ndeed."

"There isn't much to tell," said Peggy, blushing. "I went up to get my
handkerchief,--I had forgotten it,--and as I was coming out of my room,
this fellow was just coming out of the other room."

"What other room? Whose was it?" cried a dozen voices.

"Why, Van--I mean No. 17, Miss Vincent and Miss Varnham's room."

"Oh! oh!" a shrill scream was heard; and Viola Vincent pushed her way
through the crowd of girls, and threw herself upon Peggy.

"My Veezy-vee!" she cried. "It was my room! V., do you hear? It was our
room that horrid wretch was robbing. My dear, if we had been there we
should have been murdered in our beds, I know we should. Peggy Montfort
has saved our lives. Isn't it perfectly awful?"

"That she should have saved your lives?" asked the Snowy Owl, laughing.
"Come to your senses, Vanity, and don't strangle Peggy. She's black in
the face, and I shall have to set about saving her life if you don't let
her go."

Released from Viola's embrace, Peggy gasped, and shook herself like a
Newfoundland puppy.

"Don't be ridiculous, Vanity!" she said, looking at once pleased and
shamefaced. "It wasn't anything, of course; it was just what any one
else would have done. But do look out for your things! They are
scattered all about the lawn; he threw away a lot of them when he first
came out, and we shall be stepping on them if we don't take care. Oh!
oh, please don't say anything more about it. It was just the merest
chance I happened to go up." This was to Vivia Varnham, who, trying to
overcome her ungraciousness, was expressing her gratitude for what Peggy
had done. It was evidently an effort and was not pleasant for either
girl.

The girls scattered over the lawn, picking up here a hairpin, there a
brooch or buckle. It really seemed as if Vanity Fair was stocked like a
jeweller's shop. Gertrude Merryweather, standing by Peggy, uttered an
exclamation. "My dear! Peggy! Why, you are all over blood! You are
bleeding now. What--where--oh! oh, Fluffy, _look_ here!" Bertha came
running, as Gertrude lifted Peggy's arm, which was indeed dripping
blood. Both girls exclaimed in horror, and Bertha turned quite white;
but Peggy looked at it coolly.

"Oh!" she said. "That must be where I went through the window after
him."

"The window?"

"Yes, didn't you hear the crash? He smashed the window in Miss Russell's
study and got out, and I followed him, of course. It isn't anything.
Why, I didn't feel it till you