“I wish I had been; I have always longed for school.”
“Well, you have your wish at last. How do you like it?”
“I should like it fairly well if I were put into a higher form, and if this stupid fuss were not going on.”
“Why do you dislike the subject being mentioned so much?”
Evelyn colored slightly. Audrey looked at her. There was no suspicion in Audrey’s eyes; it was absolutely impossible for her to connect her cousin with anything so mean and low. Evelyn had a great many objectionable habits, but that she could commit what was in Audrey’s opinion a very grave sin, and then tell lies about it, was more than the young girl could either imagine or realize.
The pretty governess-cart took them to school in good time, and the usual routine of the morning began. It was immediately after prayers, however, that Miss Henderson spoke from her desk to the assembled school.
“I am sorry to tell you all,” she began, “that up to the present I have not got the slightest clue to the mystery of the injured book. I have questioned, I have gone carefully into every particular, and all I can find out is that the book was left in classroom No. 4 (which is usually occupied by the girls of the Fourth Form); that it was placed there at nine o’clock in the morning, and was not used again by Miss Thompson until school was over—namely, between five and six o’clock in the evening. During that time, as far as I can make out, only one girl was alone in the room. That girl was Evelyn Wynford. I do not in any way accuse Evelyn Wynford of having committed the sin—for sin it was—but I have to mention the fact that she was alone in the room during recess, having failed to learn a lesson which had been set her. During the afternoon the room was, as far as I can tell, empty for a couple of hours, and of course some one may have come in then and done the mischief. I therefore have not the slightest intention of suspecting a girl who only arrived that morning; but I mention the fact, all the same, that Evelyn Wynford was alone in the room for the space of twenty minutes.”
While Miss Henderson was speaking all eyes were turned in Evelyn’s direction; all eyes saw a white and stubborn face, and two angry brown eyes that flashed almost wildly round the room and then looked down. Just for an instant a few of the girls said to themselves, “That is a guilty face.” But again they thought, “How could she do it? Why should she do it? No, it certainly cannot be Evelyn Wynford.”
As to Audrey, she pitied Evelyn very much. She thought it extremely hard on her that Miss Henderson should have singled her out for individual notice on this most painful occasion, and out of pity for her she would not once glance in her direction.
Miss Henderson paused for a moment; then she continued: