u home."

[Illustration: THEN SOMEHOW MARJORIE FOUND HERSELF BLURTING OUT THE
ENTIRE STORY _page 172_]

Mrs. Morrison spoke quietly, but very firmly. She pointed to the door,
and Marjorie, without a word, withdrew. She had been given no chance
to explain matters or defend herself. By acknowledging that she had
written to Private Hargreaves Mrs. Morrison considered that she had
pleaded guilty, and had condemned her without further hearing. As if
walking in a bad dream, Marjorie crossed the quadrangle, and went down
the path to the Isolation Hospital. This was a small bungalow in a
remote part of the grounds. It was kept always in readiness in case any
girl should develop an infectious complaint. Marjorie had been there for
a few days last term with a cold which Miss Norton suspected might be
influenza. She had enjoyed herself then. How different it was now to go
there in utter disgrace and under threat of expulsion! She sat down in
one of the cosy wicker chairs and buried her face in her hands. To be
expelled, to leave Brackenfield and all its interests, and to go home
with a stigma attached to her name! Her imagination painted all it would
mean--her father's displeasure, her mother's annoyance, the surprise of
friends at home to see her back before mid-term, the entire humiliation
of everybody knowing that she had been sent away from school.

"I shall never be able to hold up my head again," she thought. "And it
will spoil Dona's career here too. They won't be able to send Joan to
Brackenfield either; she'll have to go to some other school. Oh, why was
I such an absolute lunatic? I might have known the Empress would take it
this way!"

Sister Johnstone, one of the school nurses, now came bustling in. She
glanced at Marjorie, but made no remark, and set to work to light the
fire and dust the room. Presently, however, she came and laid her hand
on the girl's shoulder.

"I don't quite understand yet what it's all about, Marjorie," she said
kindly; "but my advice is, if you've done anything wrong, make a clean
breast of it and perhaps Mrs. Morrison may forgive you."

"She's expelled me!" groaned Marjorie.

"That's bad. Aren't there any extenuating circumstances?"

But Marjorie, utterly crushed and miserable, only shook her head.

The Principal was sincerely concerned and grieved by the occurrence. It
is always a blot on a school to be obliged to expel a pupil. She talked
the matter over carefully with some of the