f you?"

"Not since our last entry," said Gertrude.

"Chips," said Agatha, calling to the flaxen-haired child, "go upstairs
to No. 6, and, if Miss Wilson isn't there, fetch me the Recording
Angel."

The little girl grumbled inarticulately and did not stir.

"Chips," resumed Agatha, "did you ever wish that you had never been
born?"

"Why don't you go yourself?" said the child pettishly, but evidently
alarmed.

"Because," continued Agatha, ignoring the question, "you shall wish
yourself dead and buried under the blackest flag in the coal cellar if
you don't bring me the book before I count sixteen. One--two--"

"Go at once and do as you are told, you disagreeable little thing," said
Gertrude sharply. "How dare you be so disobliging?"

"--nine--ten--eleven--" pursued Agatha.

The child quailed, went out, and presently returned, hugging the
Recording Angel in her arms.

"You are a good little darling--when your better qualities are
brought out by a judicious application of moral force," said Agatha,
good-humoredly. "Remind me to save the raisins out of my pudding for you
to-morrow. Now, Jane, you shall see the entry for which the best-hearted
girl in the college is to be expelled. Voila!"

The two girls read and were awestruck; Jane opening her mouth and
gasping, Gertrude closing hers and looking very serious.

"Do you mean to say that you had the dreadful cheek to let the Lady
Abbess see that?" said Jane.

"Pooh! she would have forgiven that. You should have heard what I said
to her! She fainted three times."

"That's a story," said Gertrude gravely.

"I beg your pardon," said Agatha, swiftly grasping Gertrude's knee.

"Nothing," cried Gertrude, flinching hysterically. "Don't, Agatha."

"How many times did Miss Wilson faint?"

"Three times. I will scream, Agatha; I will indeed."

"Three times, as you say. And I wonder that a girl brought up as
you have been, by moral force, should be capable of repeating such
a falsehood. But we had an awful row, really and truly. She lost her
temper. Fortunately, I never lose mine."

"Well, I'm browed!" exclaimed Jane incredulously. "I like that."

"For a girl of county family, you are inexcusably vulgar, Jane. I don't
know what I said; but she will never forgive me for profaning her pet
book. I shall be expelled as certainly as I am sitting here."

"And do you mean to say that you are going away?" said Jane, faltering
as she began to realize the consequences.