ere
accustomed to Marjorie's very impulsive and rather erratic ways, and did
not take her infatuations too seriously.

"Quarrelled with Winifrede?" enquired Patricia humorously. "I thought
you were worshipping at her shrine at present."

"Marjorie is a pagan," laughed Rose Butler. "She bows down to many
idols."

"I should call Winifrede a more desirable goddess than Chrissie," added
Irene.

"Go on, tease me as much as you like!" declared Marjorie. "You're only
jealous."

"Jealous! Jealous of Chrissie Lang! Great Minerva!" ejaculated Irene
eloquently.

It was about two days after this that Marjorie, passing down the
corridor from Dormitory No. 9, came suddenly upon Chrissie issuing out
of Miss Norton's bedroom. Marjorie stopped in supreme amazement.
Mistresses' rooms were sacred at Brackenfield, unless by special
invitation. Miss Norton was not disposed to intimacy, and it was not in
the knowledge of St. Elgiva's that she had admitted any girl into her
private sanctum.

"Did Norty send for you there?" questioned Marjorie in a whisper.

"Sh, sh!" replied Chrissie. "Come back with me into the dormitory."

She drew her friend inside her cubicle, looked round the room to see
that they were alone, then patted her pocket and smiled.

"I've got them!" she triumphed.

"Got what?"

"Norty's foreign letters, or some of them at any rate."

"Chris! You never went into her room and took them?"

"That's exactly what I did, old sport! I'm going to look them over, and
put them back before she finds out."

Marjorie gasped.

"But look here! It doesn't seem quite--straight, somehow."

"Can't be helped in the circumstances," replied Chrissie laconically.
"We've got to outwit her somehow. It's a case of 'Greek meets Greek'.
How else are we to find out anything?"

"I don't know."

The idea of entering a teacher's bedroom and taking and reading her
private correspondence was intensely repugnant to Marjorie. Her face
betrayed her feeling.

"You'd never do on secret service," said Chrissie, shaking her head. "I
thought you were patriotic enough to dare anything for the sake of your
country. Go downstairs if you don't want to see these letters. I'll read
them by myself."

"I wish you'd put them back at once," urged Marjorie.

"Not till I know what's in them. Here comes Betty! I'm going to scoot.
Ta-ta!"

Marjorie followed Chrissie downstairs, but did not join her in the
garden. She was not happy about this latest