Helm. "What do you think of your precious leader
now?"

"Where is Gipsy?" asked Meg Gordon.

"Locked up in the dressing-room next Poppie's bedroom till she
confesses, and that she declares she won't do, if she stays there till
she dies! We've none of us seen her, of course. We're forbidden to go
anywhere near."

"Oh, poor Gipsy! I'm so sorry for her! Whatever did she go and do it
for?" wailed Daisy Scatcherd.

"You don't for a second suppose Gipsy's guilty?" said Meg Gordon
indignantly. "If you do--well then, you just don't know Gipsy Latimer,
that's all!"

CHAPTER XVI

A Friend in Need

MISS POPPLETON, having, as she deemed, successfully detected Gipsy in
her misdoings, was determined to force her into making a full
confession. The girl's repeated denials she regarded as mere stubborn
effrontery, and after several stormy scenes she had locked her up in the
dressing-room, to try if a spell of solitary confinement would reduce
her to submission. Poor Gipsy, agitated, overstrung, burning with a
sense of fierce anger against the injustice of her summary condemnation,
had faced the Principal almost like an animal at bay, and defying her
utterly, had persisted in sticking without deviation to her own version
of the story.

"You'll gain nothing by this obstinacy!" stormed Miss Poppleton. "I'll
make you see who is in authority here! Do you actually imagine I shall
allow a girl like you to set herself against the head of the school?
Here you stay until you own the truth and beg my pardon."

"Then I'll stop here till I'm grown up, for I've told the truth
already," returned Gipsy desperately.

She had kept up a brave front in opposition to Miss Poppleton's
accusations; but after the key had turned in the lock, and the sound of
footsteps died away down the passage, she sank wearily into a chair, and
burying her hot face in her trembling hands, sobbed her heart out. She
felt so utterly deserted, friendless and alone. There seemed nobody to
whom she might turn for help or counsel, nobody in all the wide, wide
world who belonged to her, and would defend her and take her part.
Everything appeared to have conspired against her, and this final and
most crushing blow was the last straw. Gipsy clenched her fists in an
agony of hopelessness. "Oh, Dad, Dad! why don't you come back?" she
moaned, and the utter futility of the question added to her misery.
Outside the sun was shining and the birds were singing cheerily--