l, Miss Pat," she said sedately. "We've waited two whole
days already--five minutes more won't hurt us."

Margaret Howes glanced at Elinor, as she sat quietly with chin in one
pink palm, her brows drawn level and her dark eyes steady and
thoughtful.

"You're a wonder, Kendall Major," she broke out. "Here am I all
fluffed up and on positive pins and needles over this affair, while you
are as calm as a picture. Don't you feel excited? Aren't you wild to
hear what it is?"

Elinor laid her hands on the table and Patricia could see that the
fingers were twisted together until the knuckles showed white.

"Of course, I am anxious," she said evenly. "But I've had a different
sort of life from most girls, and it's taught me that there's always a
lot more to any surprise than we're looking for. I've been wondering
just how much pain there's going to be, back of the pleasure of being
set right in the eyes of the school."

"There oughtn't to be any for _you_," said Margaret Howes, impulsively
laying her hand on Elinor's. "There isn't anything coming to you but
plain every-day satisfaction in getting your rights."

"Ah, but how about Doris?" questioned Elinor sadly. "Isn't she to be
remembered?"

"Why should she be?" returned the other warmly. "Did she have any
thought for anything but her own parade when she pretended to be sorry
for you? There's such a thing as carrying virtue too far, my dear
girl, and I think you're straining your charity with too fine a sieve."

Elinor smiled a wistful little puckered smile. "Perhaps I am rather
lop-sided in my feelings," she confessed. "I always feel so dreadfully
sorry for the wrong-doers, and the less they care the sorrier I am."

Patricia had opened her lips to sustain Margaret Howes' point of view,
when Griffin, followed by Miss Green, came breathlessly in to the room.

"Now we're all ready," she said eagerly when they had made room for the
generous figure of the monitor. "Fire away with your tale, young one,
and don't spare the details. We're game for any length of story, so
long as you can prove it."

Judith, with her cheeks flushing and paling and her composed tones
carrying conviction, laid the story of her discoveries before them,
telling them how she had thought of it first "for fun, like a plot for
a story," and then how she had remembered that Doris Leighton had
Elinor's keys with access to the locker where the two studies for the
prize designs were left