e lingered a moment, half hopefully; then, as Gipsy only shook her
head in reply, she gave up her useless attempt, and went sorrowfully
away. In black despair Gipsy mentally went over the conversation,
wondering how she could have convinced Miss Edith of her innocence. She
could not allow herself to be cajoled by kindness into a confession of
what she had not done, any more than she could permit herself to be
coerced by severity. Miss Edith might use gentle persuasion, and Miss
Poppleton might try to cow her and break her spirit, but neither should
succeed in forcing her to a false admission.

Helen Roper came up at dinner-time with a plate of meat and vegetables
in one hand and a glass of water in the other. She slammed them down
hastily on the table, with a scornful glance at the prisoner.

"That's all you'll get," she remarked brusquely. "Miss Poppleton says
you don't deserve pudding to-day. And quite right, too! Bread and
water'd be enough for you, in my opinion. Why haven't you the pluck to
face things in an honourable way, and say you're sorry for what you've
done? I never much cared for you, but I thought better of you than this.
For the sake of the school, do let's have an end of this wretched
business! 'Noblesse oblige' has been our motto, and I hoped every girl
would have risen to it. Have you no self-respect?"

"Yes--too much to say I've done what I haven't," retorted Gipsy,
glowering her defiance.

Helen shrugged her shoulders.

"Miss Poppleton says you're as obstinate as a mule, and she's about
right!" she remarked tartly, as she banged the door and locked it
noisily behind her. Gipsy was not hungry, so the plentiful supply of
meat and vegetables was quite sufficient for her needs, and the lack of
pudding was no grievance. Helen's severe censure hurt her desperately.
Had the girls all condemned her equally without fair trial, and without
sifting the evidence against her? Did Hetty, and Dilys, and Meg, and
Lennie, her own particular friends, consider her guilty? Had they no
better belief in her honour than that? Had everybody forsaken her? Gipsy
pushed her half-finished plateful aside. She was choking too much with
sobs to swallow another morsel.

"There isn't a single soul here who cares! I shall have to go away and
find Dad!" she exploded in a kind of desperation, standing up and
scrubbing her eyes with her wet pocket-handkerchief.

In the meantime Gipsy's friends had not altogether abandoned her, a