to break bounds if she found a suitable
opportunity; and though hitherto Gipsy had been strictly truthful, her
previous reputation for honour could not do away with the circumstantial
evidence of the damp waterproof and galoshes.

The neighbours who had reported noticing one of the Briarcroft boarders
in Mansfield Road on several successive evenings could give no account
of the truant's personal appearance. It had been dusk at the time, and
they had only seen a girl in a sailor hat with a blue-and-white striped
band hurrying rapidly past, as if anxious to escape observation. They
thought she had dark hair, and that she must be about fourteen or
fifteen years of age, but otherwise could not identify her in the least.
The description might or might not fit Gipsy, but Miss Poppleton, misled
by her own prejudice, jumped immediately to the conclusion that she and
no other was the miscreant. If she had been harsh with the girl before,
she was terribly stern with her now. She considered it an act of the
very basest ingratitude and the most double-dyed deceit, and was the
more particularly angry because the episode had brought the school into
discredit. She had always prided herself upon the immaculate behaviour
of her boarders, and it was extremely galling to have such an occurrence
talked about in the neighbourhood. The reputation of Briarcroft,
hitherto above reproach, had sustained a serious blow, from which it
might take some time to recover.

"This is what comes of fostering the children of adventurers!" she said
bitterly. "I feel as if I had warmed a serpent, and it had turned and
stung me for my pains."

"I couldn't have believed it of Gipsy!" sobbed Miss Edith, who, if
anything, was even more concerned than her sister, owing to her
predilection for the offender.

"You were always much too generously disposed towards her," sniffed Miss
Poppleton. "She certainly has not proved worthy of your kindness."

The affair made the most immense sensation in the school. Nothing else
was talked of next morning, and the day girls questioned the boarders
closely upon every detail.

"Isn't it awful?" sighed Lennie Chapman. "And to think that we had to
tell about her!"

"We don't believe she's really done it, though," protested Hetty
Hancock.

"It looks bad, I'm afraid," said Mary Parsons, shaking her head gravely.
"It's so queer!"

"Very queer for a girl who set herself up to teach other people, like
Gipsy," sneered Maude