"No, we'll have a show of hands," returned Hetty grimly. "We want to know which among you are answerable for this business. In all common sense, how do you suppose a magazine can be run properly with a different editress each time? But it's evidently a question of Gipsy Latimer versus Maude Helm as leader of the Lower School. Which will you choose, girls?" Several hands that were on the point of going up wavered at that, and went down again. Maude was not a general favourite, and though she had contrived to raise a spirit of envy against Gipsy, nobody was anxious to claim her as a leader. "I suggested Leonora as editress," corrected Maude, rising angrily. "Miss Poppleton herself proposed it!" But at that there was a scornful laugh. Maude had made a fatal mistake. Miss Poppleton's championship, far from being a recommendation, was exactly the reverse. The girls resented her interference in their private concerns, and did not intend to allow her the least voice in their councils. "We don't want Poppie's pet, thanks!" "She's not going to manage our Guild for us!" "We can make our own choice!" So few hands went up in favour of Maude's proposal that its rejection was obvious at once. Meg Gordon started up immediately with a counter motion. "I beg to propose that Gipsy Latimer continue to be editress until the end of the summer term." "And I beg to second that motion," agreed Lennie Chapman heartily. This time the hands went up in earnest, and there was no doubt about the majority. "Hurrah! Hurrah!" shouted Gipsy's supporters, turning in much triumph upon the opposition as the meeting broke up. Maude and her friends, finding the point carried, had no more to say, and were obliged to drop the subject. Leonora affected a sublime indifference. "I'm sure I didn't want to be editress. I can't think why they suggested it," she said, in her stolid, bored fashion. "To carry favour with Poppie, and spite Gipsy!" declared Lennie Chapman. "I don't blame you: they made you a cat's-paw, that's all." "It's a victory for Gipsy, but I'm sorry it's happened at all," fretted Hetty. "It's annoyed her dreadfully, and I believe she's ready to throw the whole thing up and resign office." "That she can't and shan't and mustn't do! We won't allow her!" The struggle made a great sensation in the Upper Fourth. Some of the girls openly twitted Maude with her defeat, an unwise and ungenerous proceeding which bore ill fruit. Maude was not a girl to let bygones be bygones; she turned sulky, brooded over her grievances, and bore Gipsy a deeper grudge than ever. She was determined that she would not let the latter go entirely unscathed, and looked about for some further opportunity of flinging a dart. "I'll pay her out somehow--see if I don't!" she grumbled to her chum Gladys. "Wish I could think of some really good way!"