as
anything if one owned up straight". No, there must be another and a much
graver explanation.

A chain of circumstances flashed through Ulyth's mind, each unfortunate
link fitting only too well. The evidence seemed almost overwhelming.
Rona had been present at the meeting by the stream when Tootie incited
the juniors to some secret act of rebellion against the school rules.
What this act was the occurrence in the garden had plainly shown. That
Rona had been implicated seemed a matter of certainty. Her brooch had
been in the possession of the cake-vendor, and she had chocolates in her
bedroom, the acquisition of which she had refused to explain. Did she
intend to keep the pendant and exchange it for confectionery? Her
pocket-money, as Ulyth knew, was exhausted, and she had hardly any of
the trinkets that most girls wear.

"Ulyth Stanton, you are not attending to your work. Give me your answer
to Problem 46."

Ulyth started guiltily. Her page was still a blank, and she had no
answer to produce. She murmured a lame excuse, and Miss Harding glared
at her witheringly. Thrusting her preoccupation resolutely aside, she
made an effort to concentrate her thoughts upon the subject in hand.

The morning passed slowly on. To Ulyth each successive class seemed
interminable. At recreation, the girls, in small clumps, discussed the
one topic of the hour.

"I'm not surprised. I'd think anything of Rona Mitchell," said
Stephanie. "What else could you expect of a girl from the backwoods?"

"But she was so much improved," urged Addie, who had rather a weakness
for the Cuckoo.

"Only a veneer. She relapsed directly she got the chance, you see."

"But why should she take your pendant?"

"I can't pretend to explain her motive, but take it she did--stealing, I
should call it. But we're too polite at The Woodlands to use such a
strong word."

"What'll be done to her?"

"Pack her back to New Zealand, I hope--and a good riddance. I always
said she wasn't a suitable girl to come to this school. She hasn't the
traditions of a lady. You might as well try to make a silk purse out of
a sow's ear as to get such a girl to realize the meaning of _noblesse
oblige_. It's birth that counts, after all, when it comes to the test."

"There I think you're wrong, Stephie," put in Lizzie quietly. "Gentle
birth is all very well if it involves preserving a code of honour, but
in itself it's no hall-mark of character. Some of the humblest and
poo