for Gipsy, but I'm sorry it's happened at all," fretted
Hetty. "It's annoyed her dreadfully, and I believe she's ready to throw
the whole thing up and resign office."

"That she can't and shan't and mustn't do! We won't allow her!"

The struggle made a great sensation in the Upper Fourth. Some of the
girls openly twitted Maude with her defeat, an unwise and ungenerous
proceeding which bore ill fruit. Maude was not a girl to let bygones be
bygones; she turned sulky, brooded over her grievances, and bore Gipsy
a deeper grudge than ever. She was determined that she would not let the
latter go entirely unscathed, and looked about for some further
opportunity of flinging a dart.

"I'll pay her out somehow--see if I don't!" she grumbled to her chum
Gladys. "Wish I could think of some really good way!"

"I know!" cackled Gladys suddenly. "It's only struck me this second. Oh!
It's an inspiration! No, I daren't tell you here, with all those kids
about eavesdropping. Come outside into the playground, and I'll explain.
Have you any used South African stamps in your collection? Good! Then
it's as simple as ABC."

"What are the Triumvirate up to?" asked Lennie Chapman a few days later.
"I'm absolutely certain they've some mischief brewing."

"Do you mean Maude, Gladys, and Alice? I call them Korah, Dathan, and
Abiram," said Dilys. "They're always hatching plots of some kind. I
suppose they've a fresh grievance against the Guild."

"I believe they'd like to start a rival magazine of their own."

"Let them, then! There's no reason why they shouldn't. We should have a
chance to prove who's the best editress. But I don't believe they'd take
the trouble when it came to the point. They only make a fuss because
they enjoy growling."

"I can stand growls, but Maude's apt to stick in pins as well. I should
like to find out what she's evolving just at present."

Maude kept her secret well, however, and even Lennie's watchful eyes
could discover nothing beyond the ordinary schoolgirl nonsense that
generally went on among the three chums. She decided that she must have
been mistaken after all.

March, with its boisterous winds, was passing fast away, and an early
spring was bringing on green buds, and opening out venturous blossom on
pear and plum trees. It was the first time Gipsy had seen an English
spring, and she enjoyed the experience. The thrushes and blackbirds
which carolled all day in the Briarcroft garden especially appea