They did not have to wait long. A moment later the teacher reëntered the room, holding a book in her hand, the sight of which made Amanda’s craven heart sink in consternation. The book looked like an exact copy of the one from which she had copied her “original” prize composition! “Miss Walters,” said Miss Arbuckle in a voice which indignation made vibrant, “I am sorry to have to admit that one of the students of Three Towers Hall has been guilty of so disgraceful an act. But the composition that I have just read, the essay that was handed in as original by Amanda Peabody, has been copied word for word from this book. “It is an old book that has been in my possession for years—was my father’s before it was mine—and doubtless the girl thought herself perfectly safe in copying from it. Here is the passage.” She had been marking a place with her finger, and now she opened the book at the place and handed it to Miss Walters to read. What a hideous minute for Amanda! If she had been awaiting a death sentence she could hardly have felt more terrified. To be publicly disgraced, to have all the girls laughing at her, gloating over her—— With intense gravity Miss Walters closed the book and laid it on the table. Amanda knew that her moment had come. “Amanda,” said Miss Walters sternly, “will you please stand up in your place?” Amanda stood up, conscious of a score of curious and contemptuous glances focused upon her. Her heart was beating suffocatingly, her hands were clenched tight at her side. “You have been guilty to-day,” Miss Walters’ clear voice pronounced sentence, “of blackening the good name of Three Towers Hall by a most disgraceful act. But by your wretched duplicity you have injured yourself far more than you have injured any one else. You will go to my office. I will see you there.” There was intense silence while Amanda, her head hanging, walked from the room. Then the eager murmur rose once more, but again Miss Walters lifted her hand for silence. “I am sorry,” she said. “More sorry than I can express that such a thing could have happened here. Of course the first prize will now go to Beatrice Bradley and I will decide later to whom the second prize belongs. That is all.” With a little gesture she dismissed them and she herself walked quickly from the room. Then the riot that had been suppressed so long broke loose and the girls formed into little groups talking excitedly and all at once about the dramatic turn events had taken. Billie, the center of a little group of her own, was fairly overwhelmed with congratulations. “We knew all along that you should have been the winner!” “To think that Amanda should try to get away with a thing like that!” said Laura, disgustedly. “She might have, just the same,” Connie reminded her. “It was just luck that Miss Arbuckle happened to have that book.” “My, but I bet you’re happy, Billie Bradley!” sighed Vi. “I shouldn’t let anybody speak to me if I were in your place.”