“Two of the girls shut up in the little dressing-room? And the key missing? Suppose there should be a fire, Miss Olaine?”

Mrs. Pangborn had just arrived. She had not even removed her bonnet, only untied its strings. And she sat with her feet on the fender of the open fire place where the gaslog burned in the office. It was a half hour after midnight and Glenwood Hall was supposed to be as silent as the tomb at that time.

“I thought of that. It is a trick,” said the dark teacher, hastily, and wringing her hands together in the peculiar way she had. It showed that Miss Olaine was a very nervous person.

“How do you mean—a trick?” asked the principal, quietly.

“Some person in league with the two girls removed the key, of course. I am sure it was done so as to keep me out while they ate forbidden food.”

62 “But did they not have their supper?”

“Bread and milk; quite enough for them.”

“And for luncheon? You say they were shut into the room in the forenoon.”

“I—I thought it would bring them to terms quicker. A little fast surely would not hurt them,” said Miss Olaine, hesitatingly.

“Perhaps not,” agreed Mrs. Pangborn, after a moment of silence, but looking at her new assistant in rather a curious way. “However, I do not approve of corporal punishment——”

“Corporal punishment!”

“Yes. Underfeeding must come under that head,” said Mrs. Pangborn, but with a laugh. “And you think they somehow tricked you and got more supper than you intended?”

“I am positive. I have been to the pantry. That door should be locked——”

“Oh, no!” cried the principal. “I never lock things away from my girls.”

“A mistake, Mrs. Pangborn,” declared the assistant, with growing confidence. “Youth is naturally treacherous.”

“Oh, my dear Miss Olaine!” exclaimed the principal of Glenwood. “I am sorry your experience has led to that belief. Mine has not—and it has the advantage of yours in extent of time,” and she smiled again.

“I am sure, Miss Olaine, you and I are going63 to get on beautifully; but you do not understand my girls.”

“I understand both of these I have shut up——”

“Thank goodness there is a master-key to all the doors right here on my ring,” interrupted Mrs. Pangborn, shaking the jingling bunch of keys. “In a moment—as soon as my feet are warm—we will go and let those poor girls out and send them to bed.”

“Mrs. Pangborn! you evidently do not consider the serious nature of the offense,” cried Miss Olaine, again wringing her bony hands, her eyes flashing.

“No. True. I did not ask you. What happened?”

Miss Olaine told her story—all about the pigs, and her fright, and Dorothy being disobedient, and defying her, as Miss Olaine said. But she neglected to call either culprit by name.

“I did not expect insurrection to begin so quickly, Miss Olaine,” said the principal, gravely. “And I gather from your statement that two of my girls—— They belong to the upper class, you say?”

“Yes, Mrs. Pangborn. Young ladies old enough——”

“And their names?”

“Misses Travers and Dale.”

64 “Tavia Travers!” gasped the older lady. “Of course! Who else would have invented such a perfectly ridiculous thing as introducing pigs into the school room?”

“I knew you would be amazed, madam.”

“Not at all,” the principal hastened to say. “Nothing Tavia ever does surprises me. But the other—not Dorothy Dale?”

“Yes, Miss Dale.”

“Oh, Miss Olaine! there must be some mistake there. I know Dorothy so well,” said Mrs. Pangborn, gravely. “The two are always together; but I am sure that whatever Dorothy told you was true. And Tavia, too, for that matter.”

“I am positive they were endeavoring to mislead me. And they would not tell who had helped them, or who else was in the plot to put those pigs in this house——”

“Miss Olaine!” gasped Mrs. Pangborn, suddenly. “That is something I forgot to speak of when I went away in such a hurry the day after you came to Glenwood.”

“What is that?” asked the surprised assistant.

“I never ask one of my girls to tell on another. They are all on honor, here. I do not expect any girl to play the spy. Indeed, I punish severely only those who show such a tendency. You were wrong to expect either of those girls to give any information which might lead to trouble for their65 schoolmates. Whereas, if they say nobody else was aware of the prank——”

“Miss Travers refuses to admit that she had any help at all.”

“If she says it is her own performance, you may believe it is so.”

“Oh, I do not believe in giving such latitude to mere school girls,” declared Miss Olaine, and now she was quite heated again.

Mrs. Pangborn looked at her seriously. “You have much to learn yet, I fear, Miss Olaine,” she said, quietly. “Reports of your erudition and management of studies in a great publ............