Miss Briggs hurried down to the corridor; but of course saw no Vava. She searched in all the empty rooms and in the large assembly room, and in her eagerness to find Vava she actually toiled up to the studio at the top of the building, but in vain. Then, feeling rather annoyed with Vava for her disobedience, Miss Briggs searched the cloak-rooms; and, not seeing the girl there, looked for her hat and coat under the name of Wharton. They were not there, and Miss Briggs came to the conclusion that Vava had gone off to tell her sister, her ideas of school discipline being elementary, in Miss Briggs's opinion. There was no opportunity of telling Miss Courteney, who was in charge of the examination, so she waited until the bell rung; for it never occurred to her that on this cold March morning Vava would be sitting in the playground. But so it was. When the bell rung Vava joined the other girls at recreation. 'Where have you been, Vava Wharton?' demanded Miss Briggs, who was in charge of the playground. 'Here, Miss Briggs,' replied Vava. Miss Briggs unfortunately took her to mean on the premises. 'Do I understand you to say that you never left the school premises?' she demanded. 'Yes, I stayed here all the time till the bell rung,' said Vava. 'Strange. I searched everywhere, but could not find you,' commented Miss Briggs. 'I was here all the time,' repeated Vava, rather nettled at the young teacher's tone. Miss Briggs went to report the matter to Miss Upjohn, who listened with a rather abstracted air. 'I will see the girl afterwards; at present I am worried about some examination papers which I put on the top of my desk and cannot find,' she replied. 'What papers are they?' inquired Miss Briggs. 'The Scripture papers for the Fourth Form; it is the next examination after recreation,' explained the head-mistress, who took this subject herself throughout the school. 'The Fourth Form! That is Vava Wharton's form,' observed Miss Briggs. 'Yes, she is in the Fourth Form,' agreed Miss Upjohn absent-mindedly. And then she exclaimed, 'Why, what are those papers on that shelf near the door?' Miss Briggs went to look. 'They are the Fourth Form Scripture papers,' she informed her. 'I am glad. But how on earth did they get on to that shelf? I am sure I put them on this table; I never put them anywhere else, and that shelf would be the last place I should put them. Any one passing the door could easily see and read them without even meaning to do so,' remarked Miss Upjohn, looking puzzled. 'It looks as if some one had looked at them,' observed Miss Briggs with meaning. 'How? What do you mean?' inquired Miss Upjohn in surprise. 'I mean, if you did not put them there yourself some one must have meddled with them, and it looks to me as if that some one had taken them away to look at, and then hurriedly put them back as near the door as she could get,' explained Miss Briggs.