authority of my
colleague, which is equivalent to defying me, and have lowered the
prestige of the school in the eyes of the world, deserve the contempt of
their comrades, who, I hope, will show their opinion of such conduct. I
feel that any imposition I can give them is inadequate, and that their
own sense of shame should be sufficient punishment; yet, in order to
enforce the lesson, I shall expect each to recite ten lines of poetry to
her House Mistress every morning before breakfast until the end of the
term; and Marjorie Anderson, who, I understand, was the instigator of
the whole affair, will spend Saturday afternoon indoors until she has
copied out the whole of Bacon's essay on 'Empire'. You may go now."

Marjorie slunk off to St. Elgiva's in an utterly wretched frame of mind.
It was bad enough to be reproved in company with fifteen others, but to
be singled out for special condemnation and held up to obloquy before
all the school was terrible. In spite of herself hot tears were in her
eyes. She tried to blink them back, for crying was scouted at
Brackenfield, but just at that moment she came across Rose, Phyllis,
Laura, and Gertrude weeping openly in a corner.

"I'll never hold up my head again!" gulped Phyllis. "Oh, the Empress was
cross! And I'm sure it was all because those wretched girls from 'Hope
Hall' and 'The Birches' were walking along the promenade and saw us. If
they'd had any sense they'd have rushed down and asked for autographs
for themselves."

"It was mean of the Empress to tear ours up!" moaned Gertrude. "I call
that a piece of temper on her part!"

"And after all, I don't see that we did anything so very dreadful!"
choked Rose. "Mrs. Morrison was awfully down on us!"

"I hate learning poetry before breakfast!" wailed Laura.

"I'm the worst off," sighed Marjorie. "I've got to spend Saturday
afternoon pen-driving, and it's the match with Holcombe. I'm just the
unluckiest girl in the whole school. Strafe it all! It's a grizzly
nuisance. I should like to slay myself!"

To Marjorie no punishment was greater than being forced to stay indoors.
She was essentially an open-air girl, and after a long morning in the
schoolroom her whole soul craved for the playing-fields. She had taken
up hockey with the utmost enthusiasm. She keenly enjoyed the practices,
and was deeply interested in the matches played by the school team. The
event on Saturday afternoon was considered to be of special importance,