ot speak for a moment, her indignation and disgust were too
intense. She felt herself degraded by stooping to ask for evidence as
to her own innocence.

Miss Melinda whispered to Miss Richards. Miss Richards looked at Kitty
and bade her turn round. Kitty, wondering, obeyed.

"How do you account for the fact that your dress is splashed to the
waist with mud?" Miss Richards asked frigidly. "Yesterday was quite
fine until after you had all gone home from school, then heavy rain
fell."

Poor Kitty. Here was Nemesis indeed! Two days ago that skirt had been
put aside to be brushed, and now, to-day, without giving a thought to
the mud on it, she had put it on and worn it. With crimsoning cheeks
she wheeled around. "That mud has been there for days, Miss Richards,"
she said shamefacedly. "I ought to have brushed it yesterday, but I
didn't, and to-day I forgot it." But she saw and felt that no one
believed her, and Betty, the only one who could have borne out her
words, was not there.

"You can all go back to your classes--all but Katherine Trenire," said
Miss Richards, ignoring her speech; and the girls, with looks of
sympathy or alarm, filed out, leaving Kitty alone.

"Now, Katherine," said Miss Richards firmly, "be a sensible, honest girl
and tell the truth, and my sister and I will consult together as to the
punishment we feel we must inflict. We do not wish to be too severe,
but such conduct must be punished. Now, tell us the truth."

"I have told the truth," said Kitty proudly, "and I have no more to
tell. Lettice can clear me if she likes, so can--the girl who was with
her, but I can't do any more. If you won't believe me, what can I do?"
and suddenly poor Kitty's proud eyes filled with tears.

Miss Melinda took this as a sign of relenting. She thought confession
was coming, and unbent encouragingly. "There, there, that is better,
Katherine. Now be advised by us, and get this dreadful load off your
mind. You will be so much happier when you have."

Kitty drove back her tears and her weakness, and her gray eyes grew
clear enough to show plainly the hurt and the anger which burnt in her
brain as she listened to this insulting cajoling, as she termed it in
her own mind.

"How dare you!" she cried indignantly. "How dare you fasten it on to
me! I know who the girl was, and she knows that I know, but you _want_
to believe that I did it, and--and you can if you want to. You are both
very wicked a