ld_ you forget?"

"I don't know, but I did!" groaned the sinner.

"When did you remember?"

"Only this morning. I hadn't worn my coat during the holidays, it was
too hot. I put it on this morning to run to the town to shop for Violet,
and stuck my hand in my pocket, and found that wretched envelope."

"But did you never think of it once during the holidays? I should have
thought studying would bring it to your mind."

"I haven't done any studying--I was so dead sick of lessons," confessed
Claudia. "I've just been playing about with the children all the time."

"Oh!"

Lorraine's tone was eloquent.

"What _will_ Miss Janet say?" speculated Claudia gloomily.

What, indeed? Lorraine did not dare to anticipate what would happen at
The Gables on the receipt of such news. Only a member of the haphazard
Castleton family would have been capable of such a shiftless act. It was
exactly what Morland would have done, but Lorraine had expected better
things from Claudia.

[Illustration: "CLAUDIA! HOW _COULD_ YOU FORGET?"]

"Can't you get it signed now, and send it off?" she suggested.

"Father's away to-day, but I'll ask him to sign it when he comes back,
and post it at once. I don't suppose it's much use, though."

"Oh, Claudia, I'm so sorry!"

"Well, it can't be helped now," said her friend, rather impatiently.
"The rain's stopped, and I'm going to plant another row of peas."

Lorraine could not quite understand Claudia's attitude of mind, which
seemed to hold more dread of Miss Janet's anger than concern for missing
the application for the scholarship. There was a curious shade of relief
mingled with her contrition. She began to sing quite cheerfully as she
planted the peas, and, when Constable came running past, she picked him
up and kissed him.

"Violet would miss me dreadfully if I went away. We've been friends the
last few days," she remarked later on. "I helped to make Baby a new
frock, and he looks so sweet in it. He _is_ a darling!"

There was trouble at The Gables when the Misses Kingsley returned and
learnt the bad news. They wrote off at once to Miss Halden, explaining
the circumstances, but the answer came back that certain rules of the
College were very strict, and the governors could not consider any
application submitted later than the 6th.

"Also," wrote the Principal. "I feel that a girl, who could forget such
an immensely important step in her own career, would be of no use to us,
and I could