! Oh, but you'll never! I'm a real live Greycoat, and
if I don't tell Timmy before you ask a single question I shall
burst!"

She came to a halt, her eyes on Mr. Colt.

"'Tis the truth," announced Brother Copas, overtaking her as she
paused in the doorway. "We shot at a canary, and--Good God!" he
exclaimed, catching sight of Brother Bonaday's face. "Slip away and
fetch the nurse, child!"

Corona ran. While she ran Brother Copas stepped past Mr. Colt, and
slid an arm under his friend's head as it dropped sideways, blue with
anguish. He turned on the tall Chaplain fiercely.

"What devil's game have you been playing here?"

CHAPTER XVII.

PUPPETS.

Throughout the night Brother Bonaday hovered between life and death,
nor until four days later did the doctor pronounce him out of
danger--that is to say, for the time, since the trouble in his heart
was really incurable, and at best the frail little man's remaining
days could not be many. Nurse Turner waited on him assiduously,
always with her comfortable smile. No trouble came amiss to her, and
certainly Nurse Branscome herself could not have done better.

In a sense, too, Corona's first experiences of school-going befell
her most opportunely. They would distract her mind, Brother Copas
reflected, and tore up the letter he had written delaying her
noviciate on the ground of her father's illness. They did; and,
moreover, the head mistress of the Greycoats, old Miss Champernowne,
aware that the child's father was ill, possibly dying, took especial
pains to be kind to her.

Corona was dreadfully afraid her father would die. But, in the main
most mercifully, youth lives for itself, not for the old. At home
she could have given little help or none. The Brethren's quarters
were narrow--even Brother Bonaday's with its spare chamber--and until
the crisis was over she could only be in the way. She gave up her
room, therefore, to Nurse Turner for the night watching, and went
across to the Nunnery to lodge with Nurse Branscome. This again was
no hardship, but rather, under all her cloud of anxiety, a delightful
adventure; for Branny had at once engaged with her in a conspiracy.

The subject--for a while the victim--of this conspiracy was her black
doll Timothy. As yet Timothy knew nothing, and was supposed to
suspect nothing, of her goings to school. She had carefully kept the
secret from him, intending to take him aback with it when she brought
home t