tunity of doing so, and of at last setting straight the last
threads of the tangled web she had woven. She felt that she would have
told before about the essay if Netta had not been implicated, but her
father had agreed that she could not in honour expose her
schoolfellow. By skilful cross-questioning Miss Roscoe soon gathered
the facts of the case.

"I understand," she said thoughtfully; "I am glad you paid back that
sovereign, Gwen! It gives me a higher opinion of you than I should
otherwise have had. I judge that your own conscience and your father's
disapproval have punished you so severely that I can add little more
in the way of reproof. I can trust you not to do such a thing again.
Do I now know absolutely the whole of that transaction?"

"Every scrap!"

"Then we will consider the slate wiped clean."

"Thank you just a thousand times!" said Gwen, as Miss Roscoe with a
nod dismissed her from the study.

CHAPTER XXII

The Tennis Tournament

Netta's expulsion naturally made a great sensation in the school. To
prevent misconceptions Gwen told her classmates the entire story both
of the breaking of the china and the selling of her essay. They
already knew so much, that she felt it was better for them to learn
the whole; they could then form their own judgment of the case, and
decide upon what terms they would receive her back amongst them.

"I'm fearfully sorry about it," she said in conclusion; "I know I
don't deserve you to be decent to me."

"I'm extremely glad you've told us," said Hilda Browne, acting
mouthpiece for the rest. "It explains so very much. We never could
understand why you were friends with Netta, and it made us think badly
of you that you seemed so chummy with such a girl. But of course this
accounts for it. I won't whitewash you, but since you're sorry, I vote
we all agree to drop the thing."

"Yes, anyone who refers to it will be a sneak," agreed Elspeth Frazer.
"Gwen's made a fresh start, and it's not fair that any old scores
should be raked up against her. Netta's gone, of which I'm heartily
glad, and I hope now there'll be a better tone altogether throughout
the whole Form."

Elspeth mentioned no names, but she looked meaningly at Annie Edwards,
Millicent Cooper, and Minna Jennings, and the three reddened beneath
her glance. They were not bad girls, but they were weak, and under
Netta's sway they had been very silly, and sometimes dishonourable.

"We must all try and hel