"I shouldn't have minded a bit when I first came," confessed Monica, "but it's different now. I don't want to be expelled now."
She had such a forlorn look that Nat's susceptible heart was touched. She recalled how all the girls, at the match and on the return journey, had pointedly cut Monica, and she herself had been the only one who would speak to her.
"Your best chance will be to confess all you know about it," she said sensibly, "and tell Prinny you are sorry. She's not half a bad sort really. I'd rather tell her anything than—than Miss Bennett, for instance."
"I didn't send the telegram," Monica said, "that's true. But I'm responsible for having it sent. It was my idea, so I suppose I'm chiefly to blame." She looked inquiringly at Nat.
"If you mean, is the person who plans a wrong just as bad as the person who carries it out, I'd certainly say yes, she is," Nat answered. "But you still haven't told me much about it."
Before Monica could speak again there was a tap at the door and Pam looked in. "Prinny wants to see Monica in her room at once," she said briefly.
The dread summons had come. Monica moved reluctantly towards the door, then turned and came back. "I say, Nat." There was earnest appeal in the eyes she raised to Nat's face. "Truly, I'm glad the telegram plan wasn't successful and that the school won. You do believe me, don't you?" and Nat heard herself replying quite heartily: "Of course I do, if you say so."
Monica's interview with the Principal was not at all reassuring. Miss Julian looked so very stern and severe that Monica found it too difficult a matter to follow Nat's advice and confess the story in all its details, and fell back upon brief and reluctant answers to the Principal's questions.
"Are you responsible for having this telegram sent, Monica?" the Principal began, pointing to the fateful document which lay on the table.
Monica hesitated, wondering how to answer without telling a deliberate untruth. She could feel her knees shaking beneath her.