at shape her "sneakiness" had
taken--that was the unjust part of it! Without hearing Gerry's side of
the case, the whole school--with the exception of the Sixth Form, to
whose august ears the rumour had not as yet penetrated--joined with the
Lower Fifth in leaving poor Gerry out in the cold.

Not that anybody had ever held much converse with the hopelessly shy,
silent girl, who, it was said, was an out-and-out German on one side of
her parentage, and who had done many sneaky and cowardly things. But
even such little formalities as passing the salt at meal-times, saying
"After you" when washing hands in the cloakroom, or "Sorry" when banged
into at hockey practice, were dispensed with now! Until you have tried
it personally it is impossible to know how very, very lonely and
uncomfortable being unpopular at school can be!

Added to all Gerry's other troubles, Miss Burton seemed to make a "dead
set at her," as the form expressed it, during that unhappy week.
Certainly Gerry's work was far from being well done. She was so
utterly cast-down and wretched that it seemed almost impossible to do
any work at all. It was really rather marvellous that she managed as
well as she did. But to Miss Burton the work seemed atrociously
performed, and she took no pains to hide her opinion of it from Gerry
or from the form at large. Hardly a day passed without Gerry's being
publicly scolded for her poor attempts at preparation, and returned
lessons became a regular rule. The Lower Fifth listened to Miss
Burton's tirades against the newest member of the form in unveiled
amusement--with the exception of Jack! Jack's conscience was hurting
her very badly during that week. If the truth had only been known, she
was not very much happier than Gerry herself.

The Thursday following Gerry's plucky stand for law and order was an
especially black day for the new girl. Miss Burton had been very
irritable and captious in class, more so even than usual, and most of
her anger was vented upon Gerry. At the close of the morning, Gerry
found herself with two returned lessons, three bad marks, and a total
of twelve good ones out of a possible fifty!

"Really, Geraldine," said the mistress as she closed her mark-book,
"these results are disgraceful! One of the children from the First
Form could have done better than that. Have you any explanation at all
to offer of the slack way you are working?"

Yes, Gerry had an explanation! Quite an ad