as
charming to every one, but she kept every one a little at arm's
length. Of course such a girl would be much talked over by the other
type of girl to whom confidences were necessary.

As always happens in any school there was a popular teacher. She
taught history and literature, and I imagine girls get more intimate
with such a teacher than they ever do with the mathematics.

Also, as always happens, there was a "teacher's pet," one of those
girls that has to adore something, and the literature teacher, as she
was smart and good looking, was as convenient to adore as anything
else,--and more adjacent.

Of course "teacher's pet" never has any secrets from the teacher, and
does not mean to be a sneak either. Just can't help turning herself
inside out for her idol, and when the heart of a girl of seventeen
turns itself inside out, almost always something comes out that is not
her business. That was how it happened that one day the literature
teacher was told that the "Principal Girl" was receiving wonderful
boxes of violets at the school door, and "Don't you know ONE
DAY she was seen by a group of pupils who happened to be going
home, and were just behind her, getting into a closed carriage and
driving away from the corner of the street!"

Now the literature teacher did not, as a rule, encourage such
confidences, but this time it seemed useful. She liked the Principal
Girl--admired her, in fact. She was terribly shocked. She warned her
pet to talk to no one else, and then she went at once to the clergyman
who was at the head of the school. She knew that he felt responsible
for his pupils, and this had an unpleasant look. He took the pains to
verify the two statements. Then there was but one thing to do--to lay
the matter before the parents of the girl.

Now, as so often happens in American families, the banker and his wife
stood in some awe of their daughter. There was not that confidence
between them which one traditionally supposes to exist between parents
and children. I imagine that there is no doubt that the adolescent
finds it much easier to confide in some one other than the parents who
would seem to be her proper confidants.

At any rate the banker and his wife were simply staggered. They dared
not broach the subject to the Principal Girl, and in their distress
turned to the family lawyer. As they were too cowardly to take his
first advice--perhaps they were afraid the daughter would lie, they
sometimes d