the matter? Is that you, Hester Thornton? Have you got any news
of little Nan? Has Annie come back?"

"No, they are both still away. Susy, I want to speak to you."

"Dear me! what for? must you speak in the middle of the night?"

"Yes, for I don't want any one else to know. Oh, Susan, please don't go
to sleep."

"My dear, I won't, if I can help it. Do you mind throwing a little cold
water over my face and head? There is a can by the bedside. I always keep
one handy. Ah, thanks--now I am wide awake. I shall probably remain so
for about two minutes. Can you get your say over in that time?"

"I wonder, Susan," said Hester, "if you have got any heart--but heart or
not, I have just come here to-night to tell you that I have found you
out. You are at the bottom of all this mischief about Annie Forest."

Susan had a most phlegmatic face, an utterly unemotional voice, and she
now stared calmly at Hester and demanded to know what in the world she
meant.

Hester felt her temper going, her self-control deserting her. Susan's
apparent innocence and indifference drove her half frantic.

"Oh, you are mean," she said. "You pretend to be innocent, but you are
the deepest and wickedest girl in the school. I tell you, Susan, I have
found you out--you put that caricature of Mrs. Willis into Cecil's book;
you changed Dora's theme. I don't know why you did it, nor how you did
it, but you are the guilty person, and you have allowed the sin of it to
remain on Annie's shoulders all this time. Oh, you are the very meanest
girl I ever heard of!"

"Dear, dear!" said Susan, "I wish I had not asked you to throw cold water
over my head and face, and allow myself to be made very wet and
uncomfortable, just to be told I am the meanest girl you ever met. And
pray what affair is this of yours? You certainly don't love Annie
Forest."

"I don't, but I want justice to be done to her. Annie is very, very
unhappy. Oh, Susy, won't you go and tell Mrs. Willis the truth?"

"Really, my dear Hester, I think you are a little mad. How long have you
known all this about me, pray?"

"Oh, for some time; since--since the night the essay was changed."

"Ah, then, if what you state is true, you told Mrs. Willis a lie, for she
distinctly asked you if you knew anything about the 'Muddy Stream,' and
you said you didn't. I saw you--I remarked how very red you got when you
plumped out that great lie! My dear, if I am the meanest and wickedest
girl in the school