e fresh ones."

"Oh, I dare say! It sounds easy enough when you haven't to do it
yourself. One's homework is quite enough just now without learning
pages of blank verse. Then there are the costumes."

"Wouldn't they come in for _The Rivals_? You might do some scenes from
that. We've never had it at school before, and it's simply ripping.
Or part of _She Stoops to Conquer_ would be gorgeously funny."

"You couldn't put Sir Anthony Absolute into Shylock's gaberdine, or
Tony Lumpkin into a Venetian doublet and tights! And what about the
wig? Hilda's had hard work to persuade her father to lend it, and
she'd be fearfully offended if it wasn't used."

These arguments were so conclusive that Gwen sighed. Nevertheless she
made a last appeal.

"Well, I think you're very silly to act _The Merchant_," she said.
"You might choose something far more original and interesting. It's an
opportunity wasted--and, if you'll only believe me, I'm quite sure
you'll be sorry for it."

"It's you that's silly, Gwen Gascoyne!" retorted the indignant
Elspeth. "We've chosen _The Merchant_, so why need you go trying to
upset everything. I was asking you about the costumes, not the play."

"Like Gwen's cheek!" murmured Louise Mawson. "We don't want ex-Juniors
interfering with our Dramatic!"

Gwen turned sharply away. It seemed most unfortunate that she always
got across the rest of the Form. In this instance her motive was the
purest, but as she could not explain, the girls naturally thought it
was only her love of putting herself forward which caused her to
suggest such a drastic measure as a change of programme.

"They never will understand me!" she thought bitterly. "Father said
they would be proud of me yet, but oh, dear! the more I try to do, the
more I seem disliked. They'll be fearfully sold when it comes to the
performance. I wonder if I ought to give them just a hint! It's really
too idiotic to have two _Merchants_. No, I won't! They'd probably only
slang me for letting out Form secrets. I'm glad I'm not acting, at any
rate. School's not exactly a terrestrial paradise at present. I wonder
what other troubles are coming to me? I believe I'm one of those
people who are born under an unlucky star!"

Gwen's words might almost have been prophetic, for the very next day
something happened--something so unprecedented and overwhelming that
she could never have anticipated it, even if she had been expecting
general ill luck.

At the in