s she
supposed. They had been on the alert all the morning to discover some
means of communicating with her, though, owing to Miss Poppleton's
vigilance, their efforts had so far met with ill success. Any girl found
loitering in the vicinity of the passage that led to the dressing-room
had been packed off in a most summary fashion, with a warning not to
show herself there again under penalty of an imposition. After dinner,
however, Meg, who had secret plans of her own, managed to dodge Miss
Lindsay, and by creeping under the laurels in the plantation made her
way to a forbidden part of the garden which commanded a view of the
dressing-room window. Exactly underneath this window stood a greenhouse
with a sloping glass roof, and at the corner of the greenhouse there was
a long down spout to drain the gutters above. Meg advanced under cover
of the bushes with the caution of a scout, and reviewed the position
carefully before she ventured into the open.

"I believe I can manage it," she murmured. "My toe would fit into that
hole, and I could catch hold of the bracket. I haven't learnt
mountaineering for nothing, and if I could tackle that crag on Hawes
Fell I oughtn't to be stumped by a gutter pipe. I flatter myself there's
not another girl in the school who could do it, though. Between
half-past one and two is a good time. Probably no one will be round at
this side of the house, but I shall have to risk something, and trust to
luck."

The down spout certainly put Meg's climbing powers to the utmost test.
It was smooth and slippery, while the footholds in the wall were of the
very slenderest. With considerable difficulty she swung herself up, and
creeping over the roof of the greenhouse reached the small railed
balcony that gave access to the dressing-room window. She peeped in.
There was Gipsy, sitting, doing nothing, and looking the picture of
disconsolate misery.

"Gipsy!" called Meg, under her breath.

"Hello! It's never you! Oh, Meg, you angel!"

"Don't make such an idiotic noise, but help me in quietly. Mum's the
word! How are you getting on here?"

"Come in and I'll tell you. But you'll have to whisk out pretty quickly
if we hear Poppie's fairy footsteps in the passage. We must listen with
both ears open while we talk."

"Trust me! Oh, Gipsy, we're all so sorry for you!"

"You believe in me, then? How does the school take it?"

"Variously. Some are for you, and some are against. Dilys and Lennie and
Hetty