“But, Miss Kelly——­”

“Don’t argue!  I warned you that I should move you if I found any more signaling going on.  Your aunt will have to hear about this!”

When Winona returned to the hostel that afternoon, and went upstairs, she found that all her possessions had been cleared out of Number 2 dormitory, and placed in Number 3, which being at the side of the house had no view except the school buildings.  The contents of her drawers had been transferred intact; her brushes, books and home photos were placed on her new dressing-table, but all the pictures of aeroplanes and the portrait of Lieutenant Mainwaring, which she had cut out of the Seaton Graphic, had disappeared.  Winona sat down on the bed and laughed.  She was very much annoyed, but the humor of the situation appealed to her.

“It’s too idiotic of Miss Kelly!  Does she think I’m going to elope in an aeroplane?  I never heard of anything so silly in my life!  She may tell Aunt Harriet if she pleases.  I don’t care!  Why, I don’t suppose Lieutenant Mainwaring knows me from any other girl in the school.  He just dropped those chocs. on spec.  It was a shame I wasn’t allowed to eat them!”

Miss Kelly, very keen on upholding discipline in her new hostel, considered that she had successfully squashed an incipient flirtation, and kept a stern eye on all the elder girls, and most particularly on Winona, for fear some repetition of the offense might occur.  The boarders were justly indignant.

“Too bad!” was the general verdict.  “Winona’s not a scrap that sort of girl really, if Miss Kelly only knew.  It’s absurd to make such a fuss.”

Out of sheer bravado and love of mischief, the remaining occupants of Number 2 dormitory waved not only handkerchiefs but towels from the balcony when they heard the whirring of the aeroplane overhead, enjoying the exciting sensation that any moment they might be pounced upon by Miss Kelly.  No doubt in time they would have been discovered in the act, but at the end of three days Lieutenant Mainwaring was sent to the front, and his successor, not having a cousin at the Seaton High School, took no interest in school girls, and flew over the city oblivious of everything except his engines.

“I don’t suppose he’d notice if we waved a sheet!” said Betty Carlisle disappointedly.

“The police might though, and they’d think you were signaling to Germans,” replied Doris Hooper.  “Come in, Bet, it’s no use!  Girl alive, quick!  I hear the dragon’s fairy footsteps in the passage.  Do you want to get your head bitten off?”

In spite of occasional hostilities with Miss Kelly, Winona managed to have a good deal of fun at the hostel.  The other girls were jolly, and in the evenings, when preparation was finished, they would play games together in their sitting-room.  There were high jinks in the dormitories, and small excitements over little happenings, which, however trivial they might be, provided considerable entertainment to the participants.  Only one really stormy incident occurred during Winona’s term at the hostel, and that had nothing to do with Miss Kelly.