ltered, and tried to
look at the map, and was in such a palpable quandary that, to save the
situation, the Principal interfered.

"If you don't feel well," she remarked sternly, "you had better sit
down, and _I_'ll take the lesson."

With trembling knees and racing pulse Lesbia sank on to the chair, and
listened in deep humiliation while Miss Ormerod, without any assistance
from the book, gave an excellent geography lesson. The girls were models
of attention and intelligence, and everything which they ought to have
been, but never were, under their junior teacher. Lesbia hardly knew
them for the same form.

"I shall hear about this from Miss Ormerod," she ruminated. "I don't
suppose for a moment this is the end of it."

It certainly was not. She had a most unpleasant interview in the
Principal's study that afternoon, and received scathing criticism on
her incapacity and lack of discipline. Miss Ormerod instituted a
thorough supervision over her teaching, proposing to be present herself
during the geography lessons, and warning her of surprise visits any
time during her other classes.

"If you undertake to teach in this school you will do it properly or not
at all," finished the head mistress grimly. "I consider so far you've
utterly failed and you're worse than useless as a help to the staff."

Lesbia went home overwhelmed with shame. Miss Ormerod was very hard, but
there had been justice in her remarks. A girl who was giving tuition in
return for her fees ought to have seen to it that her services were of
real value to the school. It was a wrong balance of duty to concentrate
on her own homework and neglect to prepare for her classes. She could
appreciate that point now, though it had not struck her before. It would
be a horrible ordeal to teach in Miss Ormerod's presence, but there
would be one compensation at any rate; the children would behave
themselves, and she would be treated to no more of the "ragging" which
had often made the lessons unendurable.

"If they know she may pop in any moment I believe they'll keep quiet
even during dictation. Young wretches! I shall have a sword to dangle
over their heads now," she thought, cheering up a little.

There is no doubt that Miss Ormerod, like many new brooms, "swept
clean", but the girls considered that she made too clean a sweep
altogether of the past traditions of the school. She had many theories
of her own regarding girls, and she was anxious to put them in