act of justice. As for
the matter of principle to which you referred, so far from advancing
the good fame of your country, you were bringing it into disrepute. If
you imagine it was a particularly patriotic deed to flaunt the shamrock
in a wrong place you are much mistaken. We have had Irish girls here
before, and I have always been able to rely upon them for the
maintenance of our high standard. You may go now, Honor, and remove
that foolish trimming from your hat; and remember that, as you have
been christened 'Honor', I shall expect you to live up to your name."

Honor left the room more subdued than she would have cared to
acknowledge. The calm, well-balanced arguments had completely disarmed
her. She had entered in a reckless mood, almost anxious to be scolded,
that she might have the chance of showing how little she cared; and
now, for perhaps the first time in her life, she had been compelled to
think seriously and sensibly upon a subject.

Very few teachers would have taken the trouble to reason thus with a
pupil, but Miss Cavendish had her special method of education, and
believed in paying particular attention to each girl's individuality.
"Different plants require different cultivation, if you are to obtain
good results," was one of her axioms. "You cannot successfully grow
roses and carnations with the same treatment." She had seen at once,
partly from her own observation and partly as the result of a talk with
Major Fitzgerald, that Honor was an unusual and difficult character;
and she wished to obtain a hold over the girl's mind from the very
outset. It was part of her system to train her pupils to keep rules
rather from a recognition of their justice and value than from a fear
of punishment; therefore she regarded the ten minutes spent in the
study as, not wasted time, but an opportunity of sowing good seed on
hitherto neglected ground.

Vivian Holmes was waiting for Honor outside the door of the study.
After conducting her to the school dressing-room, she produced a pair
of scissors and ripped the offending green trimming from the hat in
stony silence.

"May I keep them?" Honor ventured to ask, for it went to her heart to
see her bunch of cherished shamrock torn ruthlessly from its place and
flung aside.

"As you like," replied Vivian, "so long as they are not seen here
again." Then, with a look of utterly crushing scorn, she burst out:
"You needn't think that what you have done is at all clever. I