consequence. When one o'clock arrived
she arranged her new textbooks and notebooks in the desk that had been
allotted to her next to Lettice Talbot.

"Did you get into a fearful scrape with Miss Cavendish, Paddy?"
whispered the latter eagerly. "Do tell me about it!"

But Honor pursed up her mouth and looked inscrutable. She was unwilling
to divulge what had passed in the study, and Lettice's curiosity had
perforce to go unsatisfied.

On her arrival at St. Chad's Honor had been given a spare cubicle in
the bedroom occupied by the Talbots and Pauline Reynolds. On the
following afternoon, however, Miss Maitland sent for Janie Henderson, a
girl of nearly sixteen, and informed her that a fresh arrangement had
been made.

"I am going to put you and Honor Fitzgerald together in the room over
the porch," she said. "I hope that you will get on nicely, and become
friends. I want you, Janie, to have a good influence over Honor, and
help her to keep school rules. She does not yet know our St. Chad's
standards, and has very much to learn. I give her into your charge
because I am sure you are conscientious, and will try your best to make
her wish to improve and turn out a worthy Chaddite. You may carry your
things into your new quarters during recreation-time."

"Yes, Miss Maitland," answered Janie, with due respect. She dared not
dispute the mistress's orders, but inwardly she was anything but
pleased. She did not wish to leave her present cubicle, and looked with
dismay at the prospect of having to share a bedroom with this wild
Irish girl, towards whom as yet she certainly felt no attraction.

Janie Henderson had a painfully shy and reserved disposition. Hitherto
she had made no friends, invited no confidences, and "kept herself to
herself" at St. Chad's. She was seldom seen walking with a companion,
and during recreation generally buried herself in a book. Slight, pale,
and narrow-chested, her constitution was not robust; and though a year
and a half at Chessington College had already worked a wonderful
improvement, she was still far below the ordinary average of good
health. She was a quiet, mouse-like girl, who seldom obtruded herself,
or took any prominent part in the life of St. Chad's--a girl who was
continually in the background, and passed almost unnoticed among her
schoolfellows. She had little self-confidence and a sensitive dread of
being laughed at, so for this reason she rarely offered a suggestion,
or an opin