Margaret"--suddenly stopping in front of Peggy--"Margaret, I have
decided that you shall be the one to go abroad with me. I have made up
my mind to that, now that Millicent has confessed that she wrote the
poetry. Yesterday I was in doubt as to which one of you had written it,
so I requested you both to come to me, but in the mean time I have read
the other poems, and even before Millicent acknowledged it, I knew that
they had emanated from no pen but hers! No one else could have been
capable of such trash. We will sail, Margaret, on the 1st of June."

Still, Peggy held her peace. She would wait and see what Millicent said.
Millicent, too, was silent. At first her astonishment upon reading the
verses deprived her of the power of speech. Who in the world could have
written them, and how did they get among her poems at the fair? She felt
stupefied; but slowly a glimmering of the truth dawned upon her.

She knew that the author of the lines was either her sister or her
cousin.

It did not seem like Joan to do it, and yet it was not possible that it
could have been Peggy or she would boldly confess it now. It must be
Joanna. Whichever it was, Millicent would not speak. The innocent had
suffered for the guilty before this. There was no chance whatever of her
being chosen for England on account of the slippers, therefore she would
not spoil the prospects of the others. She could suffer for two offences
as easily as for one.

She rose, placed the verses upon Miss Briggs's desk, and stood before
her relative.

"I am very sorry," she said; "I did not know those verses were there.
I--I--apologize with all my heart. May I go now?"

"Yes, you may go, and do not come to the house again until you at least
appear to be more ashamed of your conduct. You are absolutely
unrepentant, I see. Go! Margaret, my dear, I should be glad to have you
stay and talk over our trip."

Millicent left the house feeling as if she were walking in a dream. What
could it all mean? Of course it was Joan. What a strange thing for the
child to do! And how cleverly she had hidden it!

When she was told of the transaction at the fair, of how Cousin Appolina
had bought all the poems, she had only laughed and thought it a good
joke, and was glad that Millicent's poetry was appreciated. And she went
off to school that morning as light-heartedly as possible. Her last
words had been:

"I hope you will get through all right with Cousin Appolina, Milly
dar