. Willis sent for me, and asked me about the caricature which
was drawn in Cecil's book. I looked at it and I told her the truth. I did
not conceal one thing. I told her the whole truth as far as I knew it.
She did not believe me. She said so. What more could I do then?"

Here Annie paused; she began to unclasp and clasp her hands, and she
looked full at Mr. Everard with a most pleading expression.

"Do you mind repeating to me exactly what you said to your governess?" he
questioned.

"I said this, sir. I said, 'Yes, Mrs. Willis, I did draw that caricature.
You will scarcely understand how I, who love you so much, could have been
so mad and ungrateful as to do anything to turn you into ridicule. I
would cut off my right hand now not to have done it; but I did do it, and
I must tell you the truth.' 'Tell me, dear,' she said, quite gently then.
'It was one wet afternoon about a fortnight ago,' I said to her; 'a lot
of us middle-school girls were sitting together, and I had a pencil and
some bits of paper, and I was making up funny little groups of a lot of
us, and the girls were screaming with laughter, for somehow I managed to
make the likeness that I wanted in each case. It was very wrong of me, I
know. It was against the rules, but I was in one of my maddest humors,
and I really did not care what the consequences were. At last one of the
girls said: 'You won't dare to make a picture like that of Mrs. Willis,
Annie--you know you won't dare.' The minute she said that name I began to
feel ashamed. I remembered I was breaking one of the rules, and I
suddenly tore up all my bits of paper and flung them into the fire, and I
said: 'No, I would not dare to show her dishonor.' Well, afterward, as I
was washing my hands for tea up in my room, the temptation came over me
so strongly that I felt I could not resist it, to make a funny little
sketch of Mrs. Willis. I had a little scrap of thin paper, and I took out
my pencil and did it all in a minute. It seemed to me very funny, and I
could not help laughing at it; and then I thrust it into my private
writing-case, which I always keep locked, and I put the key in my pocket
and ran downstairs. I forgot all about the caricature. I had never shown
it to any one. How it got into Cecil's book is more than I can say. When
I had finished speaking Mrs. Willis looked very hard at the book. 'You
are right,' she said; 'this caricature is drawn on a very thin piece of
paper, which has been cl