Yet at that exact moment Mademoiselle entered also, and the girls took their places. In the course of the lesson she gave her pupils a piece of unseen translation. It was a difficult passage, and to many of them an almost impossible one to render into English. Each had her closed dictionary placed on the desk in front of her, and cast longing looks at its covers, but to open it was, of course, not permitted. Now Merle was sitting just behind Opal, and she noticed the latter glancing constantly down on to her knee. Merle could not see the object of this close attention, but her suspicions were aroused. She dared not speak, but she scribbled a little note on a piece of waste paper: "Keep an eye on Opal's knee, and see if she hasn't got your dictionary." This she addressed to Gwen and handed it surreptitiously along by Nesta and Iva. Gwen read it, and gave a nod of comprehension while Mademoiselle was looking the other way. The moment the lesson was finished she stood up, moved along the desks, and made a sudden grab on to Opal's lap. "Hello! What are you doing with my dictionary?" she asked. Opal turned white and then scarlet, but she was ready with a plausible excuse. "I--I found it," she stuttered. "I was going to give it back to you." "Indeed!" Gwen's tone was scathing. "I happen to know it was put inside the pound. Why did you take it out? It's extremely kind of you to have put a brown paper cover on it. If you intended to give it back to me why didn't you hand it over before the class began?" "There--there wasn't time!" "Oh, good gracious, don't tell me any more fiblets! You meant to stick to it, and you were cribbing from it on your knee. Nice thing for a head girl to do, I must say. I've not much opinion of you here at The Moorings." Opal protested, but Gwen would not listen to a word she had to say, and, pulling the paper cover off the dictionary, stalked out of the room with the air of an offended queen. The girls sniggered openly. It was so seldom Opal met her match. To have drawn down the wrath and displeasure of Gwen was a particular humiliation to her. "Rather priceless, wasn't it?" chuckled Merle to Iva. "Hope it will teach her not to cheat in future." "Don't flatter yourself. She will directly she gets the chance. She's done for herself with Gwen though for the present." Iva's opinion of Opal was founded on experience. There was an unfortunate moral kink about the head girl that often involved her in very shady transactions. It was a deplorable thing for the school, as instead of upholding the tone she lowered it. Mavis often wondered how Miss Fanny could be so foolish and weak as not to see for herself that her favourite evaded rules. Out of sheer bravado Opal would often do forbidden things, and would boast that she could venture on them with impunity where others would surely get into trouble. One mean dishonesty above all others aroused the Ramsays' indignation.