A shiver of very real dismay shook her then, for in the tall girl confronting her across the table she recognized the girl who had stolen the jumper in the showroom of the London shop.
Oh, it surely, surely could not be the same! Dorothy stared at her wide-eyed and bewildered. Her gaze was so persistent and unwinking that presently the girl looked at her in annoyance, saying curtly,—
“What are you staring at? Have you found a black mark on my face?”
Dorothy flushed. “I beg your pardon, I was thinking I had seen you before.” She stammered a little as she spoke, wondering what answer she would make if the girl should ask her where she had seen her.
“That is hardly likely, I should think,” answered the girl. Then, as if with intent to be rude, she said coldly, “I have no acquaintance with any of the scholarship girls.”
Dorothy gasped as if some one had shot a bowl of cold water in her face; she was fairly amazed at the rudeness and audacity of the girl, and she subsided into silence, while Hazel said crisply,—
“Dorothy Sedgewick is not a scholarship girl, and until after the examination to-morrow morning we do not even know whether she is a dunce or not, so you need not regard her as a possible rival until then.”
“I am not afraid of rivals,” said the girl with superb indifference; and Dorothy caught her breath in a little strangled gasp as she wondered what would happen if she were to announce across the table that she had seen this proud girl steal a silk jumper from the showrooms of Messrs. Sharman and Song only a few hours before.
Just then a girl lower down the table leaned forward and said, “I did not see you at Redhill this morning, Rhoda; which way did you come?”
The girl who had snubbed Dorothy turned with a smile to answer the question. “I came up to town with Aunt Kate, who was going to do some shopping, and then I came on from Victoria.”