"I dare say you don't, but they're stupid things all the same. You might have known you'd get into trouble. I shall scold Dick about it."
"It wasn't his fault."
"Well, it's been a silly business all round, and why Miss Roscoe should send for me and talk as if I were partly responsible I can't imagine," said the aggrieved Winnie. "It's bad enough to have to teach in class without being blamed for what no person in her senses could consider my fault."
"That's Miss Roscoe all over," gulped Gwen. "If she's angry she must fizz whether there's justice in it or not. I'm fearfully sorry, Win! It's too bad you were dragged in."
"Well, I suppose it can't be helped now," said Winnie, somewhat mollified. "Miss Roscoe's storms are soon over, that's one blessing. I expect by to-morrow she'll have calmed down. You'll be in disgrace for a while, but she'll forget about it."
"What became of the sweets?" asked Lesbia.
"Left them on the chimneypiece and I expect the housemaid will commandeer them. I daren't ask for them, I can tell you."
Next morning the lower sashes of the Fifth Form room windows were found firmly screwed down, and the glass had received a coat of white paint put on the outside, so that not even a peephole could be scratched from within. The girls whose desks had formerly commanded a view were savage; even Miss Douglas wore an air of plaintive resignation.
"Might have known it would be Gwen Gascoyne who would bring herself into such a mess!" said Charlotte Perry.
"Um—I've a notion Netta set the ball rolling," returned Elspeth Frazer.