House, was often seen walking with and talking to Miss
Forest. Sometimes Annie shook her pretty head over Susan's remarks;
sometimes she listened to her; sometimes she laughed and spoke eagerly
for a moment or two, and appeared to acquiesce in suggestions which her
companion urged.

Annie had always been the soul of disorder--of wild pranks, of naughty
and disobedient deeds--but, hitherto, in all her wildness she had never
intentionally hurt any one but herself. Hers was a giddy and thoughtless,
but by no means a bitter tongue--she thought well of all her
schoolfellows--and on occasions she could be self-sacrificing and
good-natured to a remarkable extent. The girls of the head class took
very little notice of Annie, but her other school companions, as a rule,
succumbed to her sunny, bright, and witty ways. She offended them a
hundred times a day, and a hundred times a day was forgiven. Hester was
the first girl in the third class who had ever persistently disliked
Annie, and Annie, after making one or two overtures of friendship, began
to return Miss Thornton's aversion; but she had never cordially hated her
until the day they met in Cecil Temple's drawing-room, and Hester had
wounded Annie in her tenderest part by doubting her affection for Mrs.
Willis.

Since that day there was a change very noticeable in Annie Forest--she was
not so gay as formerly, but she was a great deal more mischievous--she was
not nearly so daring, but she was capable now of little actions, slight in
themselves, which yet were calculated to cause mischief and real
unhappiness. Her sudden friendship with Susan Drummond did her no good,
and she persistently avoided all intercourse with Cecil Temple, who
hitherto had influenced her in the right direction.

The incident of the green book had passed with no apparent result of
grave importance, but the spirit of mischief which had caused this book
to be found was by no means asleep in the school. Pranks were played in a
most mysterious fashion with the girls' properties.

Hester herself was the very next victim. She, too, was a neat and orderly
child--she was clever and thoroughly enjoyed her school work. She was
annoyed, therefore, and dreadfully puzzled, by discovering one morning
that her neat French exercise book was disgracefully blotted, and one
page torn across. She was severely reprimanded by Mdlle. Perier for such
gross untidiness and carelessness, and when she assured the governess
th