Miss Beasley, greatly upset by such a happening in her school, consulted her brother as to her best course to pursue. On learning the circ.u.mstances he took a very grave view of the case.
"There"s little doubt of the girl"s guilt," he declared. "She evidently yielded to a sudden temptation. She wanted a fountain pen in time for the examinations, and she borrowed the notes which had been left in her charge, in order to send for it. Probably she wrote home for more money, and expected to be able to replace it, and that is the explanation of her asking for a few days" grace. It seems to me as clear as daylight, and I should deal with her as she deserves."
"May I ask one question?" said Miss Gibbs, who also had been called to the conclave. "How is it that Mrs. West affirms that she saw Raymonde in the post office at six o"clock on Friday, while Veronica and Hermie declare that at five minutes to six she was sitting at the piano in the practising-room? It is not possible to reach the village in five minutes."
Miss Beasley started. This aspect of the matter had not occurred to her.
"It"s very perplexing!" she murmured.
"Raymonde has been troublesome," continued Miss Gibbs, "but I have always found her scrupulously straight and truthful. Such a lapse as this seems to me utterly foreign to her character."
"You never know what a girl will do till she"s tried!" commented the Rev. T. W. Beasley. "Better expel her at once, as a warning to the others."
"Give her a chance!" pleaded Miss Gibbs. "The evidence is really so unsatisfactory. Wait a day or two, and see if we can sift it!"
"I wish I knew what is best!" vacillated the Princ.i.p.al. "It is so near the end of the term that it seems a pity to send Raymonde home till next week, when she would be going in any case. I will call at the post office, and make enquiries as to the exact time she came there last Friday. I think I won"t decide anything before Sat.u.r.day."
Miss Beasley stuck to this determination, in spite of her brother"s protests against over-leniency and lack of discipline. She excused herself on the ground that she did not wish to disturb the examinations, which were to continue until Friday evening. Meanwhile Raymonde was in the position of a remanded prisoner at the bar. She was not allowed to mingle with the rest of the school. She was conducted, under Mademoiselle"s escort, to her place in the examination hall, but spent the remainder of her time in the practising-room, which served as a temporary jail. Her meals were sent up to her, and no girl was allowed, under penalty of expulsion, to attempt to communicate with her. She was not permitted to go to the dormitory at night, but slept on a chair-bed in Miss Beasley"s dressing-room.
Naturally the episode was the talk of the school. Its interest eclipsed even the horror of the examinations. It seemed a mystery which no one could disentangle. The girls remembered only too well that Raymonde had been very secretive about how she had obtained the fountain pen; but, on the other hand, witnesses declared that they had seen her both at the post office and in the practising-room, when she certainly could not have been in two places at once.
The Fifth decided that the Reverend T. W. Beasley must be at the bottom of it. There had never been any disturbances before he came to the school, and since his arrival everything had been unpleasant, therefore he must be distinctly responsible for Raymonde"s misfortunes; which was hardly a reasonable conclusion, however loyal it might be to their friend. The Mystics talked the matter over in private, and suggested many bold but quite impracticable schemes, such as subscribing the missing money amongst them, or throwing up a rope-ladder to the sanctum window for Raymonde to escape by, neither of which plans would have cleared her character.
Raymonde herself preserved an extraordinary att.i.tude of obstinacy. She utterly refused to give any more explanations. She did not cry, but there was a grey misery in her face that was worse than tears. She walked in and out of the examination hall with her head proudly erect.
Her comrades, with surrept.i.tious sympathy, glanced up as she pa.s.sed, but under the lynx eye of their examiner were unable to convey to her the notes which several of them at least had prepared ready to pa.s.s under the desk.
On Friday afternoon Raymonde was sitting alone in the practising-room, when the door was unlocked and Veronica entered with a tray.
"I"ve come to bring your tea," explained the monitress. "I don"t really know whether I"m supposed to be allowed to talk to you, but Miss Beasley didn"t tell me not to, so I shall. Look here, Ray, why don"t you end this wretched business?"
"I only wish I could!" groaned Raymonde.
"But you can. There"s something behind it all, I"m sure. Take my advice, and explain it to Miss Beasley. She"d be quite decent about it."
Raymonde shook her head sadly and silently.
"Yes, she would, if you"d only confess. I can"t understand you, Ray.
You were always a madcap, but you never did anything underhand or sneaky before; even when you were naughtiest you were quite square and above-board."
"Thank you!" smiled Raymonde faintly.
"I can"t think why you should have changed, and conceal everything!
