of course stand up for you hard, and funnily enough so does
Leonora. She took your part this morning quite hotly, and had such a
quarrel with Maude and Gladys that she won't speak to them. I didn't
think Leonora would have behaved so decently. The Seniors are very
dubious, especially Helen Roper."

"Yes, Helen lashed into me when she brought my dinner. She's always
ready to think the worst of me."

"Poppie's furious," continued Meg. "She says you're only making your
punishment worse by obstinate falsehoods, and she means to make an
example of you."

"What's she going to do?" asked Gipsy with apprehension.

"I don't know--she didn't condescend to tell us."

"Look here, I'm sick of the whole business!" said Gipsy bitterly. "I'm
not wanted at Briarcroft. Poppie'd be only too delighted to get rid of
me. I'm not going to stay here any longer to be ordered about and
scolded, and accused of things I've never done. I'll run away. If you
can climb up the greenhouse roof, I can climb down it."

"Oh, Gipsy! Where will you go? Come to us! We'd hide you somewhere at
home, and Mother wouldn't give you up to Poppie, I know!"

But Gipsy shook her head emphatically. The very fact of the Gordons'
kindness made it impossible for her to trespass upon their generosity.
She knew that if she were to seek sanctuary at their house, she would
place Mrs. Gordon in a most awkward and difficult position, and her
natural delicacy of feeling caused her to shrink from such a course. It
would be a poor return indeed for their former hospitality.

"No, Meg; it's awfully good of you, but I must go farther away than
that. I'm off to Liverpool. Don't look so staggered; I've quite made up
my mind!"

"Liverpool! Why, that's miles and miles away! How will you go? And what
will you do when you get there?"

"I shall manage somehow to sell my watch. It's a gold one, you know, so
it ought to be worth enough to pay my railway fare, at any rate. It
belonged to my mother, and I wouldn't have parted with it under any
other circumstances than these. Thank goodness I put it on this morning!
I don't wear it always. When I get to Liverpool I have a plan. Captain
Smith--the captain of the vessel we were wrecked on--lives at a suburb
called Waterloo. I'll enquire and enquire till I find the house. If he's
at home, it's just possible that he could give me some little hint about
my father. Dad might have dropped something in talking to him that he
did not tell t