Betty opened her eyes and looked at the Serpent.
"Oh, Elsie," she said, "Elsie, you sweet little Serpent!" It was an end to the crossed swords feud. Elsie took her in her arms and cried.
When the girls arrived panic-stricken they found Mr. Symington trying to get a coherent answer to his orders from two bedraggled girls, who could do nothing but weep over each other. The brave little Serpent had lost her nerve once more.
"Oh!" she said, "it's very wicked to be a girl. Boys wouldn't give way like this."
Jean looked at her narrowly, "Do you always go about in gymnasium dress, ready to save people?" she asked, with the remains of fear in her voice.
The brave little Serpent looked down on her costume, and the red which glowed in her cheeks only from mortification ran slowly up and dyed her pale face crimson. "Oh!" she said, "oh!" and sat speechless.
Betty sat up shivering. "I do call that presence of mind, don't you? She flung off her skirt, didn't you, dear?"
The Serpent would have answered except that the "dear" unnerved her. She faded to tears once more.
"Come, come," said Mr. Symington.
And at that, as they afterwards remembered, Mabel "came."