swinging themselves over the balcony
railings, they began creeping cautiously down the greenhouse roof. They
had just about reached the middle when Meg, who was first, suddenly
stopped with a stifled exclamation, and lay as flat and as still as she
could. Gipsy naturally followed suit, and looking downwards saw the
reason for the alarm. They were in horrible and imminent danger of
discovery. Miss Poppleton herself had entered the conservatory below,
and with a little watering can in her hand began to attend to her
plants. Would she look up and notice the two dark bodies on the roof
above her?

Gipsy felt she had never been so thrillingly interested in gardening in
the whole of her life. She watched while the geraniums and fuchsias
received their due sprinkling, and held her breath when the Principal
appeared about to stretch up to a hanging basket. Most fortunately for
the two girls, she changed her mind, and evidently thinking there was
not enough water in the can, emptied the remainder on a box of
seedlings, and went into the house for a fresh supply.

"Now!" breathed Meg. "As quick as you can, without putting your heels
through the glass!"

"It was the nearest squeak!" gasped Gipsy, as the pair, after a rapid
slide down the gutter pipe, reached the ground in safety. "She'll be
coming back directly."

"Rush under the shrubs--quick!" said Meg. "Oh, I say! There's the bell!
I must fly. I daren't walk in late, or your dress might be noticed at
call-over."

"I'm off too, then," returned Gipsy. "When Poppie unlocks the
dressing-room door, she'll find the bird has flown!"

"Goodbye! I can't wait! Oh, Gipsy! when shall I see you again?"

"Some day. I promise that! The bell's stopping! You'll be late, Meg, if
you don't scoot."

Torn in two between her reluctance to part from her friend and her
anxiety to be in time for call-over, Meg hurried away without further
farewell; and Gipsy, in wildest fear of detection, metaphorically
speaking burnt her boats, and darting through the side gate, ran with
all possible speed down the high-road.

CHAPTER XVII

A Tangled Story

MEG rushed to the lecture hall just in time to enter unobtrusively among
a crowd of other girls, and to take her seat for afternoon call-over
without attracting special notice from mistresses or monitresses. She
congratulated herself on having been promoted to Mr. Cobb's painting
class. The fact of her change of costume would be quite lost up