Stores and some reports of charitable
institutions. She read the cost of tins of sardines, pots of jam, table
linen, household china and hardware, and tried to take some faint
interest in the annual statements of the "District Nursing Association"
and "The Society for Providing Surgical Appliances for the Sick Poor".
To amuse herself she was reduced to choosing a word at random and seeing
how many other words she could make out of it, but as she had no pencil
in her pocket to write them down, it was rather difficult to keep count,
and the occupation soon palled. Shortly after four o'clock she heard a
scrimmage on the little landing outside the door. A deep-toned voice,
that sounded like Miss Beverley's, said, "Come away this minute!" and a
high-pitched, excited voice--undoubtedly Loveday's--protested, "If you'd
_only_ let me speak to her, I'm certain----"

Then a sound followed like somebody sliding down three steps at once,
and Loveday's voice, with words indistinguishable, but tone still highly
indignant, grew fainter and farther away till it ceased altogether.
Diana smiled rather bitterly.

"It's not much use her coming and talking to me," she thought. "If she
wants to tell anybody, she can tell Miss Todd. She needn't think I'll
give her away. Don't suppose she knows, though, what I saw last night.
It's a queer world! I'll be glad when I'm back in America. If Dad gets
those passages he'll come and cart me off, Miss Todd or no Miss Todd.
I'd like to see his face if he found me locked up in an attic."

Diana's tea was brought to her at five o'clock, and an hour later she
was visited by the Principal, who again urged confession.

"What's the use of keeping this up?" asked the mistress impatiently.
"You'll have to make a clean breast of it some time, so you may just as
well do it at once. It's perfectly evident that you know where the essay
is. You don't even deny that. What have you done with it?"

And again Diana stood with the same unyielding look on her face, and
stared at the floor, and did not answer a word.

There is nothing so irritating as a person who utterly refuses to speak.
Miss Todd glared at her, then turned towards the door.

"Very well; you may spend the night here. I'm not going to waste any
more time on you now. Perhaps by to-morrow morning you'll be in a
different frame of mind. I intend to know the truth of this; so it's
merely a matter of waiting. You can leave here the moment you decide to
c