e forgotten. She
did say she would ask me to visit her, and I wouldn't hurt her feelings
by saying No, so I just wrote and told Bridgie to say I couldn't be
spared, for I can't go anywhere but my own home. And she said her
father would be so angry with her if he knew, that never another happy
moment would she have, and I knew my people wouldn't mind!"

"And did you tell your people how unhappy you were? Did you tell them
what trouble you were in?" queried Miss Phipps softly, and at that Pixie
shook her head with great emphasis.

"I did not, Miss Phipps--I wouldn't dare! They would be so terribly
angry!"

"But you said a moment ago that they `wouldn't mind'! Then how could
they be angry with you, dear?" asked Miss Phipps, smiling, and Pixie
bent her head with a quick propitiatory bow.

"'Deed, it was yourself they would be angry with,--not me! If the two
Houses of Parliament were walking up to Knock Castle and telling them
that Pixie had told a lie and stuck to it for a month on end, they would
only be calling shame upon them, to have nothing better to do than take
away a lady's character, and the Major would say, `Twelve years have I
known her, and never the day that she wasn't up to her neck in mischief,
but no child of mine ever looked in my face and gave me the lie, and
Pixie's not the one to begin.' So never a word did I say, but just that
the examinations were coming on, and we were not allowed to go out."

"Pixie, come here!" cried Miss Phipps; and when the girl approached she
received her with outstretched arms and framed the thin little face with
her hands. "Little Pixie," she said softly, "never say again that no
one loves you in this house. I have loved you from the first, and have
felt it a real trouble to be obliged to doubt you, and now I love you a
hundred times more for your loyalty and unselfish consideration for your
friend. You would have been wiser to be more candid about your own
doings, but I appreciate your scruples, and the school code of honour
has so many good points that I cannot bring myself to say that it should
have been broken. As for the conduct of a girl who would let another
suffer as you have done rather than bear the consequences of her own
misdoing, I have no words to express my horror and indignation,
especially when she is a senior and you one of the youngest in the
school. It shows a want of principle which makes me despair of her
future. A sudden slip or disobedi