"What did she say?" eagerly asked a knot of girls, as Viola Green made her appearance the morning after her interview with the head of Glenwood school.  
"Humph!" sniffed¹ Viola, "what could she say?"
 
"Did she send for Dorothy?" went on the curious ones.
 
"I have just seen her step out of the office this minute and she couldn't see me. Her eyes wouldn't let her."
 
"Then she didn't deny it!" spoke² Amy Brook³. "I could scarcely make myself believe that of her."
 
"Ask her about it, then," suggested Viola, to whom the term brazen⁴ would seem, at that moment, to be most applicable.
 
"Oh, excuse me," returned Amy. "I never wound where I can avoid it. The most polite way always turns out the most satisfactory."
 
"And do you suppose she is going to leave school?" asked Nita Brant, timidly, as if afraid of her own voice in the matter.
 
"She told me so last night," said Viola, meekly⁵. "I don't blame her."
 
"No," said a girl with deep blue eyes, and a baby chin, "I do not see how any girl could stand such cuts, and Dorothy seemed such a sweet girl."
 
"Better go and hug her now," sneered⁶ Viola, "I fancy you will find her rolled up in bed, with her red nose, dying for air."
 
"It is the strangest thing—" demurred⁷ Amy.
 
"Not at all," insisted Viola, "all sweet girls have two sides to their characters. But I am sick of the whole thing. Let's drop it."
 
"And take up Dorothy again?" eagerly asked Nita.
 
"Oh, just as you like about that. If you want to associate with girls who ride in police wagons—"
 
"Well, I do want to!" declared Nita, suddenly. "And I don't believe one word against Dorothy Dale. It must be some mistake. I will ask her about it myself."
 
"If you wish to spare her you will do nothing of the kind," said Viola. "I tell you it is absolutely true. That she has just this minute admitted it to Mrs. Pangborn. Don't you think if it were a mistake I would have to correct it, when the thing has now been thoroughly⁸ investigated?"
 
It was plain that many of the girls were apt to take Nita's view. They had given the thing a chance to develop, and they were satisfied now that a mistake had been made somewhere. Of course the clever turns made by Viola, kept "the ball rolling."
 
"There's the bell!" announced Amy, reluctantly leaving the discussion unfinished. This was the signal for laying aside all topics other than those relative to the curriculum of Glenwood, and, as the girls filed into the chapel⁹ for prayers, more than one missed Dorothy, her first morning to absent herself from the exercise.
 
Miss Higley was in charge, Mrs. Pangborn also being out of her accustomed place.
 
Directly after the short devotions there was whispering.
 
"Young ladies!" called the teacher, in a voice unusually severe, "you must attend strictly¹⁰ to your work. There has been enough lax discipline in Glenwood recently. I will have no more of it."
 
"Humph!" sniffed Viola, aside, "since when did she buy the school!"
 
Miss Higley's eyes were fastened upon her. But Viola's recent experiences had the effect of making her reckless—she felt quite immune to punishment now.
 
"Attend to your work, Miss Green!" called Miss Higley.
 
"Attend to your own," answered Viola under her breath, but the teacher saw that she had spoken, and knew that the remark was not a polite one.
 
"What did you say?" asked the teacher.
 
"Nothing," retorted Viola, still using a rude tone.
 
"You certainly answered me, and I insist upon knowing what you said."
 
Viola was silent now, but her eyes spoke volumes.
 
"Will you please repeat that remark?" insisted Miss Higley.
 
"No," said Viola, sharply, "I will not!"
 
Miss Higley's ruddy face flashed a deep red. To have a pupil openly defy a teacher is beyond the forgiveness of many women less aggressive than Miss Higley.
 
"You had better leave the room," she said—"take your books with you."
 
"I won't require them," snapped Viola, intending to give out the impression that she would leave school if she were to be treated in that manner by Miss Higley.
 
"Get at your work, young ladies," finished the teacher, fastening her eyes on her own books, and thus avoiding anything further with Viola.
 
To reach her room Viola was obliged to pass Dorothy's. Just as she came up to number nineteen Dorothy opened the door. Her eyes were red from weeping, and she looked very unhappy indeed.
 
"Oh, do come in Viola," she said, surprised to see the girl before her. "I was going to you directly after class—I did not know you were out."
 
"I cannot come now," answered Viola.............