e.
Only four or five pages of the nonsense essay had been attempted, and the
night before, when finishing her toil, she had proudly numbered her tenth
page. She looked through the whole thing, turning leaf after leaf, while
her cheeks were crimson, and her hands trembled. In the first moment of
horrible humiliation and dismay she literally could not speak.

At last, springing to her feet, and confronting the astonished and almost
frightened Hester, she found her voice.

"Hester, you must help me in this. The most dreadful, the most atrocious
fraud has been committed. Some one has been base enough, audacious
enough, wicked enough, to go to my desk privately, and take away my real
essay--my work over which I have labored and toiled. The expressions of
my--my--yes, I will say it--my genius, have been ruthlessly burned, or
otherwise made away with, and _this_ thing has been put in their place.
Hester, why don't you speak--why do you stare at me like this?"

"I am puzzled by the writing," said Hester; "the writing is yours."

"The writing is mine!--oh, you wicked girl! The writing is an imitation
of mine--a feeble and poor imitation. I thought, Hester, that by this
time you knew your friend's handwriting. I thought that one in whom I
have confided--one whom I have stooped to notice because, I fancied we
had a community of soul, would not be so ridiculous and so silly as to
mistake this writing for mine. Look again, please, Hester Thornton, and
tell me if I am ever so vulgar as to cross my _t's_. You know I _always_
loop them; and do I make a capital B in this fashion? And do I indulge in
flourishes? I grant you that the general effect to a casual observer
would be something the same, but you, Hester--I thought you knew me
better."

Here Hester, examining the false essay, had to confess that the crossed
_t's_ and the flourishes were unlike Miss Russell's calligraphy.

"It is a forgery, most cleverly done," said Dora. "There is such a thing,
Hester, as being wickedly clever. This spiteful, cruel attempt to injure
another can have but proceeded from one very low order of mind. Hester,
there has been plenty of favoritism in this school, but do you suppose I
shall allow such a thing as this to pass over unsearched into? If
necessary, I shall ask my father to interfere. This is a slight--an
outrage; but the whole mystery shall at last be cleared up. Miss Good and
Miss Danesbury shall be informed at once, and the very instant