“But if Miss Eccleston finds out?” said Miss Day.

“What if she does?  There’s no rule against auctions, and, as I don’t suppose any of you will have one, it isn’t worth making a rule for me alone.  Anyhow, I’m resolved to risk it.  My auction will be on Monday, and I shall make out an inventory of my goods tomorrow.”

“Will you advertise it on the notice-board in your hall, dear?” asked Lucy Marsh.

“Why not?  A good idea!  The great A. will be held in Miss Singleton’s room, from eight to ten o’clock on the evening of Monday next.  Great Bargains!  Enormous Sacrifice!  Things absolutely given away!  Oh, what fun!  I’ll be my own auctioneer.”

Polly lay back in her armchair and laughed loudly.

“What is all this noise about?” asked a refined little voice, and Rosalind Merton entered the room.

Two or three girls jumped up at once to greet her.

“Come in, Rosie; you’re just in time.  What do you think Miss Singleton is going to do now?”

“I can’t tell; what?” asked Rosalind.  “Something outre’, I feel certain.”

Polly made a wry face and winked her eyes at her companions.

“I know I’m not refined enough for you, Miss Merton,” she drawled.  “I’m rough, like my dad, rough and ready; but, at any rate, I’m honest—­ at least, I think I’m honest.  When I owe money, I don’t leave a stone unturned to pay what I owe.  Having sinned, I repent.  I enter the Valley of Humiliation and give up all.  Who can do more?”

“Oh, dear, Polly, I don’t think I’d call owing a little money sinning,” said Lucy Marsh, whose ideas were known to be somewhat lax.

“Well, my dear, there’s nothing for those in debt but to sell their possessions.  My auction is on Monday.  Will you come, Rosalind?”

“You don’t mean it,” said Rose, her blue eyes beginning to sparkle.

“Yes, I do, absolutely and truly mean it.”

“And you will sell your things—­ your lovely things?”

“My things, my lovely, lovely things must be sold.”

“But not your clothes?  Your new sealskin jacket, for instance?”

Polly made a wry face for a moment.  Putting her hand into her pocket, she pulled out Spilman’s and Madame Clarice’s two bills.

“I owe a lot,” she said, looking with a rueful countenance at the sum total.  “Yes, I even fear the sealskin must go.  I don’t want to part with it.  Dad gave it me just before I came here.”

“It’s a lovely seal,” said Annie Day, “and it seems a sin to part with it; it’s cut in the most stylish way too, with those high shoulders.”

“Don’t praise it, please,” said Polly, lying back in her chair and covering her eyes with her hand.  “It cuts like a knife to part with dad’s last present.  Well, I’m rightly punished.  What a fool I was to get all those Japanese things from Spilman and that fancy ball-dress for the theatricals.  Oh, dear!  Oh, dear!”