, I'm in a hurry!"

"Here's mine," answered Lorraine. "And do you mind giving this note to
Morland? It's a list of pieces by that new Russian composer,
Vladi--something--ski. Rosemary sent it for him."

"Right you are!" said Claudia. "He's mad on Russian music just at
present."

The bell rang at that moment and the girls trooped upstairs to their
class-room. They had taken their seats, and Miss Turner was just in the
act of opening her Latin book when Miss Janet came bustling in. Miss
Janet's moods varied. This morning the corners of her mouth were tucked
in and her eyes were inscrutable. The form instantly set her mental
register at "stormy".

"Stand up, girls!" she commanded briskly. "Move from your desks and form
into line over there, facing me!"

Exceedingly astonished, the form obeyed.

"Now each of you turn up your feet so as to show me the soles of your
shoes, right first, then left. Thank you! Lorraine, whose shoes are
damp, will go downstairs and change into her gymnasium shoes: the rest
may take their seats."

Very much mystified the girls returned to their desks. Miss Janet
departed, and Lorraine ran down to effect the required change. She could
not understand Miss Janet's fussy solicitude for her health. She did not
remember that the form had ever been examined thus for damp feet. She
could only conclude that Miss Janet, who was apt to take sudden whims,
had been studying a treatise on hygiene. At eleven o'clock she had a
further surprise. Miss Paget brought her a message telling her to report
herself to Miss Kingsley in the study. Wondering what was the matter,
she answered the summons at once. She found Miss Kingsley and Miss Janet
sitting together at the table with trouble writ large on their faces.
The mental atmosphere of the room cut her like a knife, it was so
unmistakably hostile.

"Lorraine," began Miss Kingsley sternly, "I've sent for you to ask you a
straight question, and I expect a straight answer. Did you to-day bring
to school a letter addressed to--er--a member of the opposite sex?"

Utterly amazed, Lorraine hesitated, then, remembering her note to
Morland, replied;

"Yes, Miss Kingsley."

She wondered how the head mistress had got to know about it. Had Claudia
been so careless as to leave it inside her exercise-book?

Miss Kingsley's glance was hypnotic in its intensity. The corners of
Miss Janet's mouth twitched nervously.

"I'm glad you are candid enough to confess it, tho