night. We'll settle up this matter to-morrow."

Having seen each occupant of the dormitory ensconced between her
sheets (Cynthia did not dare to complain that hers were sardiny!) Miss
Gibbs went back to her own room, leaving the door wide open. With an
enraged dragon in such close vicinity the girls did not venture to
stir, and silence reigned for the rest of the night. At the first
coming of the dawn, however, Raymonde rose with infinite precaution,
and stole barefoot along the passage to remove her wire and screws
from the oak door. She accomplished that task without discovery, and,
after hiding the screw-driver behind a wardrobe, crept back to bed.

Nineteen subdued penitents, clothed in mental sackcloth and ashes,
went down to breakfast next morning. Their fears were not without
foundation, for when Miss Beasley returned at ten o'clock they were
summoned to the most unpleasant interview they ever remembered, from
which the more soft-hearted of them emerged sobbing. They spent
Saturday afternoon in the schoolroom writing punishment tasks, while
the monitresses went boating on the river. It was trying to see Daphne
and Hermie coming downstairs in their nice white dresses and blue
ties, and to know that they themselves were debarred the excursion.
They hung about the hall sulkily.

"It's your own faults," moralized Veronica. "After that disgraceful
business on Thursday, you couldn't expect anything else. We heard you
plainly enough, and we were utterly disgusted. I'd like to know who
locked that passage door. I have my suspicions," with an eye on
Raymonde.

The babyish innocence of Raymonde's face at that moment might have
served an artist as a model for a child angel.

"Have you? It's a pity to harbour suspicion!" she returned sweetly.
"We ought to learn to trust our schoolfellows! I loathe Veronica," she
added in a whisper to Ardiune, as the monitress tripped cheerily to
the door.

CHAPTER IX

A Week on the Land

The vacations at the Grange were arranged in rather an unusual
fashion, a full week's holiday being given at Whitsuntide instead
of the ordinary little break at half-term. This year Miss Gibbs, who
was nothing if not patriotic, evolved a plan for the benefit of her
country. She saw an advertisement in the local newspaper, stating
that volunteers would soon be urgently needed to gather the strawberry
crop upon a farm about fifteen miles away, and begging ladies of
education to lend their se