, like most wrongdoers, Laura soon
acquired a taste for dwelling on her misdeed. And Mary, being entirely
without humour, and also unversed in dealing with criminals, did not
divine that this was just a form of self-indulgence. It was Cupid who
said: "Look here, Infant, you'll be getting cocky about what you did,
if you don't look out."

Mary would not allow that a single one of Laura's excuses held water.

"That's the sheerest nonsense. You don't seem to realise that you tried
to defame another person's moral character," she said, in the assured,
superior way that so impressed Laura.--And this aspect of the case,
which had never once occurred to her, left Laura open-mouthed; and yet
a little doubtful: Mr. Shepherd was surely too far above her, and too
safely ensconced in holiness, to be injured by anything she might say.
But the idea gave her food for thought; and she even tentatively
developed her story along these unfamiliar lines, just to see how it
might have turned out.

One night as they were undressing for bed, Mary spoke, with the same
fireless depreciation, of the behaviour of a classmate which had been
brought to her notice that day. This girl was said to have nefariously
"copied" from another, in the course of a written examination; and, as
prefect of her class Mary was bound to track the evil down. "I shall
make them both show me their papers as soon as they get them back; and
then, if I find proof of what's being said, I must tackle her. Just as
I tackled you, Laura."

Laura flushed. "Oh, M. P., I've never 'copied' in my life!" she cried.

"Probably not. But those things all belong in the same box: lying, and
'copying', and stealing."

"You never WILL believe me when I say I didn't know anything about that
horrid Chinky. I only told a few crams--that was quite different."

"I think it's most unfortunate, Laura, that you persist in clinging to
that idea."

Here M. P. was obliged to pause; for she had put a lock of hair between
her teeth while she did something to a plait at the back. As soon as
she could speak again, she went on: "You and your few crams! Have you
ever thought, pray, what a state of things it would be, if we all went
about telling false-hoods, and saying it didn't matter, they were
merely a few little fibs?--What are you laughing at?"

"I'm not laughing. I mean ... I just smiled. I was only thinking how
funny it would be--Sandy, and old Gurley, and Jim Chapman, all going
round mak