hat night, as the latter sat wielding her hairbrush at
bedtime. "And you needn't be afraid anybody would mistake you for a
flapper. Why, Harry Scampton actually asked Hereward the other day if
you were married! By the by," she added wickedly, "do you know I've
ascertained that Mr. Broughten's Christian name begins with 'J.' Whether
'John' or 'James' I can't say!"

"I don't care if it's Jehosaphat!" snorted Queenie. "I've told you
already he doesn't interest me in the least!"

CHAPTER XI

On Strike

It was about this time that a general spirit of trouble and
dissatisfaction seemed to creep into the school. How and where it
started nobody knew, any more than one can trace the origin of influenza
germs. There is no epidemic more catching than grumbling, however, and
the complaint spread rapidly. It had the unfortunate effect of reacting
upon itself. The fact that the girls were restive made the teachers more
strict, and that in its turn produced fresh complaints. Miss Burd,
careful for the cause of discipline, made a new rule that any form
showing a record of a single cross for conduct would be debarred for a
week from the use of the asphalt tennis-courts, a decidedly drastic
measure, but one that in her opinion was necessary to meet the
emergency.

Though the disorder was mostly among the juniors, Va was not
altogether immune from the microbe. It really began with a quarrel
between Ingred and Beatrice Jackson. The latter was a type of girl
common enough in all large schools. She was not always scrupulously
honorable over her work, but she liked to curry favor with the
mistresses. She copied her exercises shamelessly, would surreptitiously
look up words in the midst of unseen Latin translation, and was capable
not only of other meannesses, but sometimes of a downright deliberate
fib. She and Ingred were at such opposite poles that they did not
harmonize well together. In the old days, with visions of parties at
Rotherwood, Beatrice had at least been civil, but now that there seemed
no further prospect of being asked to pleasant entertainments, she had
turned round and treated Ingred with scant politeness in general, and
sometimes with deliberate rudeness. Little things that perhaps we laugh
at afterwards, hurt very much at the time, and Ingred was passing
through an ultra sensitive phase. During the latter part of that autumn
term she detested Beatrice.

One day Miss Burd announced that on the following Sat