“Right out on top,” explained Eugenia. “Isn’t it there? Seems to me a drawer was open. Maybe it got slipped in by mistake with something else, when the drawer was shut.”
Betty opened every drawer and looked carefully through the contents. Then she went through the pigeonholes again, while Eugenia waited, anxiety fast taking the place of her serene assurance.
“It’s not here,” Betty announced at last. “Are you perfectly sure you left it, Eugenia?”
“Perfectly. You see,” Eugenia, being thoroughly frightened, became, according to her custom, perfectly frank and open. “You see I knew you’d think it was cheating to help on a ‘final,’ no matter if all—well, some,” she amended hastily, “of the regular tutors do it. So I folded it up and laid it on your desk where I thought you’d naturally pick it up to see what it was. And after you’d begun it, I thought you’d finish out of curiosity, because you’re so interested in my not flunking. And if you thought it was a fright I just hoped you wouldn’t be able to resist bringing it to me to revise. I guess it wasn’t honest, and I never mean to actually cheat,” ended Eugenia, with a feeling for nice distinctions, “so I’m really and truly glad you didn’t find it before. But it must be there, Miss Wales. It simply must.”
“It isn’t,” Betty answered with decision. “I’ve looked twice at every single paper.”
“Then somebody has taken it.”
Betty considered. “You might have picked it up yourself, Eugenia, with your other things, in a fit of absent-mindedness. The maids never touch this desk. The only other person who could possibly have moved it is Madeline. She was writing here, I think, the day you say you left it. She’s up on the campus now. You go and hunt through your room, and as soon as she comes home, I’ll ask her about it.”
“Suppose we don’t either of us find it?” queried Eugenia anxiously.
“Oh, we shall find it,” Betty assured her. “I’m almost sure you took it off.”
“Oh, no, I didn’t, Miss Wales,” declared Eugenia. “I know I didn’t, but I’ll go and look. And if I don’t find it, I shall come right back here to see if Miss Ayres has it. Oh, just think—what if it’s lost for keeps?” Eugenia fastened her sable furs as unconcernedly as if they had been last year’s style and squirrel, and rushed off, her eyes big with terror.