ed out in confusion:

"N--n--no, Miss Parrot."

The mistress looked at her suspiciously.

"Are you _sure_?" she said.

Geraldine's confusion grew still greater, and the mistress felt that
her suspicions were justified. The girl's stammered denial did nothing
to allay them, and her voice when she spoke again was very stern indeed.

"Geraldine, you are not telling me the truth. You do know something
about this paper. I command you to tell me at once what it is you
know."

"I--I can't tell you anything about it," said poor Geraldine, not
knowing what to do or say. But this answer only served to anger Miss
Parrot yet more.

"You will please oblige me by thinking about it until you _can_ tell me
something," she remarked icily. "Go and stand over there," pointing to
a place facing the rest of the class, "until you can remember whether
or not this paper belongs to you. If that does not assist your memory
I shall be obliged to take you to Miss Oakley after class."

Geraldine made a movement towards the appointed spot, but before she
could reach it, Jack Pym rose abruptly in her desk.

"Please, Miss Parrot, I can't see that paper but I don't think it's got
anything to do with Geraldine. If it's a drawing, I expect it belongs
to me."

Miss Parrot's eyebrows went up.

"Indeed! Wait a moment, Geraldine. Suppose you come here, Jack, and
see if you can identify it."

Jack made her way rather sulkily to Miss Parrot's desk.

"Yes, it's mine," she said. "I did it for a joke."

"A joke in very questionable taste, _I_ think," said the mistress
severely. "I am afraid I shall have to discourage your sense of
humour, Jack, since it hardly accords with my own. You will take a
conduct mark, please, and forfeit next Saturday's half-holiday. And I
hope this may be a lesson to you to refrain for the future from using
your undoubted talent for drawing in making vulgar representations of
those who are put in authority over you. You may go back to your seat.
And, Geraldine, you may return to yours. I am very sorry that I
misjudged you; but really, you looked so guilty that I could not help
thinking that you had something to do with the matter. Now, please, we
will begin the lesson. We have wasted far too much time already."

The Lower Fifth dutifully turned to its books and plunged at the
mistress's bidding into the intricacies of decimal fractions. But
although Geraldine acquitted herself fairly well over the le