out of
it with the credit she expected. Gwen lingered behind. She felt she
could not leave without offering the apology which for seven long
months she had wished to make.

"Please, Miss Roscoe, I'm most dreadfully sorry about all this. I know
I ought to have come and told you at once when I knocked over the box
of china," she blurted out abruptly. "I've been miserable the whole
time about it."

"Well, Gwen, it's a lesson to keep square, isn't it? One little step
from the straight road often sends us farther out of our way than we
have any intention of going. I don't think you will descend to
anything so underhand again, will you?"

"Never in all my life!" protested Gwen with energy.

"Then we'll say no more about it."

The news that Gwen had been suspected of appropriating some of the
gate money had leaked out, as news always leaks out, and was received
with great indignation by the rest of the Fifth.

"Gwen Gascoyne simply isn't capable of doing such an abominable
thing!" declared Elspeth Frazer.

"No. Gwen's gauche and brusque, but she's unimpeachable," agreed Hilda
Browne.

"I'd rather suspect myself!" said Charlotte Perry.

Much satisfaction was expressed in the Form when the report of the
mistake in Miss Douglas's change was circulated, and Gwen's complete
acquittal secured. Everybody congratulated her heartily when she
returned to the classroom.

"You're the heroine of the hour," said Louise Mawson. "It was an
uncommonly disagreeable thing to happen. But in a bag full of change
it's very easy to confuse a half-sovereign and a sixpence. By the by,
has Miss Roscoe added up all the accounts yet? How much have we made?"

"One hundred and fifty-three pounds altogether," replied Gwen. "We got
a hundred and nine pounds by collecting, and the gymkhana has made
forty-four."

"Hooray! Then the cot is an accomplished fact."

"We shall all have to pay a visit to the Convalescent Home and see it,
as soon as the name is painted up over it," said Hilda Browne.

"Won't it look scrumptious to see 'Rodenhurst Cot' in black and
white?" chuckled Charlotte Perry.

"We shall have to publish reports of our special convalescents in
every number of the school magazine," suggested Iris Watson. "It will
be so interesting to read about them."

At four o'clock, by Winnie's express permission, Gwen went to Parker &
Sons and made a final settlement of their account. The relief of being
free from her load of debt was very