ty, and leaving the peppery remains on her plate,
stalked off to the garden. She had certainly been too busy thinking
during breakfast to notice her plate. It had struck her that if she
really wished Beatrice to allow her to do charwoman's work at the
school, she must give some proof of her capacity in that direction.

"Mrs. Cass never begins till one o'clock," she thought. "I'll go down
this morning and get it all done before she comes, and then I can show
Beatrice."

It seemed the only possible way of earning money open to her, so
stealing one of Nellie's coarse aprons and a tin of soft soap from the
kitchen, she hurried off to the school. She knew where Mrs. Cass kept
the bucket and scrubbing-brush which she used for her cleaning
operations; they were in a cupboard at the end of the passage. Being
Saturday, the place was, of course, empty, and no one would disturb
her. She had brought the Parsonage key to unlock the door, and after
filling her bucket at the pump in the yard, she put on the apron,
tucked up her sleeves, and set to work. And it was work! Gwen had
never in her life before tried to scrub a floor, and though her arms
were sturdy and strong at wielding a tennis-racket or the lawn mower,
they soon began to ache at the unwonted exercise which she had set
herself. The room seemed most enormously large, and she was sure it
was abnormally dirty. The school children's boots must have been caked
with mud. She began to have a wholesome respect for Mrs. Cass. She
grew stiff and cramped with kneeling, and was obliged to stand up
occasionally and take a rest.

"There are the two classrooms to do yet," she thought ruefully, "to
say nothing of the passage. I'm getting rather fed up with scrubbing."

But she was only half through, so she set grimly to her self-imposed
task again. She had very nearly finished the big room when the door
softly opened, and who should appear but Beatrice! At the sight of
Gwen and her occupation she nearly dropped the books she was carrying.

"Gwen! what's the meaning of this? You do look an object!" she
exclaimed.

Gwen jumped up hastily, well aware that she thoroughly merited any
aspersions on her appearance. Both her dress and the apron were soaked
with water, her face had accumulated some of the dirt, her hair ribbon
had fallen off, and her hair was dangling in her eyes. A more untidy
young person could not have been found in the whole village. She
flung back her hair with a wet,