ovement, she rolled under the bed,
and was out of sight.

"Study!" said Bertha, in a low whisper. "Study _hard_!"

Wholly bewildered, Peggy fixed her eyes on her book. She had heard no
sound before, but now came a footfall in the corridor. A knock at the
door, and Miss Russell opened it and looked in.

"Your lamp is in order now, Bertha," she said. "I thought I would tell
you, as I was going by; but you can stay a little longer, if you like.
How charming you have made your room, Miss Montfort."

"Won't--won't you come in, Miss Russell?" stammered poor Peggy,
conscious of Grace Wolfe's eyes under the bed, yet feeling that civility
admitted of only one answer.

"Not now, thank you! Some day soon I shall come and make you a little
visit, though, with pleasure. Good night, young ladies!"

She nodded kindly, closed the door, and passed on.

The girls drew breath. A moment, and Grace Wolfe rolled out again, rose,
and shook her neat dress.

"So much for Buckingham!" she said. "The good point about Principie is,
she is respectable. Now, my Puggy would have looked through the keyhole
first. But I foresee a visit to my own humble cot, to see whether I have
learned my lessons.

"Oh! Farewell, friends!
Here Thisbe ends!"

She waved her hand, vaulted once more over the window, and was gone. An
occasional faint, cat-like sound told of her progress up the
fire-escape; then a window creaked slightly overhead, and all was
silent.

Bertha Haughton ruffled up her curly black locks with a gesture of
exasperation.

"And the worst of it is," she said, "that girl will know her Greek
better than any one in class. That's half the trouble; she learns so
quickly, her lessons don't take half her time, and she puts the rest
into mischief."

"She seems awfully clever!" said Peggy, timidly.

Bertha nodded. "She is just that, my dear; awfully clever! I'll tell you
more about her to-morrow, but now we must study hard, for we've only
twenty minutes left. Only, my dear, when you think of the Goat, remember
three things: she is D. D. D.,--dear, delightful,--and dangerous!"

CHAPTER V.

TO THE RESCUE.

The next morning proved a hard one for Peggy; the rhetoric lesson was
the first that must be recited. She had studied it hard, but somehow the
rules seemed to make little impression. Whenever she tried to fix them
in her mind, there came between her and the page two melancholy blue
eyes, and she seemed to hear