“Yes, indeed. Please don’t worry, Miss White—surely she’ll get better!”
Miss White smiled sadly, and handed Ruth the key. “You are a dear, good girl, Ruth,” she said, as she opened the door.
Ruth began to straighten the papers, which the girls had piled one by one on top of the teacher’s desk. As she picked them up, one from the top of the pile fell to the floor. She stooped to pick it up. It was Marjorie Wilkinson’s!
Suddenly, Ruth thought of the other girl’s house-party, and the dance which she had witnessed through the lighted windows; she remembered Marjorie’s indifference during the days that followed her pledging to the sorority; and heard Lily exclaim over again that if her room-mate made 90% in this Latin test, she would be a Girl Scout.
This was the opportunity she had been waiting for; if she had schemed and planned for it, it could not have been more perfect. If she let this chance go by, she would probably never have another like it. She would pay Marjorie back for what she had done in the past.
Taking a pen, and dipping it in Miss White’s inkwell, she turned to the questions marked “English into Latin.” With her knowledge, it was a simple matter to make little changes—adding letters here and there at the ends of words to make the gender, number, tense, or case of the word out of harmony with the rest of the sentence.
Once she thought she heard a sound at the door; she quickly dropped her pen, and pretended to straighten the papers. But no one came in, and she finished her work of deceit. To the casual observer, Marjorie’s paper looked no different; but to the Latin student, it proved to be like the poor twisted poem of “Father William” in “Alice in Wonderland,” “wrong from beginning to end.”
While she was locking Miss White’s desk, the risk of her act occurred to her. What if the teacher should decide to return the papers to the girls, contrary to her usual custom? What if Marjorie should not be satisfied with her mark, and should ask Miss White to go over the paper with her?
But it was too late now to think of the danger; the deed was done, and she must take the consequences.
She decided on the whole that she would stand less chance of detection if the teacher took the papers home with her to mark. Accordingly, she unlocked the desk again and took out the pile, and, leaving everything in good order, went over to Miss White’s room.