ence in the classroom. The Lower Fifth had been
expecting Gerry to remonstrate for some time past, and her failure to
do so had been put down as another sign of her weak spirit. The Lower
Fifth was quite unable to comprehend the mentality of a girl who, from
a sheer nervous dread of "rows," would submit to almost any treatment
rather than protest. The form waited now with some interest to see how
the situation would develop, leaving Phyllis to deal with it as she
thought fit.

Phyllis thought fit to say nothing for the moment. And after a brief
pause, Gerry spoke again.

"I'm _not_ German, you know," she said pleadingly. "Not the very least
little bit."

"Aren't you?" said Phyllis politely, but with the utmost indifference
in her tone. "I say, has anybody done this beastly number eleven sum
yet? Is 33-1/4 the right answer?"

"I'm not German, Phyllis! Truly I'm not!" repeated poor Gerry, her
eyes filling with tears.

"Oh, aren't you?" said Phyllis again. "Of course if you _tell_ us
so----" with an ironic emphasis on the "tell." Then she broke off with
an air of having done with the subject for ever. "But I'm really not
interested, one way or the other," she concluded. "I say, Dorothy, you
might tell me what your answer is to number eleven?"

"Then, _please_, don't call me that any longer," pleaded Gerry; but
Phyllis ignored her altogether and turned to Jack Pym, who sat on one
side of her.

"Extraordinary the number of Germans who're getting naturalised these
days," she remarked conversationally. "Shows what a fat lot of
patriotism they've got, doesn't it? As soon as their country's down
and out they all desert her and refuse to acknowledge her any longer.
Oh, well--I suppose it's all one can expect from a lot of German
Gerries!"

"Oh, shut up, for goodness' sake, and let me get on with my prep!"
growled Jack, planting her elbows firmly on her desk and bending over
her papers. Jack had caught sight of tears in Gerry's eyes, and the
sight had disconcerted her strangely. After all, Gerry was almost a
new girl. It had really been quite an accident that she had got her
into trouble on that first day of term; and even though she did speak
German so well it need not necessarily mean that she had German
tendencies. Did not Miss Parrot speak it equally fluently? Nobody
would ever dream of accusing Miss Parrot of having German sympathies.
Gerry really was having rather a rotten time of it, and it was