ery nose? Marjorie, you are the limit!"

"He was as nice as anything about it. I think he's a perfect dear. He
didn't seem to mind at all, rather liked it, in fact! Here's his neat
little signature. Do you want to look?"

"Well, you have luck, though you needn't cock-a-doodle so dreadfully
over it. How did Frankie take it?"

"Oh, she was rather ratty, of course; but who cares? We've got our
autographs, and that's the main thing. One has to risk something."

"We'll get something, too, in my opinion," said Patricia Lennox, one of
the sinners. "Frankie was worse than ratty, she was absolutely savage. I
could see it in her eye."

"Well, we can't help it if we do receive a few order marks. It was well
worth it, in my opinion," chuckled Marjorie shamelessly.

She bluffed things off before the other girls, but secretly she felt
rather uneasy. Miss Franklin's threat to report the matter to Mrs.
Morrison recurred to her memory. At Brackenfield to carry any question
to the Principal was an extreme measure. The Empress liked her teachers
to be able to manage their girls on their own authority, and, knowing
this, they generally conducted their struggles without appeal to
head-quarters. Any very flagrant breach of discipline, however, was
expected to be reported, so that the case could be dealt with as it
deserved.

Marjorie went into the dining-hall for tea with a thrill akin to that
which she usually suffered when visiting the dentist. To judge from
their heightened colour and conspicuously callous manner, Rose Butler,
Patricia Lennox, Phyllis Bingham, Laura Norris, Gertrude Holmes, and
Evelyn Pickard were experiencing the same sensations. They fully
expected to receive three order marks apiece, which would mean bed
immediately after supper, instead of going to the needlework union. To
their surprise Miss Franklin took no notice of them. She was sitting
amongst the Juniors, and did not even look in their direction. They took
care not to do anything which should attract attention to themselves,
and the meal passed over in safety. Preparation followed immediately.
Marjorie found the image of the aviator and Miss Franklin's outraged
expression kept obtruding themselves through her studies, causing sad
confusion amongst French irregular verbs, and driving the principal
battles of the Civil Wars into the sidewalks of her memory. She made a
valiant effort to pull herself together, and, looking up, caught Rose
Butler's eye. Rose