! Why hadn't she
thought of him before! She could telephone to him, and he could get Aunt
Lucinda. The thought acted like magic, and she was scurrying down the
hall to the telephone in less than a minute.

She got Cousin Honora, but Cousin Tracy was out. Cousin Honora was not
even expecting him home to lunch, but she would try to locate him and
send him out to the school. Was anything wrong?

Blue Bonnet admitted that there was, a bit reluctantly, and hung up the
receiver, leaving Cousin Honora mystified and uneasy.

As she started back to her room she remembered that she had not yet
reported to Professor Howe. She went back, and entered Professor Howe's
office just as Fraulein Herrmann was leaving it.

Professor Howe looked serious as she motioned Blue Bonnet to a seat and
closed the door quietly.

"I have a very unpleasant report of you, Miss Ashe," she said firmly,
but gently. "I am surprised and sorry. What have you to say in the
matter?"

The idea that she was to have a chance to explain, had not entered Blue
Bonnet's head. Professor Howe's tendency to fairness changed her
viewpoint instantly. She felt ashamed--humiliated in the presence of
this clear-eyed, soft-voiced woman, whose glance fell upon her with an
expression almost maternal in its interest.

Slowly--one by one--the tears gathered in Blue Bonnet's eyes and rolled
down her cheeks. But for the ticking of the clock above the desk, there
was absolute silence in the room.

Professor Howe reached over and took Blue Bonnet's hand in her own.

"Tell me about it," she said, "everything--from the beginning."

And Blue Bonnet did tell her, omitting not a single detail.

When she had finished Professor Howe was silent for a moment.

"Did you ever think, Miss Ashe," she said presently, "what a chaotic,
unpleasant place this world would be without law, and order, and
discipline?"

Blue Bonnet had to confess that she had not thought much about it.

"Think _now_, for a moment. Take the case of your friend, Carita. If
there had been no rule against your going to the Infirmary this morning,
and Carita had come down with a contagious disease, you, by your
presence there for only a moment, might have carried the contagion to a
dozen others. Would you have had the right to do that, do you think,
simply because of your interest in your friend?"

Blue Bonnet shook her head slowly.

"And in regard to sending for your aunt. Could you not have trusted Miss
No