All this naturally was vexatious.  Even sunny Clover shed many tears in private over her mortifications.  But the girls bore their trouble bravely, and never said one syllable about the matter in the letters home.  There were consolations, too, mixed with the annoyances.  Rose Red clung to her two friends closely, and loyally fought their battles.  The S. S. U. C. to a girl rallied round its chief.  After that sad Saturday the meetings were resumed with as much spirit as ever.  Katy’s steadiness and uniform politeness and sweet temper impressed even those who would have been glad to believe a tale against her, and in short time the affair ceased to be a subject for discussion,—­ was almost forgotten, in fact, except for a sore spot in Katy’s heart, and one page in Rose Red’s album, upon which, under the date of that fatal day, were written these words, headed by an appalling skull and cross-bones in pen-and-ink:—­

“N.  B.—­Pay Miss Jane off.”

CHAPTER VIII.  CHANGES.

“Clover, where’s Clover?” cried Rose Red, popping her head into the schoolroom, where Katy sat writing her composition.  “Oh, Katy! there you are.  I want you too.  Come down to my room right away.  I’ve such a thing to tell you!”

“What is it?” Tell me too!” said Bella Arkwright.  Bella was a veritable “little pitcher,” of the kind mentioned in the Proverb, and had an insatiable curiosity to know every thing that other people knew.

“Tell you, Miss?  I should really like to know why!” replied Rose, who was not at all fond of Bella.

“You’re real mean, and real unkind,” whined Bella.  “You think you’re a great grown-up lady, and can have secrets.  But you ain’t!  You’re a little girl too,—­most as little as me.  So there!”

Rose made a face at her, and a sort of growling rush, which had the effect of sending Bella screaming down the hall.  Then, returning to the school-room,—­

“Do come, Katy,” she said:  “find Clover, and hurry!  Really and truly I want you.  I feel as if I should burst if I don’t tell somebody right away what I’ve found out.”

Katy began to be curious.  She went in pursuit of Clover, who was practising in one of the recitation-rooms, and the three girls ran together down Quaker Row.

“Now,” said Rose, locking the door, and pushing forward a chair for Katy and another for Clover, “swear that you won’t tell, for this is a real secret,—­the greatest secret that ever was, and Mrs. Florence would flay me alive if she knew that I knew!” She paused to enjoy the effect of her words, and suddenly began to snuff the air in a peculiar manner.

“Girls,” she said, solemnly, “that little wretch of a Bella is in this room.  I am sure of it.”

“What makes you think so?” cried the others supervised.

“I smell that dreadful pomatum that she puts on her hair!  Don’t you notice it?  She’s hidden somewhere.”  Rose looked sharply about for a minute, then made a pounce, and from under the bed dragged a small kicking heap.  It was the guilty Bella.