ea nor preparation brought her any nearer to solving the
difficulty. After supper she went into the garden, taking her
work-basket and crochet with her. She was in the lowest of spirits, and
blinked away some surreptitious tears. Weeping was not fashionable at
St. Chad's, being classed as "Early Victorian", and she wished to hide
her red eyes from the other girls; for this reason she hurried down the
long gravel path behind the rows of peas and beans, and found a snug
place by the tomato house, where there was a convenient wheelbarrow to
sit upon. She had not been there more than five minutes when, to her
surprise, she was joined by Lettice Talbot.

"I've been hunting for you everywhere, Janie!" announced Lettice. "I
shouldn't have found you now, only I caught a glimpse of your pink hair
ribbon through a vista of pea-sticks. Is there room for two on this
barrow? Thanks; I'll sit down then. Look here! I want to tell you how
glad I am that you stuck up for Honor last night. I know Maisie and all
the rest think she took that wretched sovereign, but I declare I don't.
Poor old Paddy! I'm certain she never could; I would as soon have done
it myself."

"I'm so thankful to hear you say this," exclaimed Janie. "I was afraid
I was the only one who believed in her."

"A few of our set are beginning to come round; Ruth Latimer is
certainly wavering, and so is Pauline Reynolds. But naturally they all
say: 'If Honor didn't take it, who did?'"

"That's exactly what I should like to find out," sighed Janie.

"Miss Maitland is absolutely certain that she left it on her table, and
that it was gone when she came back within a quarter of an hour; also,
that it hadn't fallen down anywhere in the room," said Lettice, with
the air of a judge weighing evidence. "Where is it, then?"

"I've thought and thought," replied Janie, puckering up her forehead,
"but I can't get any nearer. If we could prove, now, that someone else
had been in Miss Maitland's room, it might quite alter the case."

"Why, what an idiot I am!" exclaimed Lettice, suddenly bouncing up from
the wheelbarrow.

"What's the matter?"

"It's only just occurred to me! I suppose a really clever person would
have thought of it at once. I'm afraid my brains don't work very fast.
Oh, what a jubilee!"

"Lettice Talbot! Have you gone mad?"

"Not quite, but a little in that direction."

"Do explain yourself!"

"Well, you recollect when Honor climbed up to the window? We all