When this silence had lasted about a quarter of an hour, Biddy raised herself on her elbow, and listened intently; then she threw aside the bedclothes, and stepped lightly on to the floor. Her slippers were discarded, and her little stockinged feet made no sound as she walked across the boards. She managed to open her door without its making a single creak, and a few moments later, guided by the moon, she was standing in the deserted schoolroom, and was unlocking her school desk. From out of it she took three very neat looking exercise-books. From each of these books she tore a page. These three pages she deliberately reduced to the minutest fragments; returned the books to her desk, locked it, and went back to bed.
No one had heard her go or come. When she laid her head once more on her pillow a little sob escaped her lips.
"You shan't ever say I'm unhonorable again, Violet," she muttered; some tears stole from under her thick, curly lashes. Two or three minutes afterward she had dropped into profound and peaceful slumber.
The next day at lesson time Bridget O'Hara was in extreme disgrace. She had no exercises, either good or bad, to show; not the most careless or untidy notes had she with regard to her history lesson; her geography had simply not been prepared at all.
Biddy went to the bottom of her class, where she stayed for the remainder of the morning.
She was to learn her lessons during the hours of recreation, and was told by her indignant teachers that she might consider herself in great disgrace.
She received this announcement with complacency, and sat with a contented, almost provoking, smile hovering round her lips.
Morning school being over, the girls went out to play as usual; but Biddy sat in the schoolroom with her sums, history lesson, and geography all waiting to get accomplished.
"You have been a good girl lately, Bridget; you have prepared your lessons carefully and cleverly," said Miss Dent, the English teacher. "I am quite sure, therefore, that you will speedily retrieve the great carelessness of this morning. I am willing to make all allowances for you, my dear, for we none of us forget that yesterday was your birthday. Now, just give your attention to these lessons, and you will have them nicely prepared by dinner time."