scholarship. Think of the
help you want to give your grandparents. Think of your own future."

"I think of them all," said Ruth; "but I also think of what father would
have said if he were alive. You see Cassandra, before all things he was
a gentleman."

Cassandra started. She looked full at Ruth.

"Is that a slap at me?" she asked.

"No; I did not mean it as a slap at you or anybody. I only see how the
matter looks to me, and how it would have looked to father, and how it
looks to grandfather. There are some people born that way; I think,
after a fashion, I am one of them. There are others who would look at
the thing from a different point of view, but I don't think I envy those
others. Shall we go in now and set to work?"

"You are an extraordinary girl," said Cassandra. "I really don't know
whether I love you or hate you most for being such a little goose. Well,
Ruth, if that is your mind, I don't know why you care to go in to work,
for it will be all over in a day or two--all over--and your fate
sealed."

"Nevertheless I should like to read that piece of Tasso, and do my work
with Miss Renshaw. Shall we go in?" said Ruth.

Cassandra somehow did not dare to say any more. Afterwards, when Ruth
had returned to her own home, Cassandra sat with her head in her hands
for the best part of an hour. Her mother asked her what ailed her.

"I have a headache," she replied. "I was with a girl to-day who is fifty
times too good for me."

"What nonsense you are talking, Cassandra! There are few people good
enough for you."

"To think of her gives me a headache," continued Cassandra. "If you
don't mind, mother, I will go to bed now."

Meanwhile things were moving rather rapidly in another direction.
Kathleen O'Hara, walking home that day in the company of Susy Hopkins,
eagerly questioned that young lady.

"How prim and proper every one looked in the school to-day!" she said.
"What is wrong?"

"There is plenty wrong," said Susy. "I tell you what it is, Kathleen, I
feel rather frightened. I suppose it will come to our all being
expelled."

"Oh, not a bit of it," said Kathleen.

"Well, it looks rather like it," said Susy. "Do you know what they are
doing?"

"What?"

"They are bringing pressure to bear upon Ruth Craven. The governors
convened a special meeting yesterday; they had Ruth before them, and
then tried by every means in their power to get her to tell. You see,
she is in the position of the person who