“I called this meeting,” said Miss Gray, “because I wanted to make an announcement to all of you at once, since the subject of the announcement concerns us all. We have recently had a very clever thief in our midst. She has robbed many of you and has brought unjust suspicion on some innocent persons by spreading reports. This girl has been dismissed from the school and from West Haven. She will never trouble us again.
“Some of us have suffered deeply for the last few weeks on account of this disgrace and scandal in the school, and I don’t mind confessing that I have been one of those persons. I know that you will all rejoice with me that the affair is concluded.
“I want to say further, that at a specially called meeting, the Board of Education has consented to add a new post to the school force. This position, which is that of private and confidential secretary to the principal and has a salary attached, is to be filled by Miss Mary Price. I hope you will all congratulate me on my good fortune in obtaining so competent and reliable an assistant.”
There was wild applause when this announcement was made and Mary, smiling and happy, with her three devoted friends about her, was obliged to rise and bow her blushing acknowledgments to her schoolmates.
CHAPTER XXIV.—OUT OF THE MISTS.
The Motor Maids were gathered in Mrs. Brown’s sunny parlor around a cheerful driftwood fire. You may easily guess it was Saturday morning, because Nancy was darning stockings, Elinor was at the piano, Mary was reading, while Billie lay flat on her back on the hearth rug, her hands crossed under her head, thinking deeply.
“I wish people were not so careless of their diamond necklaces and things,” she observed, addressing the ceiling with some irritation. “Throwing them around in motor cars, giving them to the first person who comes along, and not caring to have them returned! It’s a nuisance——”
Suddenly the door was thrown violently open and Merry appeared.
“Mrs. Ruggles,” he announced, making a low bow.
Nancy did not take the trouble to turn around. Elinor went on playing and Mary reading. It was only one of Merry’s jokes, they thought. But Billie jumped up in amazement; for there actually stood Mrs. Ruggles in the flesh—very much in the flesh, in fact. She was dressed in decent black and wore a black bonnet, and Billie could not decide whether she resembled a queen disguised as a fish-wife or a fish-wife dressed as a lady.