the bell rung,' said Vava.

'Strange. I searched everywhere, but could not find you,' commented Miss
Briggs.

'I was here all the time,' repeated Vava, rather nettled at the young
teacher's tone.

Miss Briggs went to report the matter to Miss Upjohn, who listened with
a rather abstracted air.

'I will see the girl afterwards; at present I am worried about some
examination papers which I put on the top of my desk and cannot find,'
she replied.

'What papers are they?' inquired Miss Briggs.

'The Scripture papers for the Fourth Form; it is the next examination
after recreation,' explained the head-mistress, who took this subject
herself throughout the school.

'The Fourth Form! That is Vava Wharton's form,' observed Miss Briggs.

'Yes, she is in the Fourth Form,' agreed Miss Upjohn absent-mindedly.
And then she exclaimed, 'Why, what are those papers on that shelf near
the door?'

Miss Briggs went to look. 'They are the Fourth Form Scripture papers,'
she informed her.

'I am glad. But how on earth did they get on to that shelf? I am sure I
put them on this table; I never put them anywhere else, and that shelf
would be the last place I should put them. Any one passing the door
could easily see and read them without even meaning to do so,' remarked
Miss Upjohn, looking puzzled.

'It looks as if some one had looked at them,' observed Miss Briggs with
meaning.

'How? What do you mean?' inquired Miss Upjohn in surprise.

'I mean, if you did not put them there yourself some one must have
meddled with them, and it looks to me as if that some one had taken them
away to look at, and then hurriedly put them back as near the door as
she could get,' explained Miss Briggs.

'Oh I don't think it at all likely! I hope not; I should be sorry to
think there was a girl in my school who would do such a thing!' she
cried.

'Then how do you account for them being removed?' demanded Miss Briggs.

'I can't account for it; but I would rather think that I put them there
myself in an absent-minded moment than that they had been tampered
with.'

'But you are never absent-minded, and you do not forget things,'
objected Miss Briggs.

'I may have forgotten this; let us hope so,' said the head-mistress in a
tone which showed Miss Briggs she wished to change the conversation.

Miss Briggs took the hint and said no more, and it is just possible that
the matter might have dropped, and that a suspicion which had arisen in
her min