smayed at such a motive being attributed to
her.

But the shaft had gone home. Against her own better judgment, Jack had
felt all along that Gerry had been unnecessarily careless over that
chestnut affair. In her heart of hearts she had not been able to help
blaming her a little for the row that had followed. And now Phyllis's
unjust accusation went home to roost. Jack's better moment, in which
she had been half-inclined to stand by Gerry, passed. Dorothy's taunts
and jeers and Phyllis's malicious suggestions achieved their end. No,
of course she couldn't be friends with a girl who was a coward and a
sneak! And all unaware of the tremendous courage it had needed for
Gerry to make her stand, Jack turned away and went back to her own desk.

And so the momentary break in Gerry's sky was over. The clouds were
back again, as thick as they were before--thicker this time, if
possible!

Truly, some ill-luck seemed to dog the steps of the unfortunate
occupant of Cubicle Thirteen!

CHAPTER XVIII

THE END OF THE STRIKE

One thing Gerry's defection certainly had done--it had quite broken the
strike. Phyllis and Dorothy tried their best to spur up the courage of
the form again, but it was of no use. There were waverers, but the
unity of the Lower Fifth was destroyed. Unless the greater part of the
form would consent to down books, the strike was bound to fail. It
would be no good for just a few of the girls to refuse to do their
preparation.

"Then I suppose we'd better set to work and try and rub up some of Miss
Burton's stuff," said Dorothy at last, with sulky resignation. "I've
got Muriel's directions for literature down, but nothing for German or
algebra. Anybody remember what she set us this morning?"

Nobody had actually taken down the preparation for the new
form-mistress, but one or two people had vague recollections of what it
ought to have been, and during the short time that remained that
evening, a real effort was made by the class to prepare a little for
the next day's lessons. Contrary to general expectation, Miss Burton
turned up to take her refractory form the next morning,--the prevailing
opinion in the Lower Fifth had been that she would "funk" it,--and she
was so agreeably surprised at her pupils' change of attitude that she
made considerable allowance for deficiencies.

At the end of the morning's work, when lesson after lesson had passed
and the Lower Fifth still remained dutiful