“It always is,” said Sylvia.
Miss Ashley rebuked her rather sharply for interrupting.
“A bull’s-eye lantern. The room reeked of hot metal. I could not read the code. I took it upon myself to punish them with an extra hour’s freehand to-day. But the punishment is most inadequate. I detect a disturbing influence right through the school.”
Miss Ashley made a short speech in which she pointed out the responsibilities of the older girls in such matters and emphasized the vulgarity of the twins’ conduct. No one wished to impute nasty motives to them, but it must be clearly understood that the girls of Hornton House could not and should not be allowed to behave like servants. She relied upon Muriel Battersby, Dorothy Hearne, Gwendyr Jones, Phyllis Markham, Georgina Roe, Helen Macdonald, and Sylvia Scarlett to prevent in future such unfortunate incidents as this that had been brought to her notice by Miss Primer, she was sure much against Miss Primer’s will.
Miss Primer at these words threw up her eyes to indicate the misery she had suffered before she had been able to bring herself to the point of reporting the twins. Phyllis whispered to Sylvia that Miss Primer looked like a dying duck in a thunder-storm, a phrase which she now heard for the first time and at which she laughed aloud.
Miss Ashley paused in her discourse and fixed Sylvia with her gray eyes in pained interrogation; Miss Pinck’s chin shot out; Miss Lee bit her under lip and tenderly shook her head; the other girls stared at their laps and tried to look at one another without moving their heads. Phyllis quickly explained that it was she who had made Sylvia laugh.
“I’m awfully sorry, Miss Ashley,” she drawled.
“I’m glad to hear that you are very sorry,” said Miss Ashley, “but Sylvia must realize when it is permissible and when it is not permissible to laugh. I’m afraid I must ask her to leave the room.”
“I ought to go, too,” Phyllis declared. “I made her laugh.”
“I’m sure, Phyllis, that to yourself your wit seems irresistible. Pray let us have an opportunity of judging.”