an do as we like. It really is grand. I
suppose it is wicked, but then that makes it rather more fascinating."

"We are in the queen's Cabinet, bless her, the duck!" said Susy Hopkins.
"There are a dozen of us now, and there is talk of a sort of livery or
badge for the members of the Cabinet; but we'll know all about it when
we meet sharp at nine to-night. We are the twelve members of the
Cabinet, and there are about twenty girls who are our sort of standing
army. It is really most exciting."

The girls talked a little longer and then parted. As Susy Hopkins was
running home helter-skelter--for she wanted to get her lessons done in
order to be fully in time for the meeting that evening--she met Ruth
Craven. Ruth was walking slowly by with her usual demure and sweet
expression.

"Hullo!" called out Susy. "We'll meet to-night, sha'n't we?"

"I don't know," said Ruth.

"Aren't you coming? Why, you are sort of Prime Minister to the queen."

"You don't think it right really, do you," said Ruth--"not from the
bottom of your heart, I mean?"

"Right or wrong, I mean to enjoy myself," said Susy Hopkins. "I suppose,
if you come to analyse it, it is wrong, and not right. But, dear me,
Ruth! what fun should we poor girls have if we were too particular on
these points?"

"It always seems to me that it is worth while to do right," said Ruth.

"So you say, but I don't quite agree with you. You will come to-night,
in any case, won't you?"

"Yes, I will come to-night; but I am not happy about it, and I wish
Kathleen--Oh, I know it is very fascinating, and Kathleen is just
delightful, but I should not like our teachers to know."

"Of course not," said Susy, staring at her. "They'd soon put a stop to
it."

"Are you certain? I know so little about the school."

"Certain? I'm convinced. Why, they'd be furious. I expect we'd be
expelled."

"Then that proves it. I didn't know there was any strict rule about it."

"Why, what are you made of, Ruth Craven?"

"I thought," said Ruth, "that when we were not in school we were our own
mistresses."

"To a certain extent, of course; but we have what is called the school
character to keep up. We have, as it were, to uphold the spirit of the
school. Now the spirit of the school is quite against secrecy in any
form. Oh dear, why will you drag all this out of me? I'd made up my mind
not to think of it, and now you have forced me to say it. Of course you
will come to-night. You have to