ng.
She might think it was her duty to tell. Oh, Eleanor, why did you do
it?"

Eleanor shrugged her shoulders expressively. Then she turned away with a
radiant smile for Mr. West. "I am sorry to have kept you men waiting,"
she said. "How much more time do we have before the barge comes?"

Whatever Miss Hale meant to do, she kept her own counsel, deliberately
avoiding intercourse with either Ethel or Betty. She bade the girls a
gay good-bye at the station, and went off in state in the carriage they
had provided for her.

"I suppose it's no use asking if you had a good time," said Betty
sympathetically, as she and Eleanor, having decided to go home in
comfort, rolled away in another.

"I had a lovely time until it flashed over me about that telephone
message. After that of course I was worried almost to death, and I would
give anything under the sun if I had stayed at home and passed off my
math. like a person of sense."

"Then why don't you tell Miss Mansfield so?" suggested Betty.

"Oh, Betty, I couldn't. But I shan't probably have the chance," she
added dryly. "Miss Hale will see her after dinner. I hope she'll tell
her that I appeared to be enjoying life."

The next morning when Eleanor presented herself at Miss Mansfield's
class-room for the geometry lesson, another assistant occupied the desk.
"Miss Mansfield is out of town for a few days," she announced. Eleanor
gave Betty a despairing glance and tried to fix her attention on the
"originals" which the new teacher was explaining. It seemed as if the
class would never end. When it did she flew to the desk and inquired if
Miss Mansfield would be back to-morrow.

"To-morrow? Oh no," said the young assistant pleasantly. "She's in
Boston for some days. No, not this week; next, I believe. You are Miss
Watson? No, there was no message for you, I think."

The next week was a longer and more harassing one than any that Eleanor
could remember. She had not been blind to Betty's scorn of her action.
Ever since she came to Harding she had noted with astonishment the high
code of honor that held sway among the girls. They shirked when they
could, assumed knowledge when they had it not, managed somehow to wear
the air of leisurely go-as-you-please that Eleanor loved; but they did
not cheat, and like Betty they despised those who did. So Eleanor, who a
few months before would have boasted of having deceived Miss Mansfield,
was now in equal fear lest Miss Hale should betr