You are requested to attend a most important meeting to be held in the boarders" sitting-room at the hostel immediately after four.
There was no signature, but the writing was Iva"s. The Ramsays were much mystified. As day-girls they had nothing to do with the hostel, and could only go there by special invitation. When afternoon school was over they asked some of the boarders the meaning of the missive. n.o.body would explain.
"You"ll find out when you get there," was Nesta"s cryptic reply.
Puzzled, and considerably distressed at a certain offensive att.i.tude exhibited by Sybil and others, Mavis and Merle walked across the garden to the hostel. Iva had cleared all the younger girls out of the boarders"
sitting-room, and was waiting in company with Nesta, Muriel, Aubrey, Edith, and Kitty. As soon as the Ramsays and Sybil came in, she closed the door.
"I"ve called a general meeting of the Fifth," she said, "because there"s something we all feel we ought to go into. Would you like to elect some one into the chair?"
"I beg to propose yourself," piped Aubrey.
"And I beg to second," said Nesta.
Iva settled herself and looked somewhat embarra.s.sed, as if not knowing quite how to begin. She fidgeted for a moment with her pencil, and cleared her throat.
"We"re all here," she said at last, "except Fay and Beata, who couldn"t stay. What we"ve met for is to ask Mavis and Merle to explain how it was they got to know some of the examination questions beforehand. It seems to us queer, to say the least of it!"
The Ramsays, overwhelmed with amazement at such a palpable insinuation, turned wrathfully red.
"Why, we"ve told you! Clive guessed!" gasped Merle.
"Bunk.u.m!"
"How could he?"
"Very convenient guessing, I"m sure!"
"It"s no use telling us such utter fibs!"
"They"re not fibs! How dare you say so!" flamed Merle.
"It"s the absolute truth!" endorsed Mavis.
"Do you stick to that?"
"Of course we do."
"Then I shall have to call on Sybil to tell us something she saw yesterday."
Sybil, who was red, nervous, and even more uncomfortable than Iva, rose from her seat to make her accusation.
"I was in the garden yesterday after school, and I saw Merle come back, hurry among the bushes, and climb in at the study window. I waited, and presently she came out again and scooted off as if she didn"t want to meet anybody."
"O--o--oh! You _didn"t_ see me! I wasn"t there! Was I, Mavis?"
"Most certainly not. You were at home all the time. I can prove that!"
"I think the thing proves itself!" said Iva. "First of all, you"re seen by a witness entering the study, where, no doubt, the exam papers were spread out on the table, and then you come to school primed with the questions. There isn"t a shadow of doubt."
"Wait a minute!" said Mavis, rising with a very white face. "To begin with, you"ve got to prove that it was Merle. One witness isn"t enough."
"Catie and Peggie saw her down the drive. They told me so."
"What time was it?"
"About five o"clock."
"She was practising at home then. I can bring witnesses to prove that.
Besides, if she had really seen the questions, do you think she"d have been silly enough to tell them to you before the exam?"
The girls looked puzzled at that, but Nesta murmured that Merle was silly enough for anything.
"As she"s one of the monitresses, we thought we ought to give her a chance to clear herself before we told Miss Mitch.e.l.l," said Iva.
"She _can_ clear herself and she will. It"s not fair to condemn her like this. You must give her time to bring her own witnesses. I ask you all, is it like Merle to do such a thing?"
"Well, no, it certainly isn"t like either of you. That"s what"s surprised us so much."
"You feel you can"t be sure of anybody," added Aubrey.
The boarders" tea-gong, sounding at that moment, brought the meeting to an unsatisfactory conclusion. The Ramsays hurried home, bubbling over with indignation, to pour their woes into Mother"s sympathetic ear, and were highly put out to find the drawing-room full of callers, and to be expected to hand tea-cups and make pleasant conversation instead of retailing their grievances. They beat a retreat as soon as they possibly could, and, for fear of being asked to play or sing for the benefit of visitors, deemed it wise to escape into the garden.
"We"ll sit in the summer-house, only I must have my jersey," declared Merle, catching up the garment in question from its peg in the hall, and pulling it on. "I want some place where I can explode. This is just the beastliest thing that"s ever happened to me in all my life."
"I can"t understand it!" puzzled Mavis, with her forehead in wrinkles.
Merle was stumping along the path with her hands in the pockets of her jersey.
"Why should they accuse _me_, of all people in the world, of climbing in through the study window? Sybil must have been dreaming.
She"s an idiot of a girl. She"d imagine anything from a ghost to a burglar. What are we going to do about it? I wish to goodness they _would_ tell Miss Mitch.e.l.l! I"d rather she knew. I"ve a jolly good mind to go and tell her myself. Then I should have first innings and she"d hear our side of it. h.e.l.lo! There"s Clive."
It was that lively young gentleman who came walking along the garden wall and took a flying leap on to the path, just avoiding one of Tom"s best flower-beds.
"There"s a whole tribe of ladies in the drawing-room!" he volunteered. "I carried my tea into the summer-house! You won"t catch me "doing the polite" if I can help it. Rather not! Have you bunked too? I don"t blame you. You"re looking down in the mouth, both of you! Exams gone wrong this afternoon? Shall I tell your fortunes again?"
"Your precious fortune has got us into a great deal of trouble," answered Merle. "How did you manage to guess those questions? They were actually in our papers!"
Clive pulled his face into a variety of grimaces.
"Ah! Wouldn"t you just like to know!" he retorted. "Perhaps I keep a familiar spirit, or perhaps I read things in the stars. I prophesy you"ll fail in all the rest of your exams! There!"
"You young wretch!" cried Merle, chasing him down the path as he fled.
She took her hands from her pockets to catch hold of him, and as she did so out flew a penknife on to the gra.s.s. Clive pounced upon it immediately and picked it up.
"I"ve been looking for this everywhere!" he declared.
"How did it get inside my pocket?" asked Merle.