"She spoke to me very explicitly," said Deborah. "It is, I think, a matter of conscience." "She gave me her mind, also," called out Cara. "Hush, Deborah. Cara; when it is time for you to speak, I will call upon you to do so. Do you clearly understand, Honora, what this means?" "I don't know what it means, except that I will not be Helen of Troy." "Then who is to be Helen of Troy?" "Anybody who is sufficiently indifferent to take the part." "I want to put things quite clearly before you, Honora. You understand that, on the day when the parents of my pupils arrive here to see their children, when relations and friends cluster in the old garden, it must be a member of the school who takes part in all the tableaux and all the different events." "Yes, I understand that." "Will you have the goodness to point out to me amongst my thirty girls who else could be Helen, `divinely tall, and most divinely fair'?" Honora's dark eyes seemed to sweep her companions for a moment. Then she said, slowly: "That is for you to discover; not for me." "It means this, then," said Mrs Hazlitt, very slowly. "That because you pretend to know more than I know, we are to give up the tableaux altogether, for there is no one else in the school to take the part." Honora shrugged her shoulders. "I am sorry," she said. "You won't yield?" "I will not." "You have displeased me extremely. You talk of this as a case of conscience. I declare that it is nothing of the sort. Helen of Troy was the symbol of all that is beautiful in woman. Her name has come down through the ages because of her loveliness and gracious character. When a schoolgirl like you attempts to override her mistress' maturer judgment, she acts with wilfulness and ungraciousness, to say the least of it." "I am sorry," said Honora. She turned aside. There was a lump in her throat. After a minute, she continued: "But I will not act Helen of Troy." "That being the case, girls," said Mrs Hazlitt, who had quite resumed her usual calm of manner, "we must forego the tableaux--that is unless a suitable Helen of Troy can be found within twenty-four hours. I will now wish you good-night. I am disappointed in you, Honora, very much disappointed." CHAPTER TWO. FOR HELEN OF TROY.