick reactions of feeling, and after having
stormed and bewailed for a couple of days, she began to reg