"You've failed again hopelessly, Rhoda Somerville," scoffed Carrie. "I suppose you're aware that any girl who gets only ten per cent of her problems right three times running has to go and report herself to the monitresses?"
"It's a solid fact!" declared Beatrice Blair.
"They're having a meeting at one o'clock, so you'll have to turn up now, and confess your sins and cry _peccavi_!" added Carrie. "Laura Kirby's A1 at maths., so I'm afraid you won't meet with too tender a reception."
Poor Rhoda, who still had not grasped all the rules of St. Cyprian's, and was constantly encountering new ones, went off at once in a panic of compunction. It was a decided ordeal to face all the monitresses, even though Mildred was one of them, and she felt it humiliating to be obliged to confess her failure. She knocked timidly at the door of the sanctum, and entered, looking decidedly dejected, in response to Laura's "Come in!"
"Well, what do you want?" asked the head girl rather impatiently.
"I--I've come to report myself," stammered Rhoda.
"For failing three times running in maths."
"Your sister--and Beatrice Blair. They said it was the rule."
"I shall have to speak to Carrie," she remarked. "She has no right to rag new girls. It's a stupid custom, and must be stamped out of St. Cyprian's."
"We have no such rule, Rhoda," said Mildred gently. "It was too bad to send you on a false errand."
"Then I needn't come here again and report my failures?"
"Oh, thanks!" Rhoda's face had lightened with visible relief. "I'm afraid I interrupted you."
"I don't blame you. It wasn't your fault," returned Laura, closing the interview. "I advise you in future to be careful what you believe. Ask somebody whom you can trust, before you accept anyone's statements. You can go now, and please shut the door after you."
Half-term had come and gone, and November days were closing in fast. The date fixed for the Alliance Exhibition of Arts and Handicrafts was drawing near, and it behoved St. Cyprian's delegates to be making preparations for the event. Freda Kingston and Ivy Linthwaite had not let the grass grow under their feet, and since the re-opening in September had been quietly arranging what exhibits were most likely to do credit to the College, and setting apart certain girls to work at them. A wide choice had been given, for the "show" was to include not only drawings and paintings, but clay modelling, fretwork, carpentry, répoussé brasswork, stencilling, bookbinding, basket-making, embroidery, illuminating, bent iron-work, wood-carving, poker-work, photography, sweet-making, cookery, and in fact every variety of handicraft that might be submitted.