moments
before Dreda spoke.

"Susan! on your word of honour will you answer me a question
truthfully?"

"Yes, Dreda, of course I will."

"Why did you offer to be sub-editor after I had asked?"

Poor Susan! The freckles disappeared in a crimson blush which mounted
to her temples, and tinged her very neck beneath the stiff brown band.
She twisted her fingers together, and stammered incoherent nothings.

"Go on! You promised. The truth, and nothing but the truth."

"Dreda, dear--"

"Go on! I'm prepared. I've suffered so much humiliation already that a
little more or less doesn't matter. Well?"

"I thought--I was afraid--I didn't want you to get into trouble, dear.
You are so clever, and original, and sparkling, it is natural that you
should get tired. I am just a dull, plodding old machine."

Dreda bent her tall young head and kissed her friend with an air of
humble adoration.

"You are good and true, and I wronged you. I thought you were as
despicable as myself. All my life long I shall try to be worthy of your
forgiveness. My heart's broken, Susan! Everyone despises me in this
school, and I've an enemy, a secret enemy, who is hiding like a snake in
the grass. You know perfectly well that that book was not in the desk
when we looked!"

Susan was silent. She was as sure of the fact as it was possible to be,
but her cautious nature reminded her of the possibility of mistake, and
she would not venture on a definite assertion.

"I _thought_ it was not; I _thought_ we turned out everything."

"I _know_ we did! It was the work of mine enemy. Some day I'll
discover her, and then--"

Susan looked sharply upwards.

"What then?"

"I'll heap coals of fire on her head! I'll forgive her, and try to lead
her into better ways. That's all that's left to me now--to be a beacon
to others!" Dreda's voice shook, her composure breaking down before the
force of her own eloquence. She sank down on her bed, and the tears
rolled down her cheeks. "Oh! Oh! My heart will break. If it wasn't
for the exeat next week I should lie down and die. I'm going home!
They love me there. I never, never valued it before. I'm going home to
mother and the girls!"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

It was a very subdued, a very humble, a touchingly affectionate
Etheldreda who made her appearance at The Meads a few days later, and
her mother and sisters regarded her demeanour with anxious curiosity.

"Poor darling, poor darli