“I don’t know.”
“Raymonde, I can’t believe such a story. You’re not telling me the truth!”
“Indeed, indeed I am!” burst out Raymonde. “Oh! what shall I do? I can’t explain, and I can’t say any more. If you’d only wait a few days!”
“Indeed I shall not wait,” returned the headmistress coldly. “The matter must be investigated at once.”
Miss Beasley, greatly upset by such a happening in her school, consulted her brother as to her best course to pursue. On learning the circumstances he took a very grave view of the case.
“There’s little doubt of the girl’s guilt,” he declared. “She evidently yielded to a sudden temptation. She wanted a fountain pen in time for the examinations, and she borrowed the notes which had been left in her charge, in order to send for it. Probably she wrote home for more money, and expected to be able to replace it, and that is the explanation of her asking for a few days’ grace. It seems to me as clear as daylight, and I should deal with her as she deserves.”
“May I ask one question?” said Miss Gibbs, who also had been called to the conclave. “How is it that Mrs. West affirms that she saw Raymonde in the post office at six o’clock on Friday, while Veronica and Hermie declare that at five minutes to six she was sitting at the piano in the practising-room? It is not possible to reach the village in five minutes.”
Miss Beasley started. This aspect of the matter had not occurred to her. 277
“It’s very perplexing!” she murmured.
“Raymonde has been troublesome,” continued Miss Gibbs, “but I have always found her scrupulously straight and truthful. Such a lapse as this seems to me utterly foreign to her character.”