he manner of the Lady
Superintendent.

"Didn't Mrs. Gurley tell you what to do?" she queried. "I should think
it likely she would. Oh well, if she didn't, I suppose you'd better
bring your things downstairs. Yes ... and ask Miss Zielinski to give
you a shelf."

Miss Zielinski--she was the governess in the dining-hall--said: "Oh,
very well," in the rather whiny voice that seemed natural to her, and
went on reading.

"Please, I don't think I know my way," ventured Laura.

"Follow your nose and you'll find it!" said Miss Zielinski without
looking up, and was forthwith wrapt in her novel again.

Once more Laura climbed the wide staircase: it was but dimly lighted,
and the passages were in darkness. After a few false moves she found
her room, saw that her box had been taken away, her books left lying
[P.51] on a chair. But instead of picking them up, she threw herself on
her bed and buried her face in the pillow. She did not dare to cry, for
fear of making her eyes red, but she hugged the cool linen to her
cheeks.

"I hate them all," she said passionately, speaking aloud to herself.
"Oh, HOW I hate them!"--and wild schemes of vengeance flashed through
her young mind. She did not even halt at poison or the knife: a big
cake, sent by Mother, of which she invited all alike to partake, and
into which she inserted a fatal poison, so that the whole school died
like rabbits; or a nightly stabbing, a creeping from bed to bed in the
dark, her penknife open in her hand...

But she had not lain thus for more than a very few minutes when steps
came along the passage; and she had only just time to spring to her
feet before one of the little girls appeared at the door.

"You're to come down at once."

"Don't you know you're not ALLOWED to stay upstairs?" asked Miss
Zielinski crossly. "What were you doing?" And as Laura did not reply:
"What was she doing, Jessie?"

"I don't know," said the child. "She was just standing there." And all
the little girls laughed, after the manner of their elders.

Before Laura had finished arranging her belongings on the shelves that
were assigned to her, some of the older girls began to drop in from the
study. One unceremoniously turned over her books, which were lying on
the table.

"Let's see what the kid's got."

Now Laura was proud of her collection: it really made a great show; for
a daughter of Godmother's had once attended the College, and her
equipment had been handed down to Laura.