in a little group near the door, talking
eagerly, and some of them looked curiously at her as she passed.

"I don't believe it!" cried Enid's indignant voice. "It's quite untrue
and impossible!"

"You'll never persuade me, not if you try all day," said Winnie.

"She always gets such good marks for her Caesar," said Maggie Woodhall,
doubtfully.

"Well, she told me herself it was a secret how she did it," declared
Beatrice Wynne. "She said she couldn't explain it, and wouldn't if she
could, and if we knew we might all do it equally well. Could anything be
clearer than that?"

"And the initials were P. H., for Patty Hirst!" added Ella Johnson.

Patty, as she took her lunch, could not help overhearing what was said
by the group round the door. At first she did not quite understand the
drift of the conversation, but at Ella's remark a light suddenly dawned
upon her. Putting down her glass of milk, she turned abruptly to the
others.

"Girls," she cried, "surely you can't suspect me of owning that wretched
'crib'?"

"Then whose is it if it's not yours?" asked Beatrice Wynne.

"I don't know, any more than you. But one thing's certain, I've had
nothing to do with it. Why, I wouldn't have soiled my fingers by
touching it!"

"How about the initials?" enquired Ella Johnson, with a touch of sarcasm
in her voice.

"I don't know. It never occurred to me till this minute that you could
connect my name with them."

"It's a funny coincidence," sneered Vera Clifford.

"I suppose the book must have been brought to school by somebody," said
Kitty Harrison.

"It was not brought by me," said Patty. "I've no means of proving
anything, but I've always been called truthful at home, and I think my
word ought to hold good at The Priory too."

"Then whom does it belong to?" persisted Kitty. "Do you know anything at
all about it?"

"Nothing," answered Patty; but the horrible suspicion lurking in the
corner of her mind made her voice falter just a little, and some of the
girls drew their own conclusions.

"Look here," said Enid, "I'd as soon believe Miss Harper smuggled that
'crib' into school herself as think Patty did! She's absolutely
incapable of such a thing, and you all know it as well as I do. Why,
it's Patty who's always tried to make us be fair over our work! She
simply couldn't cheat. Hands up, all those who don't believe this
hateful story!"

Jean, Winnie, and Avis held up their hands at once, and so, to the
aston