Changing her mind suddenly, she turned away from the gym without entering and went back to the seclusion of her own study. The rest of the evening passed very quietly in Carslake's, everyone being busy with prep, and there was little public discussion of the Richoter affair. Even in Dormitory A after bed bell had gone, Hilary summarily put a stop to a tentative attempt on the part of the juniors to raise the subject.
The next day, the Richoter candidates heard the pleasing intelligence that the Rev. R. Carstairs, who was keenly interested in the science prize and who always had a hand in its organization, had invited them all to spend the day at his house, punting on the river and picnicking on its banks, with his lovely garden and strawberry beds placed at their disposal. Naturally the nine girls in question, having received permission to go, did not hesitate in accepting this generous invitation.
With the absence of these senior girls, two of whom were head prefects and several others prefects, the houses felt themselves suddenly free from a good deal of the control exercised over them out of lesson hours. Sheerston's and Carslake's were without a head, and even Vanda West, at that disturbing time, felt the loss of Eileen's steady support. Consequently, the girls were a little out of hand that day, and Vanda and Phyllis Knight, of Green's, were powerless to check the conviction that ran like wildfire round the school, that Kitty Despard was known by the seniors to be the girl who had meddled with the balances. One rumour even said that she had been seen coming out of the First Form room on her way to the lab with a piece of plasticine in her hand.
Cold looks were cast at Kitty by the Upper Fifth in class that afternoon, and several cutting remarks addressed by girls to their near neighbours in her hearing made her cheeks burn. When, on the playing-field, it was her turn to bat, some of the juniors looking on hissed her as she walked towards the pitch. This was more than Kitty could bear. Throwing down her bat she turned and faced them, flushed and trembling with anger and indignation.
"What right have you to accuse me? I know I went into the laboratory, but that isn't proof that I did it. You may think what you please. I don't care. I can only say that I did not touch the balances, and if you won't believe me I can't help it," and Kitty, feeling nearly as desperate as her words, strode off the pitch and left the field, her head still defiantly erect. But once out of sight of the girls some of her defiant courage forsook her. She threw herself down in a solitary corner of the grounds, hidden from the players by the swimming-bath.
"I wish I'd never come to this hateful place. The girls here are perfectly horrid. As if dad and the boys at home would ever dream of doubting my word! Oh dear! how on earth shall I stick it here if they go on suspecting me! But I vow I won't. I'd rather go back home—or to another school."
When the Carslake seniors came out from tea, a fresh notice on the board caught Hilary's attention. It ran as follows:
"Seniors are invited to attend a Matter of Special Interest and Import to All, in the debating-room at 6.30 sharp.
"(Signed) Paddy, Sheerston's."
"One of Paddy's brilliant inspirations, I suppose," commented Bertha with a slight sneer. "Are you going, Hilary?"