bottle, and that was why it broke so easily!"

"And so the best reward you could give to the friend who shielded you at
her own expense was to suspect her of deceit! That will do, Lottie!
You can go to your own room now. I will deal with you to-morrow. Now
we will hear what Pixie has to say!"

Miss Phipps paused impressively for a moment, and then spoke again in
tones so sweet and gentle that it was difficult to recognise them as
coming from the same voice which had spoken but a moment before.

"Pixie, you have heard Lottie's explanation. I will speak about that
later on, but now I have a favour to ask you. For my sake, dear--for
all our sakes--to help us to get at the whole truth of this unhappy
affair, I ask you to tell me frankly what you were doing in
Mademoiselle's room when Ellen saw you there?"

Pixie hung her head, and her cheeks grew am scarlet as the scarlet
dressing-gown itself. She lifted one little slippered foot and stood
perched on the other like a funny little ruffled stork in the midst of
the shining floor, and the watching faces of the girls were pretty to
see with their expressions of tender amusement and sympathy.

"Please, Miss Phipps," said Pixie hoarsely, "I was doing nothing. I was
only after putting in the hot bottle!"

Miss Phipps stared, Mademoiselle gave a sharp exclamation of surprise,
and turned impetuously to her Principal.

"The 'ot bottle! It is true. I 'ave one every night, but I thought
that Ellen--that one of the maids--"

"We have put no hot bottle in your bed, Mademoiselle. It is Miss
Emily's rule that any of the young ladies may have bottles of their own,
if they take the trouble to fill them in the bathroom as they go to bed,
and to put them back there in the morning. We never put one in a bed
unless in the case of illness," said Ellen, who stood in a corner of the
room, one of the most anxious and interested of the spectators; and at
that Miss Phipps turned once more to Pixie.

"Then are we to understand that it was your own bottle of which you are
talking? And what made you think of lending it to Mademoiselle?"

"She told me that she was always cold," said Pixie faintly. "I didn't
like to think of her lying there shivering. Bridgie gave me the bottle
when I came away in a little red flannel cover. `You're such a frog!'
says she, `maybe this will warm you,' but I just roll my feet in my
nightgown and hug them in my hands until they are warm. I thought