her arms.

"I'll get it!" cried Aldred, springing up before anyone else could
volunteer, and darting hurriedly out of the room. It had just occurred
to her that she might probably be blamed for this incident, and she
wanted to avoid that if it were still possible.

"You must go, Nellie!" she whispered to the housemaid. "The girls will
tell Miss Drummond if they catch you, and you'll get into trouble!"

"But I thought it was to be a bit of a joke, miss!" remonstrated Nellie,
who could not see where the fun had come in.

"They don't see the joke. You'd better run! Do you want Miss Drummond to
find you playing ghost, when you ought to be turning down the beds?"

Aldred had been forcing Nellie along the passage as she spoke, and now
she tore the sheet from the latter's shoulders, and flung it down the
back stairs.

"Go and wash your face!" she commanded. "I didn't ask you to whiten it.
You've made far more of this than I intended."

Nellie departed to the kitchen regions, highly offended. She considered
she had been badly treated, but, as she certainly did not wish Miss
Drummond to learn anything of the affair, she took Aldred's advice,
washed her face, put the sheet away, and only aired her grievance to her
fellow-servants.

Aldred, congratulating herself upon the success of her promptitude,
fetched a glass of water to the classroom. Lorna had in a great measure
recovered herself, but she was still pale and shaky, and anxious to
claim sympathy.

"I saw something all in white in the passage!" she was assuring the
other girls.

"Nonsense!" said Aldred brusquely. "How could you? Drink this, and
you'll feel better."

"She must have seen something!" declared Phoebe and Ursula.

"Well, there's nothing there now, at any rate. Go and look for
yourselves, if you don't believe me!"

"Perhaps the Third Form were playing us a trick," suggested Dora.

"It's extremely probable," returned Aldred. "Phyllis Carson loves
practical jokes."

"It must have been Phyllis," said Lorna. "It looked very like her, and
it is just the kind of thing she'd enjoy doing."

"It was a great shame of whoever it was, to give you such a scare!" said
Mabel. "It's never safe to frighten people, and I hate sham ghosts
myself. Do you feel well enough to go on with the scene, or shall we
stop for to-night?"

This incident (of which Alfred never divulged the authorship) had at
least the desired effect of considerably improving Fatima's acting.