"6. I have reason to believe it is empty. I'm going to fill it out of Fauvette's bottle." "Cheek!" returned Fauvette, allowing her friend to help herself to the Swan ink, however. "What puzzles me, is how you managed to buy it." "Your little head, Baby, is easily puzzled," smiled Raymonde serenely. "It's meant to wear fluffy curls, and not to engage itself in abstruse problems. I don't advise you to worry yourself over this, unless you can turn it to some account. If the Hornet should ask you for an original example, you might begin: 'Let A represent a fountain pen, and B my schoolmate, C standing for an unknown quantity----'" Fauvette, at this point, placed her hand over her chum's mouth. "Stop it!" she begged beseechingly. "If I get any of those wretched A B and C questions I'll collapse, and disgrace the Form. I've many weak points, but mathematics are absolutely my weakest of all. If you frighten me any more, I shan't have the courage to walk into the exam. room. Do I look presentable? Are my hands clean? And is my hair decent?" "You look so much more than presentable that anybody but a hardened brute of an examiner would be bowled over by you utterly and entirely." "I'm sure he hasn't any feelings, so it's no use trying to work upon them," said Fauvette plaintively. "Joking apart, Ray, where did you get that fountain pen?" asked Morvyth. Raymonde's eyes twinkled. "Little flower, could I tell you that, I'd tell you my heart's secret with it!" she misquoted. "But do tell me! I think you might!" "The more you tease, the less you'll find out!" The school bell put an end to the conversation, and the girls, with straightened faces, marched to their places in the big lecture hall. The Reverend T. W. Beasley had taken full command of the examinations, and had introduced several innovations. On former occasions each Form had sat and written in its own room, but now desks had been placed for the whole school together, and were so arranged that the Forms sat alternately, a junior being sandwiched between each senior. The girls were hugely insulted. "He suspects we'll copy each other's papers!" thought Raymonde, and flashed her indignation along to Aveline. She did not speak, but her expressive glance drew forth a reproof from the examiner. He cleared his throat. "Any girl communicating either by speech or otherwise will be dismissed from the room!" he announced freezingly.