The Madcap of the School

rdly take in the juniors for more than a minute. I'

o easy, my

on or garden ghost trick would be useless. I want something subtle. If

?" queried Ar

hook a reg

into the medium. If she doesn't utter a groan, then her conscious entity is suspended, and a

ns. Séances are always held in th

me, and she'd just enjoy prodding me up with pins. No,

ing might b

discovered that Linda was pushing the leg. I think pretty nearly everything occu

'you d

How she goes to the Coptic magician, and he pours some ink

n horribly," co

cause Mabel and Sylvia went to consult a psychist in Bond Street, and they told me all about it, and everything she said and did. As a matter of fact she described Mabel's fiancé qui

girls bel

n them to know me. We're going to disguise ourse

he

ked decided

he gipsies are camping down by the river. Everybody in the school has noticed their caravans, and realizes they're there. Now what's more natural than for a couple of these gipsies to stroll round by the barn some evening during recrea

nation for a novelist!" m

the next step was to carry out details.

es," decreed Raymonde. "The thing's got

ome cotton bodices were similarly treated. Shoes were a knotty problem, for gipsies do not generally affect trim footgear, yet nobody at the Grange possessed worn-out or dilapidated boots. In the end Raymonde carefully unpicked the stitches in her oldest pairs to give them the

ccupations in the barn, Aveline Kerby entered to borrow a screw-driver. She conversed casually on the topics of wood-carving, photogr

begging, and Morvyth happened to meet them. They offered to tell her fortune, so she took them into the cow-house, so that Gibbie shouldn't s

l?" asked Veronica,

m. I'd go myself, but I've spent all my allowance, and of course one has to cross their palms with the or

ds to work. As she had expected, the news of the a

gipsies are so often gifted with

tion blunts our astral perceptions. One finds marvellous things among the hill

aces have inherited secret

s of nature. Some day, no doubt

days she had studied the subject by the a

ve a look at these gipsies," she

e cow-shed. They met Cynthia Greene and Elsie Moseley coming out, half-awed, half-giggling. At th

duty to investigat

had established themselves in the dimmest corner, and were squatting on bundles of straw under a manger. Obviously they were extremely dirty and dilapidated

Romanys. Her voice was hoarse but conciliatory. Possibly s

Veronica. "What we'd like to know is how you get your powers. Where does

an shook her

our future-then it fades. It's a sixth sense that's given to the poor gipsies. They're born

this sixth sense," wh

t," continued the gipsy, fumbling with something in her lap.

there?" asked Veronica s

be telling that. I wouldn't part with it, lady, if the Queen offered me her crown in exchange. Take it in you

t I possess psychic powers!"

. "Then hold it so, in your hands, for a minute. Now it has f

turned to the companion who sq

coming to the lady,"

t finger and the thumb of each hand lightly touching it, and stared fixedly into the magic glass. For a moment or two the fu

e, and palm trees. A soldier in khaki is coming out of the house. He stops to speak to a servant-a blac

in Egypt!" gasped Ver

, but at that moment the dressing-bell clanged loudl

about five," she suggested, pressin

od. We never know when we'll be moving on, yo

s, and their dresses at least half fastened, they slipped into their places at the supper-table just in time; a little flurried,

the school, they got on excellently, and their reputation spread till more than half the girls had paid surreptitious visits to their retreat. All might have gone well, and their secret might have remained undiscovered, had it not b

oiselle almost speechless. She in her turn felt impelled to seek a

re was a scuttling of juniors, who sought safety behind the partition. Ray

sted a consultation, and listened while the gipsy, decidedly nervous,

tal! It's remarkably like the ball of glass that was broken off my Venetian vase. I missed it yesterday from my mantelpiece. By the by"-stooping 89 down suddenly, and pulling aside the han

s a hard, exacting, unsympathetic world as mirrored in Miss Gibbs's keen grey eyes. She told them briefly to go and wash thei

oney that you have collected

ered the class-room, and placed the sum of thirteen and nine

e Red Cross Fund. You will each learn two pages of Curtis's Historical Notes by heart, and repeat them to me to-morrow after morning

ed to the lecture hall, and harangued by Miss Beasley upon the follies and dangers of superstition. She touched upon anc

dy can still be found ready to believe in such nonsense. I beg you all, and especially those elder girls who should be leaders of the res

Did you see Veronica turning as red as beetroot? We'll have to wake early to-morrow m

as worth the candle!" procla