"I'm sorry—I'm afraid I can't do that," said Gerry desperately, wondering what on earth had induced her to confide in the head girl at all. What would Muriel be thinking of her, she wondered. "It would be sneaking if I did. Can't you possibly tell me what you'd do if it was you, without my telling you everything?"
"It's rather difficult," said Muriel, frowning. "I don't want you to tell me things that you ought not. But, at the same time, I really don't see how I can answer your question until I know a little more."
"I can't tell you any more," said Gerry, a little wistfully. "But it doesn't matter. I daresay I shall be able to think of the answer for myself."
"Wait a minute," said Muriel, as Gerry was moving away. "I can't tell you just what I should do without knowing all the circumstances; but I'll tell you something my father told me when I first came to school, and perhaps that will help you a bit. It's helped me several times. He said, 'If ever you are in a difficulty, and don't know what is the right thing to do under any special circumstances, just think which would be the hardest—and it's ten to one you'll find that the hardest way is right.'"
Gerry's eyes were bent upon the ground for a moment. Then she lifted them to meet the head girl's gaze with a look of determination in them which touched Muriel strangely.
"Thank you," she said soberly. "That has helped—I guess I know now which is the right thing to do." And with that queer look of decision still upon her face, she turned away in the direction of the Lower Fifth classroom.
"Queer kid, that," thought Muriel, as she made her way towards her study, whither she was bound. "I like her, though, all the same. There's something in her, which is more than one can say for the majority of the kids here. It's a pity she's such an awful funk. She'd really be quite a decent sort of girl if she could only get over her nerves a bit."
If Muriel had only known it, the "awful funk" was on her way at that moment to perform a braver action than the head girl, with all her prowess at hockey and gym, had ever performed in her life.