ck up her drawer or resume her Euclid. She
stood for a moment or two pondering. Then a mischievous light broke
over her face, and she clapped her hands.

"Splendiferous! I'll do it!" she said aloud; and, whisking out of the
room, she ran up the winding staircase, and through the open wire door
into the forbidden but fascinating territory of the attics.

The girls at the Grange were obliged to keep strictly to their
practising time-table, and Raymonde was due at the piano in the
sanctum from 5.30 until 6.15. At 5.40, which was fully ten minutes
late, the strains of her Beethoven Sonata began to resound down the
passage. Mademoiselle, passing from her bedroom, stood for a moment to
listen. She was impressed by the fact that Raymonde was playing much
better than usual, and performing in quite a stylish fashion the
passage which usually baffled her. She almost opened the door to
congratulate her pupil, but being in a hurry changed her mind, and ran
downstairs instead. A little later Veronica, also in much haste,
entered the room arm-in-arm with Hermie.

"Miss Beasley has sent the notes, Ray," she explained. "You needn't
stop. I'll just pop them inside your drawer, and you can put them away
properly when you've finished practising."

The figure at the piano did not turn her head, or attempt to reply,
but went on diligently with the scherzo movement of the Sonata,
bringing out her chords crisply, and executing some quite brilliant
runs.

"Raymonde's improving enormously in her music," commented Hermie, as
the two monitresses went back along the passage.

"Yes," agreed Veronica. "And how remarkably pretty she looked
to-night! Her hair was quite curly, and she had such a lovely colour.
Did you notice?"

"That room's so dark, I can't say I did, particularly. Ray's not bad
looking, though I don't call her exactly a beauty!"

"She looked a beauty this evening! Fauvette will have to mind her
laurels! She's always been the belle of the Form until now."

When Maudie Heywood, in accordance with the practising time-table,
came at 6.15 to claim the piano, she found the sanctum unoccupied.
Raymonde's drawer in the bureau was shut and locked. This fact Maudie
noticed almost automatically. At the moment it seemed a matter of no
consequence, though in the light of after events it was to assume a
greater importance than she could have imagined.

Raymonde turned up late for preparation, looking hot and conscious,
and with her bro