, but it was only a bubble, which has collapsed utterly the last
few weeks. A guilty conscience--that's my explanation! I call her a
hardened little wretch, for she doesn't seem to mind a bit not being
allowed to come down to-morrow. You might have thought that she would
be perfectly miserable, but instead of that she really seems in better
spirits than before."

"She does, and she likes to hear about the party, too! Just watch her
when we are talking about it, and she is all eyes and ears. We saw some
of the refreshments coming in to-day, and she positively beamed! I
said, `Those are for supper to-morrow!' and she said, `Are they as nice
as usual? Do you think it will be as grand as last year? Will you have
every single thing just the same as if Miss Phipps hadn't been angry?'
I said that if Miss Phipps did a thing at all, she would do it properly,
and that I was quite sure it would be quite as `grand,' and she chuckled
with delight, just as if she were going herself. I can't make her out."

"Perhaps she thinks that Miss Phipps will relax at the last moment, but
if she does, she is very much mistaken. There will be no pardon for her
until she speaks the truth. As I said before, I believe she is just a
hardened little wretch who doesn't care what happens to her, and that is
why she doesn't show any sign of feeling."

"She has looked miserable enough until now. Why not give her the
benefit of the doubt, and believe that, whether she is guilty or not,
she is generous enough to be glad that the whole school is not to be
punished?" asked Margaret gently. "Whatever Pixie has done, she is too
warm-hearted to be called `hardened,' and I think some of you girls make
a great mistake in treating her as you do. You will never do any good
by bullying, for she is so terrified at anything like unkindness that it
makes it still more difficult to speak. You would have more influence
if you were kinder to her."

"Oh, Margaret, you are so absurdly good-natured! It's always the same
cry with you. You would forgive everybody, if you had your way!" cried
Evelyn impatiently, and promptly flounced across the room, leaving
Margaret and Lottie alone by the fire. They looked at each other in
silence, and then Margaret summoned up courage to make an appeal which
she had been meditating for some days past.

"They won't listen to me, Lottie, but they would if you asked them. It
is really cruel to be always gibing and jeering