"All right, Grannie. Half a sec. more! I've just time!"
And she scrawled hastily over the top of the portrait: "This is old Vivien."
The last half second was the undoing of Effie, for at that very same instant the monitress reentered the room. Effie wiped the blackboard with frantic speed, but not before Vivien had caught a clear view of her portrait. She glared first at Effie, who had skipped back to her place, then at the nine other conscious faces. Finally she announced:
"You'll every one of you report yourselves to me at four o'clock this afternoon. I shall expect you in the handicraft room, and you'll each bring a poetry book with you. I shall stay here now until Miss Poole comes. I'm not going to have this form a bear-garden."
The mistress, entering almost immediately, looked rather astonished to see Vivien standing by her desk. Her enquiring glance asked an explanation.
"It was necessary for someone to come in here and keep order, Miss Poole," vouchsafed Vivien.
The mistress turned a reproachful eye on her flock.
"I thought I could have trusted you, girls! I'm sorry to hear you've not been behaving yourselves."
The form focused indignant glances at Vivien, but dared not utter a protest. Their wrath, overflowed, however, at the earliest opportunity for conversation.
"Sneak!"