, I can't believe such a story. You're not telling me the
truth!"

"Indeed, indeed I am!" burst out Raymonde. "Oh! what shall I do? I
can't explain, and I can't say any more. If you'd only wait a few
days!"

"Indeed I shall not wait," returned the headmistress coldly. "The
matter must be investigated at once."

Miss Beasley, greatly upset by such a happening in her school,
consulted her brother as to her best course to pursue. On learning the
circumstances he took a very grave view of the case.

"There's little doubt of the girl's guilt," he declared. "She
evidently yielded to a sudden temptation. She wanted a fountain pen in
time for the examinations, and she borrowed the notes which had been
left in her charge, in order to send for it. Probably she wrote home
for more money, and expected to be able to replace it, and that is the
explanation of her asking for a few days' grace. It seems to me as
clear as daylight, and I should deal with her as she deserves."

"May I ask one question?" said Miss Gibbs, who also had been called to
the conclave. "How is it that Mrs. West affirms that she saw Raymonde
in the post office at six o'clock on Friday, while Veronica and Hermie
declare that at five minutes to six she was sitting at the piano in
the practising-room? It is not possible to reach the village in five
minutes."

Miss Beasley started. This aspect of the matter had not occurred to
her.

"It's very perplexing!" she murmured.

"Raymonde has been troublesome," continued Miss Gibbs, "but I have
always found her scrupulously straight and truthful. Such a lapse as
this seems to me utterly foreign to her character."

"You never know what a girl will do till she's tried!" commented the
Rev. T. W. Beasley. "Better expel her at once, as a warning to the
others."

"Give her a chance!" pleaded Miss Gibbs. "The evidence is really so
unsatisfactory. Wait a day or two, and see if we can sift it!"

"I wish I knew what is best!" vacillated the Principal. "It is so near
the end of the term that it seems a pity to send Raymonde home till
next week, when she would be going in any case. I will call at the
post office, and make enquiries as to the exact time she came there
last Friday. I think I won't decide anything before Saturday."

Miss Beasley stuck to this determination, in spite of her brother's
protests against over-leniency and lack of discipline. She excused
herself on the ground that she did not wish to disturb the