ned round, to find--no desperate
villain armed with revolver and bowie-knife, but Miss Gibbs, in a
neat, shiny-black mackintosh and rainproof hat to match. She advanced
breathless and agitated, and very decidedly out of temper.

"You naughty girls! What do you mean by running away like this? I
watched you through my telescope as you went to the wood, and of
course followed you. Why didn't you come at once when I called?"

"We didn't know it was you!" murmured Raymonde, forbearing to explain
that they had taken their mistress for a ruffian.

Fauvette said nothing. She was looking horribly conscious and caught.
Miss Gibbs glared at the guilty pair, and, telling them curtly to come
along, led the way back.

Such a serious breach of school discipline was naturally visited with
heavy consequences. For the next three days Raymonde and Fauvette
spent their recreation hours indoors, copying certain classic lines of
_Paradise Lost_. They were debarred from the purchase of chocolates or
any other form of sweetstuff for the period of a month, and made to
understand that they were under the ban not only of Miss Gibbs's, but
also of Miss Beasley's displeasure.

"I never thought of that wretched telescope," mourned Fauvette. "Just
imagine Gibbie spying on us all the time! She must have watched us
scramble over the palings into the wood. It's worse than second sight!
And then for her to come gallivanting out after us in that swanky
mackintosh! It gave me spasms!"

"We'd a jinky time, though, first. It was worth being caught
afterwards," maintained Raymonde candidly. "And, you know, in secret
the Bumble Bee was rejoiced to see that bog bean. She won't admit it,
of course, but I know it's the discovery of the term. It's recorded in
the Nature Note-book, and the best piece was pressed for the museum.
My own private opinion is that both the Bumble and the Wasp will go
buzzing off to that Limberlost, exploring on their own, some day, and
I don't blame them. It's a paradise!"

"Most top-hole place I've ever been in in my life!" agreed Fauvette,
sighing heavily. "I say, I call it rather appropriate of the Bumble to
have made us copy out _Paradise Lost_!"

CHAPTER IV

Raymonde Explores

There was no doubt that Marlowe Grange was one of the quaintest old
houses in the county. The girls all felt that its mediaeval atmosphere
was unrivalled. Even such prosaic subjects as geometry or analysis
took on an element of romance whe