nlocked and opened the door.

Quivering with anger and outraged dignity, Mrs. Cupp swept the room with
flashing eyes.

"You will go to your rooms, young ladies, and you will all report at Dr.
Prescott's room to-morrow morning at ten o'clock," she decreed, and,
turning, moved majestically down the corridor, leaving black
consternation behind her.

"Now, we are in for it!" gasped Rhoda, as the sound of footsteps died
away.

Too overwhelmed to say another word, the others slipped away to their
rooms.

The next morning, with many inward quakings, they entered the
principal's room. Dr. Prescott's voice was severe as she said to the
five caught-in-the-act delinquents:

"You are ready to admit, I presume, that you have broken one of the
rules of the school. That I can understand. But that you should have
been guilty of disrespect to one of the officers of the school is quite
another and more serious thing. Have you any explanation to offer?"

After a moment's silence, Nan acted as spokesman.

"We did not intend to be disrespectful to Mrs. Cupp," she declared, and
then went on and told the whole story.

"That puts things in a better light," said Dr. Prescott, when Nan had
finished. "But to make you more careful in future and to remind you that
the rules of Lakeview Hall are made to be observed, not ignored, I will
forbid you all to go outside the grounds for three full days. You can
go now to your recitations."

The girls bowed and withdrew, and for the rest of the morning they were
unusually quiet. At noon they gathered in Laura's room, dropped into the
nearest chairs at hand, and looked at each other lugubriously.

"Three days without poking our noses outside the gates!" mourned Bess.
"How are we ever going to stand it?"

"I don't care much for that," commented Rhoda. "But I hate to give that
Linda Riggs anything to gloat over."

"And she will," declared Grace. "She'll make the very most of it, you
can be sure."

"She will."

"Oh, well, let her then," said Laura, recovering something of her usual
spirits. "Say, girls, did you see the expression on Cupp's face when we
opened the door?"

They burst into a merry laugh at the remembrance, and the laugh lessened
the tension and did them good.

"Oh!" gasped Laura, as she wiped the tears from her eyes, "I shall
remember that look when I'm an old woman."

"I suspect Cupp will remember the occasion, too, for many days to come,"
prophesied Nan.

"I wish there