“Miss Mackenzie bids me say that if the girls who belong to this society will at this moment give up the name of their ringleader they themselves will be forgiven.  What punishment they receive will only be connected with their work in the school, and may possibly exclude them from competing for certain scholarships during this present term, but for the rest nothing further will be said.  But it is essential that the name of the ringleader, as well as her rules and her motives, should be declared.”

Miss Ravenscroft paused again and looked down the whole length of the long hall.  She looked to right and left.

“Don’t let any girl think,” she said after a pause, “that she is acting nobly by suppressing information which is for the benefit of the school.  I do not ask the girls who are spoken of as the paying girls to expose their companions, nor do I ask those foundationers who have not joined the band of insurgents to betray their fellows; but what I do ask is this:  that the girls themselves—­the rebels—­should rise in a body and point to their leader.  With that leader the governors will deal.  The girls themselves will have forgiveness.”

Miss Ravenscroft again paused.  The silence which followed might be felt.  Susy Hopkins bent her head and sobbed.  Janey Ford trembled all over, and clutched tightly the hand of her companion.  But no one spoke.  It was at that moment that Kathleen calmly and slowly raised her face and looked around her.  She looked back, and caught the eyes of at least a dozen of those foundationers whom she had pitied and helped and been jolly with.  She looked to the right then, and met as many more faces of girls whom she knew, and who were members of the Wild Irish Girls’ Society.  Then very calmly she resumed her nonchalant attitude in the front row of the schoolgirls.  Miss Ravenscroft meanwhile stood waiting.  Still no one spoke.

“Will no one speak?” she said.  “Will no girl present be brave enough to save the school?”

Still there was silence.

“This is a very good and a great school,” said Miss Ravenscroft.  “It gives for a very trifling sum an education worthy of the very best and most expensive schools in England.  It was founded some hundred years ago, by those who thought much and in advance of their time.  In an age when girls were almost uneducated, when nothing further was required from them than a smattering of reading and writing, these wise and far-seeing people said that they would give the girls of the future a chance.  So they left money for the purpose, and that money, wisely invested, has borne fruit.  The great school was built, and has for generations helped many girls who otherwise might not have been able to earn their own bread.  Even for the paying girls the expense for all they receive is but a trifle.  But the school does more than that.  It was the wish of the founders that there should always be one hundred foundationers on the school lists, and these girls