her,
and if she tells, things will look ever so much worse for you than--"

"I don't think Lettice will tell," interrupted Anna meaningly.
"She knows that if she tells tales I can tell some too."

"You count on other people having some honour, though you have none
yourself," said Kitty scathingly, and she turned away, choking with
disgust. Anna made her feel positively ill. When she got to the door
she stood and looked back. Her face was very white and stern, her eyes
full of a burning contempt. "I do think, Anna," she said slowly and
scornfully, "that you are the meanest, most dishonourable girl I ever
heard of in all my life. You are going to leave all the girls in the
school under suspicion because you haven't the honesty or courage to own
up."

"It isn't anything to do with honesty," muttered Anna, very white and
angry and sullen. "You have no right to say such things, Kitty. If you
didn't do it, it can't do you any harm; and if no one suspects me, it
isn't likely that I shall make them. I shan't be telling a story.
I simply shan't say anything."

"I see no difference between telling a lie and acting one," flashed
Kitty, and she walked back to her own room without another word.
She had not been there long, though, before Anna came creeping in again.

"Kitty," she said anxiously, "you won't tell any one, will you, even if
you are mad with me? You know I never _said_ I--I--you accused me, but
I didn't say--"

"I am not a sneak," said Kitty coldly. "Now go away. Go out of my
room. I don't like to see you near Betty. Go away, do you hear!" and
Anna vanished again into the darkness.

Though strong and secure in her own innocence, Kitty awoke in the
morning with the feeling weighing heavily on her that though the matter
would soon be ended, yet something very painful had to be faced first.
Kitty, though, was counting too much on her own guiltlessness, and the
certainty of others believing in it; and she had more cause than she
imagined for waking with a weight on her mind.

When the dreaded inquiry took place, and all the senior girls were
called into the "study" to undergo a rigorous cross-examination, she
soon found that Miss Richards was very far from accepting her
unsupported denial as conclusive.

"Yes, but who can bear out your statement that you did not leave the
room or the house throughout the evening?" she asked sternly.

"Betty can," said Kitty. "Betty was in the room with me all the