"Penelope will tell you about her," she said gently. "Of course you know, Miss Carlton, what is wrong for one need not be necessarily wrong for another. We have each to answer for our own conscience, have we not? Ah, and this is Penelope's room." She knocked at the door. "Penelope, your sister has come." Hurried steps were heard inside the chamber. The door was flung open and Penelope, all in white and looking almost pretty, stood on the threshold. Honora immediately withdrew, and the two sisters found themselves for a few minutes alone. "Do take off your cloak and let me look at you," said Penelope. "I have been telling the girls so much about you, and most of them are all agog to see you. Dear, dear! pale blue silk! Well, it is rather pretty, only I wish you had been in white; but you look very nice all the same, dear." "You ate highly dissatisfied, Penelope; and I'm sure I've done all that mortal could to oblige you," said Brenda. "And I to oblige you," retorted Penelope. "I can tell you, I had trouble about those five-pound notes, but you got them safely, didn't you?" "Yes, of course I did: I only wish you could have managed more. This dress is much prettier than your insipid white. White is all very well for schoolgirls, but I am grown up, remember." "Yes, yea--and you look very nice," said Penelope. "It's more than you do, Penelope; you're not a bit pretty," said frank Brenda. "I know it--and it seems so highly ridiculous that I should be forced to take the part of Helen of Troy. Of course, Honora was the girl absolutely made on the very model, but she refused." "Who is Honora?" asked Brenda. "Why, that lovely girl in the white lace--(it's all real, I can tell you, and was sent to her from Paris)--who brought you to my door." "Oh--_that_ girl!" said Brenda. "I don't think her at all remarkable." "Don't you? Well, most people do--she's quite the belle of the school." "And what does the belle of the school signify?" said Brenda, who was feeling decidedly cross. "If a girl could be called the belle of the season, that might be something to aspire to--but the belle of a school! Who cares about that?" "Well, the schoolgirls do, and while we are at school, it is our world," said Penelope. "But now I must bring you downstairs, and put you into your place. You must get a seat on one of the benches near the front, or you won't see one half that is going on. Come along, you may be sure I will fly to you whenever I have a second, but I shall be very busy all day." "Will there be gentlemen present?" asked Brenda. "Oh--certainly. The brothers and cousins and fathers and uncles of the pupils." "I don't care anything at all about the fathers and uncles, but I should like to be introduced to some of the brothers and cousins." "Well, I daresay that can be managed--" "Penelope--do come!" called Cara's voice in the distance, and Penelope, accompanied by her sister, had to fly downstairs.