everly pasted on the title-page.' Then, Mr.
Everard, she asked me a lot of questions. Had I ever parted with my keys?
Had I ever left my desk unlocked? 'No,' I said, 'my desk is always
locked, and my keys are always in my pocket. Indeed,' I added, 'my keys
were absolutely safe for the last week, for they went in a white
petticoat to the wash, and came back as rusty as possible.' I could not
open my desk for a whole week, which was a great nuisance. I told all
this story to Mrs. Willis, and she said to me: 'You are positively
certain that this caricature has been taken out of your desk by somebody
else, and pasted in here? You are sure that the caricature you drew is
not to be found in your desk?' 'Yes,' I said; 'how can I be anything but
sure; these are my pencil marks, and that is the funny little turn I gave
to your neck which made me laugh when I drew it. Yes; I am certainly
sure.'

"'I have always been told, Annie,' Mrs. Willis said, 'that you are the
only girl in the school who can draw these caricatures. You have never
seen an attempt at this kind of drawing among your schoolfellows, or
among any of the teachers?'

"'I have never seen any of them try this special kind of drawing,' I
said. 'I wish I was like them. I wish I had never, never done it.'

"'You have got your keys now?' Mrs. Willis said.

"'Yes,' I answered, pulling them all covered with rust out of my pocket.

"Then she told me to leave the keys on the table, and to go upstairs and
fetch down my little private desk.

"I did so, and she made me put the rusty key in the lock and open the
desk, and together we searched through its contents. We pulled out
everything, or rather I did, and I scattered all my possessions about on
the table, and then I looked up almost triumphantly at Mrs. Willis.

"'You see the caricature is not here,' I said; 'somebody picked the lock
and took it away.'

"'This lock has not been picked,' Mrs. Willis said; 'and what is that
little piece of white paper sticking out of the private drawer?'

"'Oh, I forgot my private drawer,' I said; 'but there is nothing in
it--nothing whatever,' and then I touched the spring, and pulled it open,
and there lay the little caricature which I had drawn in the bottom of
the drawer. There it lay, not as I had left it, for I had never put it
into the private drawer. I saw Mrs. Willis' face turn very white, and I
noticed that her hands trembled. I was all red myself, and very hot, and
there w