Miss Bennett looked again at the paper on her desk, and perhaps it was the sight of the sketch that hardened her heart. "Go to your study, Monica," she said sharply, "and stay there till you are told you may leave. Take your history book and learn the work which you have not prepared."
When Monica had departed Miss Bennett turned to the class. "Which girl shares Monica's study?"
"I do, Miss Bennett," replied Nat.
"Will you please find room in one of the other studies for the time being, Nathalie? I do not wish any girl to hold communication with Monica for the present. Of course, if you have books or anything in the study which you require, you may fetch them."
The bell at twelve-thirty announced the end of the morning's lessons.
"What a gay morning we have had!" said Ida. "It isn't much good trying to play Benny up, is it?"
"I thought all that industry was too great to last," observed Glenda sagely. "Even poor Miss Andrews had a shock. Monica Carr won't get to the top of the class if she refuses to do her prep when she thinks it too much trouble."
Irene said nothing, but she knew that she was hoping Monica would remain long in this difficult mood of defiance, so that her work might suffer. Secretly, Irene had already begun to feel that this new girl, who seemed so quick and ready in many ways, was a rival to be feared; one who might possibly succeed in wrenching the coveted laurels from her. She thought of the purloined letter upstairs, locked in her own writing-case, and wondered if Monica had sought for it very long.
"What was on the page that made Benny look so sour, Glenda?" someone was asking, and at Glenda's description of the drawing and inscription the Fifth went out chuckling. It certainly was rather funny, they decided.
Probably the most uncomfortable girl in the Fifth that day was Nat, though she could not have accounted for this strange feeling. It was not entirely because she was shut out of her own study. During the dinner hour she did not go near the room, neither did Monica appear at the dinner table. Her dinner was sent to her, so evidently she ate her meal in silent loneliness.