ll to the
right-hand wing of the house. The preliminary part of her ordeal might
be considered successfully over. Schoolgirls are quick to take likes
and dislikes; with them, first impressions are everything, and a few
minutes are often sufficient to decide the fate of a newcomer. By the
end of the day Gipsy had won golden opinions; her whimsical humour and
free Colonial manners, however unfavourably they might impress Miss
Poppleton, pleased the popular taste, and except by an envious few she
was pronounced "ripping". Even Helen Roper, the head of the school,
condescended to notice her.

"Hello, you new girl!" she said patronizingly, "you may join our
Needlework Guild if you like. You've got to subscribe a shilling, and
promise to make a garment every year. They're sent to the hospitals, you
know."

"Thanks," replied Gipsy, not too utterly overwhelmed by the honour. "I'm
a bad sewer, but I dare say I'd manage to cobble up something."

"Then I'll put your name down, and you can bring me the shilling
to-morrow. Have you got a camera? Then I expect you'll like to belong to
the Photographic Guild--the subscription's a shilling for that too.
Remind me to give you a card of the rules if I forget."

"You'll do!" whispered Lennie Chapman, who had watched over Gipsy's
introduction with anxious interest. "If Helen Roper's spoken to you,
you're sure to get on. You'll join the Guilds, of course? There's the
Dramatic as well, and the Musical, and the Athletic."

"If they want a shilling for each, it will soon run away with one's
pocket-money," laughed Gipsy.

"Why, yes, so it does, but then one has to join. It is the thing to do."

"I don't mind the subscriptions if the Guilds are fun."

"Well--um! I can't say they're very much fun for us. We're only Lower
School, you see, and we don't get a look-in."

"What do you mean?"

"Why, of course it's all in the hands of the Sixth. They arrange
everything. We mayn't so much as express an opinion."

"No, it's really rather too bad," said Hetty Hancock, joining in the
conversation. "We Lower School aren't fairly treated. The Photographic
Guild spent all the society's money on a gorgeous developing machine
last term, and no one's allowed to use it except the Committee."

"But aren't any of the Lower School on the Committee?" asked Gipsy.

"No, we're not counted 'eligible'. We vote, but we may only elect
members of the Sixth. And the Sixth just have it all their own way."

"Ho