Directly Miss Douglas had left the room for the interval the seventeen members of the Fifth turned upon the newcomer.

“What are you doing here, Georgina Gascoyne, I’d like to know?” demanded Edith Arnold, opening the attack.

“We don’t want any Fourth Form girls foisted on us!” proclaimed janet Hunter.

“You don’t belong to the Upper School!” urged Charlotte Perry hotly.

“I didn’t yesterday, but I do now,” retorted Georgina.

“Miss Duff’s moved me up.

Yes–and I mean to stay here, too!” she added, facing her opponents stubbornly.

“Miss Duff must be mad!”

“What can she be thinking of?”

“Better go and ask her yourself,” said Georgina, “if you think she’s likely to listen to you.

She isn’t generally very ready to enter into explanations.”

“But this is monstrous! It’s an unheard-of thing!” exclaimed Fiona Mawson excitedly.