Garabed, seeing that he did not want to talk, asked no more questions. Every time the door was opened, the culprit trembled: now, his misdeed had been discovered, he thought, and some one was coming to question the boys. His heart beat like a trip-hammer, and he felt as if he must suffocate. The evening passed without any disturbance, but Archag had a restless night; he kept dreaming that he had been sent away in disgrace, and his classmates' shouts of derisive laughter seemed to ring in his ears. Several times he woke up with a start, to hear Garabed anxiously asking if he were ill, and if he would like to have Badvili Melikian called. He would reply impatiently that he did not need anything, and turn over on the other side. The next morning, Dr. Mills came into the schoolroom before prayers, looking very grave. "Now for it!" said Archag to himself. The president told them what had happened, and made the misdeed appear very disgraceful. When he called on the guilty one to come forward and acknowledge his fault, our friend rose mechanically and went to the desk. "It was I who did it," he said simply. "You! you!" repeated Dr. Mills. "A boy whom we have all loved! How can you have done a thing like that? It can't be possible!" However, he led the culprit away to his office, and questioned him closely. Archag confessed to opening the cabinet and taking the box of butterflies to the window in order to see them better, but when he said that some one had pushed him, his judge smiled incredulously. He called Badvili Melikian, who assured him that, with the exception of Nejib who was in the city, none of the Sophomores had left the study-hall that afternoon. Archag had always been on good terms with his classmates, and it seemed impossible that any one of them should have wanted to play him such a trick. Dr. Mills questioned the boys again, but each gave the same reply: not one of them had gone up to the museum that day. Indeed, the president asked these questions merely to satisfy his own conscience; he was quite convinced of Archag's guilt. Professor Piralian had often complained of his bad conduct and lack of application; he had just given him a "medium" mark in English. It seemed therefore quite probable that Archag had deliberately taken revenge on his teacher by destroying his collection. All the professors assembled in the president's room to talk the matter over, and Dr. Mills laid Archag's case before them at some length, and then waited for their counsel. A painful silence followed; Armenians hate to give an opinion outright; they prefer to evade the main question, and to prolong their discussions without coming to any decision. At last Professor Pagratian rose and addressed the president: