ue, though."

"What became of Joyce afterwards?"

"She married Sir Reginald Loveday, and became the lady of Clopgate
Towers. The tomb is in Byford Church."

"If she'd been shot by the trooper, I should have thought she was the
ghost girl!" commented Ardiune. "I don't quite see how we could fix
that up, though. It doesn't seem to fit. You're quite sure she
escaped?"

"Perfectly certain. How else could the Grange have been saved?"

Veronica's argument settled the question, but the girls felt that the
dramatic interest of the situation would have been better suited if
the story had ended with the melancholy death of the heroine, and her
subsequent haunting of the Manor.

"I always heard that Cromwell's soldiers destroyed the walls and made
those big holes in the gateway with their cannon-balls," said Morvyth,
still only half convinced.

"So they did, but that was two years afterwards, and the children were
all sent safely away before the second siege."

"It hasn't solved the mystery of the ghost girl," persisted Ardiune.
"Ray, what do you think about it?"

Raymonde, lost in a brown study, started almost guiltily, and
recommenced her sewing with feverish haste.

"Think? Why, it's a pretty story, of course. What more can I think?
Why d'you ask me?"

"Oh! I don't know, except that you generally have ideas about
everything. Who can the ghost girl be?"

But Raymonde, having lost her scissors, was biting her thread, and
only shook her head in reply.

CHAPTER XX

The Coon Concert

At the end of the summer term it had always been the custom of the
school for each Form to get up a separate little entertainment, at
which the other Forms should act audience. This year it was
unanimously decided not only to keep up the old tradition, but to
extend the original plan by charging for admission, and sending the
proceeds to the Blinded Soldiers' Fund. This idea appealed greatly to
the girls.

"They've given their eyes for us, and we ought to do something for
them!" declared Linda emphatically.

"It must be awful to be blind," sighed Muriel.

"Yes, and some of them are such lads, too! Think of losing your sight,
and having your whole career ruined, when you're only nineteen or
twenty, and the ghastly prospect of living years and years and years
till you're quite old, and never being able to see the sun again, and
the flowers, and your friends' faces, or anything that makes life
beautiful! I don't think half