such a doubt making her feel faint and ill. Alma lifted a wan face and
smiled.

"I don't _know_ that I didn't do it," she said, drearily. "If they
found a trot on my desk--and it must have been my desk, because mine
was the only examination that was cancelled--why, how can I prove that
I wasn't using it?"

"But you don't even own such a thing! You wouldn't dream of having
one. In some schools girls are allowed to use interlinear translations
for their daily work, but it's not permitted here, and it wouldn't have
entered your mind to get one. Come, we'll go to Miss Leland at once.
She's alone in her office now."

Alma let herself be guided up to the principal's cosy little sanctum,
where Miss Leland was seated at her desk writing. A wood-fire
smoldered with friendly warmth on the brightly burnished andirons, and
a clear, wintry sunlight fell in through the curtained windows, where a
perfect garden of indoor plants bloomed gaily. But all these pleasant,
homelike things seemed to share the chill hostility of Miss Leland's
level glance, as the two sisters stood looking at her timidly from the
threshold of the open door.

"You may come in," she said, with a curt nod. "No doubt, Alma, you
wish to offer some explanation. Be seated."

"My sister wanted to say that there was a mistake. The book you
referred to was never in her possession, and she did not use it at her
examination," said Nancy, speaking rapidly, and almost harshly, in her
endeavor to keep from breaking into a fit of hysterical tears. Alma
was quite incapable of saying a word for herself.

"Then I am sorry that it happened to be found on her desk just after
she had left the examination-room," replied Miss Leland dryly, her tone
expressing her complete lack of belief in Nancy's words.

"Alma, did you have that book?" asked Nancy, turning sharply to her
sister. Miss Leland opened a drawer of her writing-table and took out
a small volume, bound in green cloth, which she handed over to Alma.
Alma had already opened her lips to utter a frantic denial to Nancy's
question, when her eyes fell upon the book. She shut her mouth with a
sudden gasp, and without taking it, simply stared at the inoffensive
little volume with a fixed, horrified gaze.

"Is that an interlinear?" she exclaimed breathlessly. "Is that the
book that was found on my desk?"

"So you _have_ seen it before," remarked Miss Leland. "Alma, this is a
very serious matter. There can