Ray, I appeal to your best side. You signed our Marlowe Grange League, and seemed quite enthusiastic about it at the time. Won"t you try to live up to it now?"
Raymonde rose to her feet. In her eyes were two smouldering fires.
"You can"t understand!" Her voice was trembling with pa.s.sion. "It"s exactly because I signed that paper and promised to be faithful to my friends and to speak the truth, that I"m in all this trouble. No, I tell you I won"t explain! If you think so badly of me that you won"t believe my word, it"s no use my speaking to you. Oh! I hate everybody, and I hate everything! I wish I could go home!"
"Better stay and clear things up!" said Veronica. "If I could do anything for you, I would."
"Would you?" asked Raymonde with a flash of hope. "Could you possibly get a letter posted for me?"
Veronica shook her head.
"I daren"t!" she said briefly. "Miss Beasley trusted me to bring up your tea, and I mustn"t forget I"m a monitress. I shall have to tell her that I"ve been speaking to you. I ought to go now. Good-bye!"
Raymonde drank her tea, but left the bread and b.u.t.ter untouched. She was not hungry, and her head ached. The whole of her gay, careless world seemed to have crumbled to ashes. She wondered what her chums were thinking of her. Did they, like Veronica, mistrust her conduct?
She knew that her behaviour was extraordinary. A sense of utter desolation swept over her, and, pushing aside the tea things, she leaned her arms on the table, with her hot face pressed against them.
From this despairing att.i.tude she was aroused by Miss Gibbs, who five minutes later came to fetch the tray.
"Don"t give way, Raymonde!" said the mistress, laying quite a kindly hand on the girl"s shoulder. "There"s to be proper enquiry into this matter to-morrow, and I, for one, trust you"ll be able to clear yourself. Keep your self-control, and be prepared to answer any questions that are put to you then. Remember there"s nothing like courage and speaking the truth."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "THE DOOR OPENED WITH A FORCIBLE JERK, AND A STRANGER ENTERED"]
Raymonde raised herself slowly, hesitated for a moment, then fumbled in her pocket.
"Miss Gibbs," she faltered, "I"d love to tell you everything, but I can"t. I wonder if you"d trust me enough to send off this letter without opening it, or asking me what I"ve written in it?"
The mistress took the envelope and examined it. It was addressed to Miss V. Chalmers, Haversedge Manor, near Byfield. She looked into Raymonde"s eyes as if she would read her very soul. Her pupil bore the scrutiny without flinching.
"It is a most unwarrantable thing to ask, but I will do it," replied Miss Gibbs. "I hope my confidence in you will be justified."
At 9.30 on the following morning a trap arrived at the Grange to convey the Reverend T. W. Beasley and his Gladstone bag to the railway station. A row of heads peeping from behind the curtains in the upper windows watched him depart, and exhibited manifestations of intense satisfaction.
"There! He"s actually gone!"
"Only hope he won"t miss his train and come back!"
"No, no! He"s in heaps of time, thank goodness!"
"Glad he isn"t staying the week-end!"
"He"s got to preach somewhere in aid of something on Sunday."
"May he never come here again, that"s all!"
Perhaps in secret Miss Beasley was equally relieved. She had pa.s.sed a strenuous week, and had possibly arrived at the conclusion that she was, on the whole, capable of arranging her own school to the satisfaction of herself and the parents of her pupils. She considered that she understood girls better than a bachelor university don, however great his literary attainments, could do. The experiment had not been altogether a success, and need not be repeated. She sighed as she waved a last good-bye and turned into the house.
An urgent matter, which she had put off until her brother"s departure, must now claim her attention. She ordered the entire Fifth Form, together with Hermie and Veronica, to repair to the practising-room, where Raymonde was still kept prisoner.
The girls marched in as quietly as if they were going to church. Their Princ.i.p.al sat by the table, with two little parallel lines of worry on her usually smooth forehead, and a grieved look in her grey eyes.
"It is very distressing to me to be obliged to make this enquiry," she began, "but it is absolutely necessary that we find out what has become of those missing notes. I put you all on your honour to tell me what you know. Can any girl throw any light on the matter?"
She looked anxiously and wistfully round the little circle, but n.o.body replied. Raymonde sat with downcast eyes, and the old obstinate expression on her face. The eyes of all the other girls were focused upon her.
"I am most loath to accuse anyone of such a dreadful thing as taking money," continued Miss Beasley, "but unless you can offer me some explanation, Raymonde, I shall be obliged to send you home. The facts look very black against you. You were treasurer, and cannot produce the funds; you were seen buying a postal order, and you received a handsome fountain pen by post."