bell rang, and Patty at her desk in the empty schoolroom heard
the girls laughing and talking, as they clattered down the tin-covered
back stairs to the dining-room. She was very tired and very hungry. She
had had five hours of work since breakfast, with only a glass of milk at
eleven o'clock. Even the pleasurable sensation of being abused did not
quite offset the pangs of hunger. She listlessly set about learning the
morrow's lesson in French History. It dealt with another martyr. Louis
the Ninth left his bones bleaching on the plains of Antioch. The cause
was different, but the principle remained. If she was not to be fed
until she learned the Latin--very well--she would leave her bones
bleaching in the schoolroom of St. Ursula's.

An insistent tapping sounded on the window. She glanced across an angle,
to find Osaki, the Japanese butler, leaning far out from his pantry
window, and extending toward her a dinner plate containing a large, lone
slab of turkey.

"Leave plate in wastebasket, Missy," he whispered hoarsely.

Patty, for an instant, struggled with dignity and martyrdom, but hunger
and a love of intrigue triumphed. She tiptoed over and received the
offering. There was no knife or fork, but primitive methods suffice in a
case of real starvation. She finished the turkey and buried the plate
beneath a pile of algebra papers. It was Osaki's daily business to empty
the wastebasket; the plate in due course would be restored to its shelf.

A few moments later a scurrying footfall sounded at the door, and a
little Junior A. darted to Patty's side. She cast a conspiratorial
glance over her shoulder as she drew from a bulging blouse two buttered
rolls.

"Take 'em quick!" she panted. "I must hurry back, or they'll suspect. I
asked to be excused to get a handkerchief. Keep up your courage. We
won't let you starve. It's splendid!"

She thrust the rolls into Patty's lap and vanished.

Patty found it comforting to know that the school was with her. The
attractions of martyrdom are enhanced by the knowledge of an audience.
Also, the rolls were a grateful addition to the turkey; her five-hour
appetite was still insistent. She finished one of them and was about to
begin on the second, when furtive footfalls sounded behind her, and one
of the maids slipped a paper plate over her shoulder.

"Here's some fresh gingerbread, Miss Patty. Cook says--"

The sound of a closing door startled her, and she scurried off like a
det