ersuasion would induce Diana
to disclose details even to Wendy or Loveday, but it was generally
understood in the school that Miss Todd had "spoken her mind". One
result loomed large, and that was the punishment. It was absolutely
unique. Perhaps the Principal was tired of giving poetry to learn or
lines to write, and considered that confinement to bounds was not very
good for a girl's health, so she devised something else to act as a
discipline. For a week Diana was condemned not to wear evening-dress. It
was a far greater trial than it sounds. Each night before supper the
school changed into pretty frocks, and, when the meal was over, spent a
pleasant hour together at recreation. With everybody else in festive
attire, it was terrible for Diana to be obliged to come downstairs in
her serge skirt and jersey, the one Cinderella of the party. Most
especially trying was it on Saturday, when chairs and tables were pushed
back in the dining-room, and dancing was the order of the evening. Poor
Diana, in her thick morning-shoes, stood forlornly in a corner, refusing
all offers of partners, but watching wistfully as the others whirled by.
Miss Hampson, whose wrath was of the short, explosive kind that quickly
turns to softness of heart, was understood to murmur something to Miss
Todd about the impossibility of waltzing in anything but
dancing-slippers; but the Principal's mouth was set firm, and she would
not remit the least atom of the sentence till it was paid to the
uttermost farthing.

If Diana looked wistful, she nevertheless bore her punishment with
dignity. She was a girl of spirit, and she did not mean to betray, even
by the blink of an eyelid, how much she cared. Geraldine, Hilary, and
Ida had rubbed in her ostracism, and certain impudent juniors had
enjoyed themselves with witticisms at her expense. To these she must
preserve an attitude of sang-froid. But up in the ivy room, when she
went to bed, the mask fell off. The Diana that cuddled in Loveday's arms
was a very different Diana from the don't-care young person of
downstairs. Loveday--who understood her now--consoled and kissed where a
term ago she would have scolded. There are some dispositions that can
only be managed by kisses.

"It wasn't as if I'd taken a hammer and smashed the wretched old casts!"
sobbed Diana. "I really didn't do them any damage; even the seccotine
was easily sponged off Venus. But Miss Todd talked and talked as if I'd
done something irre