"Refrain from slang, if you please. I never countenance such expressions."
Viola only smiled. Evidently Miss Crane had reached "the end of her rope."
"And you will make no explanation of why you told such a story to the girls of Glenwood?" and the calm voice of the teacher rang out clearly now. "No other reason to give for depriving one of the sweetest and best of these girls of her happy place among her companions? And that same girl refuses to tell her own story, because of a promise! She must bear all the shame, all the suspicion, all the wrong silently, when everybody knows she is shielding someone. Viola Green, to whom did Dorothy Dale make that promise?"
"How should I know?" replied the other with curled lip.
"Who, then, is Dorothy Dale shielding?"
"Shielding? Why, probably her dear friend, Tavia Travers. I don't know, of course. I am merely trying to help you out!"
That shot blazed home—it staggered Miss Crane. She had never thought of Octavia! And she was so close a friend of Dorothy's—besides being over reckless! It might be that Dorothy was shielding Tavia and that she would not and could not break a promise made to the absent member of Glenwood school.
Miss Crane was silent. She sat there gazing at Viola. Her pink and white cheeks assumed a red tinge.
Viola was victorious again. She had only made a suggestion and that suggestion had done all the rest.
"I will talk to Mrs. Pangborn," said Miss Crane finally, and she arose and quietly left the room.