u must go, Judy?" she asked.

"It can't be true," burst out Nance, whose love for Judy sometimes
clothed that young woman's sins in a garment of light.

"Not expelled?" added Molly, in a whisper.

"No, no, not that; but suspended. I can come back just before mid-years,
but don't you see the trick? How can I pass my exams then? And Mama and
Papa, what will they think? And, oh, the Jubilee and all of you and
Wellington? Molly, I've been a wicked idiot and some of my sins have
been against you. I was jealous about that Jimmy Lufton because he had
seemed to be my property and you took him away. And, Nance, I was mad
with you because you were always preaching. I didn't really like Adele
Windsor. I think she is horrid. She's malicious and she makes trouble.
I've found that out, but she got me in her toils somehow----"

And so poor Judy rambled on, confessing her sins and moaning like a
person in mortal pain. She had worked herself into a fever, her face was
hot and she looked at the girls with burning, unseeing eyes.

"Papa will be so disappointed," she went on. "It will be harder on him
than on Mama for me not to graduate with the class, and oh, I did love
all of you--I really did."

Tears, which Molly had never seen Judy shed but once before, now worked
two tortuous little paths down her flushed cheeks.

Molly and Nance comforted and nursed her into quiet. They bathed her
face and loosened her dyed locks which were now beginning to show a
strange tawny yellow at the roots and a rusty brownish color at the
ends. All the time Molly was thinking very hard.

"Judy," she said, at last, when they had got her quiet. "There's no
reason why you shouldn't pass the mid-years and graduate with your class
if you want to."

"But how? I'm so behind now I can hardly catch up, and if I miss six
weeks I can never do it."

"Yes, you can," said Molly. "This is what you must do. Go down to the
village and get board anywhere, with Mrs. Murphy or Mrs. O'Reilly. Take
all your books and begin to study. Every day some of us will come down
and coach you, Nance or I, or Edith--I know any of the crowd would be
glad to, so as not to lose you."

"But the Christmas holidays," put in Judy.

"I shall be here for all the holidays," said Molly. "It will be all
right."

And so the matter was settled. The very next day Judy's exile began. She
engaged a room at Mrs. O'Reilly's, her obstinate mood slipped away from
her and she was happier and more