"Oh, she isn't so bad, Ruth," Patty defended. "I've got a right soft spot in my heart for Miss North—"
"Girls! what was that noise?" Angela Dare interrupted in a whisper. "I'm sure I heard some one walking."
A hush fell over the room. The girls strained their ears.
"Oh, Angela! You're always hearing things. Your imagination is worse than your conscience. They're both ingrowing," Ruth declared. "I don't think you heard a blessed thing!"
"Yes, she did, Ruth," Blue Bonnet insisted. "I heard it, too."
"You did?"
"Yes—shh—there! You heard it then, didn't you?"
All admitted that they did hear some sort of a sound and sat with bated breath.
"It's a rat or a mouse! Oh, see—there it goes—look, behind that big brown trunk!"
The appearance of Fraulein accompanied by Miss North could scarcely have caused greater confusion. The girls scattered in every direction. Wee Watts made an attempt to climb the wall in her anxiety to escape, turning over an old chair that fell with dreadful clatter.