I leaned forward and clutched Miss Benton’s shoulder.
“She hasn’t come back yet,” I cried; “do you think she is there still? I forgot—I thought it didn’t matter. I didn’t mean to—”
Miss Benton turned around her head to look up at me, and the others near us looked too, and down at the foot of the stairs the crowd packed in front of the bulletin board sort of quieted for a minute and seemed to be listening and watching us. And up on the wall over their heads the big clock went tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, and its long pendulum swung to and fro.
Then swish, swish, swish, the lady principal came hurrying through the reception hall beyond, with her silk skirts rustling, and her face quite pale. And the girls turned their heads toward her. She raised her hand and said in her soft voice: “Are Miss Martha Reed’s roommates here?”
And then some more girls with their hats and coats on came running up the steps from the vestibule. The crowd was buzzing like everything when Lila and I pushed our way through to tell Mrs. Howard we were there. We caught scraps of sentences flying hither and thither.
“Run over?”
“Lying in the road——”
“Who found her?”
“Yes, right there in the loneliest part.”
“Such a timid little thing——”