'do unto
others.'"

Joy was quick to come to the defence of her family.

"No--I can't find excuse in that. My people are truthful. They're queer,
maybe, but they are truthful and honest."

Perhaps it was the gentle pressure of Blue Bonnet's hand, the sympathy
in her eyes, that gradually brought forth the story of Joy's life.
Before she had finished, Blue Bonnet's tears mingled with Joy's, and
the grasp tightened on the hand held in her own.

In that half hour Joy poured out her heart in a way she would have
thought impossible an hour before. She told Blue Bonnet of her cold,
indifferent father; of the patient, long-suffering mother who had
planned and saved, and sacrificed to keep her in school, and of how she
had longed to repay the devotion with the highest honors the school
could give.

"It was the thought of my mother's awful disappointment that tempted me
to lie to Miss Martin," she said. "It all happened so quickly I scarcely
had time to think clearly. I was so afraid of being expelled--I will be
now, of course. Miss North is going to bring the whole thing before the
Faculty to-morrow."

"Oh, no--surely she won't do that!" Blue Bonnet cried. "Did you tell her
what you've just told me, Joy?"

"No. I'm not playing for sympathy. I'll take what's coming, if--if only
the girls didn't have to know."

"They don't," Blue Bonnet said determinedly. "Nobody knows it but
Annabel Jackson and myself. Annabel won't tell, and nobody ever knows
what goes on in Faculty. Now, what is that?"

A knock had startled both girls. Blue Bonnet went to the door.

"Oh, dear," she said, "I forgot all about going to study hour. I just
know that's Fraulein."

Fraulein it was.

"You were not in the study hall, Miss Ashe," she said, craning her neck
to see into the room.

Blue Bonnet stepped outside and closed the door.

"No, I wasn't. I was engaged."

"You were excused?"

"No--I was not."

"Then I shall haf to report to Miss North."

The color came into Blue Bonnet's cheeks and her eyes flashed.

"Do," she said. "I don't mind giving you that little treat."

"I perfectly abominate that woman," she said, going back to the hearth
rug. "She can anger me quicker than any one I ever knew. I was terribly
rude to her; but she is so aggravating. She adores getting something on
me."

When the gong sounded for bed Blue Bonnet had drawn a tub of hot water
for Joy's bath, and urged her into it.

"It will make her sleep better,"