"Alice says that I crib?" she repeated. "What do you English girls mean by 'cribbing'?"
"Alice says—oh, please don't be angry, Biddy—she says that Janet helps you; that Janet does—does some of your lessons for you, herself. I don't believe it! I said it wasn't true."
"You are a good little soul," said Biddy.
She took the child's hand within her own.
"What a plucky little thing you are, Vi. So you think it wrong to crib?"
"I think it wrong to crib?" repeated Violet. "I think it wrong to crib? Why, of course; it is most unhonorable."
Bridget colored.
"That's what you English think," she said, in a would-be careless tone; "but when a girl doesn't know, and when she's quite certain to get into all sorts of scrapes—eh, Vi—you tell me what a girl of that sort has got to do?"
"She must not crib," said Violet, in a shaky and intensely earnest little voice; "it's most awfully unhonorable of her; a girl who cribs must feel so—so mean. If it was me, I'd rather have all the punishments in the school than feel as mean as that. But you don't crib, Biddy, darling; you are so lovely, and you are so sweet; I know—I know you don't crib."
Bridget O'Hara had been tempted by Janet into a very dishonorable course of action, but no spoken lie had ever yet passed her lips.