CHAPTER XXIII--DISGRACED
For a moment there was intense silence while Amanda rose triumphantlyand flounced up to the platform.
Then an amazed, angry buzz rose from the audience of indignant girls.Amanda, who was proverbially stupid, to have taken the prize from someof the brightest girls in the school! It was impossible--incredible! Andyet it was only too true!
Miss Walters, with a few words of congratulation, handed the prize--afine set of books--to Amanda, and the latter swept haughtily back to herseat, triumph in every line of her figure as she passed the otherpupils.
She had beaten Billie Bradley at last! And her revenge was sweeter thaneven she had dreamed it would be.
But Billie, tears of anger and disappointment stinging her eyes, feltsure that she had not been beaten fairly. Amanda had played a trick onher, on the rest of the contestants for the prize, on Miss Waltersherself. But, in Teddy's vocabulary, Amanda had "gotten away with it."The prize was in her possession.
"It's a shame," she heard in angry protest all about her.
"She never did it honestly."
"Somebody ought to tell Miss Walters. She doesn't know Amanda as well aswe do."
But Miss Walters had raised her hand for silence, and in a few secondsthe angry murmurs died down again.
"I have the pleasure of awarding the second prize," the principalannounced, "to Beatrice Bradley. Will you step up on the platform,Billie?"
The second prize! She didn't want the second prize, Billie told herself,when Amanda had come in first. To march up there on the platform withthat girl's gloating eyes upon her----
But Vi and Laura were pulling her out of her seat, pushing her out intothe aisle--and while Billie hesitated Miss Walters had impatientlyrepeated her summons.
Someway Billie found her way to the platform, thanked Miss Waltersincoherently for the fine volume of poetry which was the second prize,and stumbled back to happy oblivion among her schoolmates.
"It's a shame, honey," Laura whispered in her ear, generously forgettingher own disappointment in Billie's. "But never mind, you got the secondprize anyway--which was more than the rest of us did," she added, with alittle stab of regret at her own failure.
"And you would have won the first prize if it hadn't been for that cat,"added Vi fiercely.
Billie pressed their hands gratefully and glanced for the first time ather prize.
"I'd like to throw it away!" she cried fiercely.
"Sh-h," whispered Vi, for Miss Walters was making an interestingannouncement.
"The winning compositions will now be read," she said. "Miss Arbucklehas volunteered to give us that pleasure."
There was a great clapping of hands as Miss Arbuckle stepped on theplatform and smiled down at them. For the little teacher was a greatfavorite with the girls.
"We will read Amanda's composition first," she said, "as it has had thedistinction of winning the first prize."
Again there was tense silence in the Hall. The girls were agog withcuriosity to hear this wonderful composition which had been written byone of the notoriously stupid girls of the school.
As for Amanda, she had not foreseen this event. She had not expected tohear her stolen composition read aloud, and before all this assembly ofstern young critics. The prospect made her a trifle nervous, but hersmile was as proudly triumphant as ever.
Her chief concern was with Eliza. For the girl was so white and scaredthat she threatened to give the deception away.
Amanda gave her a sharp nudge with her elbow.
"Cheer up, will you?" she muttered fiercely. "You're not at a funeral."
Miss Arbuckle began to read, and as she read the well-rounded phrases,the telling metaphors, the girls became more than ever stupefied withastonishment.
"Could it be," they asked themselves incredulously, "that Amanda hadremarkable literary ability that they had never suspected? Could shereally have written a thing like that?"
The same thought seemed to be in Miss Arbuckle's mind, for as she readon her brow became clouded and she paused now and then as though shewere trying to recollect something.
Finally she stopped altogether, looked across at Amanda for a thoughtfulmoment, then laid the manuscript down and turned to Miss Walters. Shesaid something that the girls could not catch, then hurried from theroom.
This was something no one had counted upon. Amanda, her triumphant smilegone at last, quaked as she heard again the excited buzz of the girlsabout her.
Miss Walters' voice rose over the murmur, clear and very grave.
"Miss Arbuckle thinks she has made a discovery," she said. "She will beback in a moment, and until then I must ask that there be absolutesilence in the room."
Miss Sara Walters possessed that rare gift of authority that needed noraising of the voice or undue emphasis to command obedience.
Instantly the murmuring stopped and the girls waited in breathlesssilence for Miss Arbuckle's return.
They did not have to wait long. A moment later the teacher reentered theroom, holding a book in her hand, the sight of which made Amanda'scraven heart sink in consternation.
The book looked like an exact copy of the one from which she had copiedher "original" prize composition!
"Miss Walters," said Miss Arbuckle in a voice which indignation madevibrant, "I am sorry to have to admit that one of the students of ThreeTowers Hall has been guilty of so disgraceful an act. But thecomposition that I have just read, the essay that was handed in asoriginal by Amanda Peabody, has been copied word for word from thisbook.
"It is an old book that has been in my possession for years--was myfather's before it was mine--and doubtless the girl thought herselfperfectly safe in copying from it. Here is the passage." She had beenmarking a place with her finger, and now she opened the book at theplace and handed it to Miss Walters to read.
What a hideous minute for Amanda! If she had been awaiting a deathsentence 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 thetable. Amanda knew that her moment had come.
"Amanda," said Miss Walters sternly, "will you please stand up in yourplace?"
Amanda stood up, conscious of a score of curious and contemptuousglances focused upon her. Her heart was beating suffocatingly, her handswere clenched tight at her side.
"You have been guilty to-day," Miss Walters' clear voice pronouncedsentence, "of blackening the good name of Three Towers Hall by a mostdisgraceful act. But by your wretched duplicity you have injuredyourself far more than you have injured any one else. You will go to myoffice. I will see you there."
There was intense silence while Amanda, her head hanging, walked fromthe room. Then the eager murmur rose once more, but again Miss Walterslifted her hand for silence.
"I am sorry," she said. "More sorry than I can express that such a thingcould have happened here. Of course the first prize will now go toBeatrice Bradley and I will decide later to whom the second prizebelongs. That is all." With a little gesture she dismissed them and sheherself walked quickly from the room.
Then the riot that had been suppressed so long broke loose and the girlsformed into little groups talking excitedly and all at once about thedramatic turn events had taken.
Billie, the center of a little group of her own, was fairly overwhelmedwith 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 luckthat Miss Arbuckle happened to have that book."
"My, but I bet you're happy, Billie Bradley!" sighed Vi. "I shouldn'tlet anybody speak to me if I were in your place."
"What's the matter, honey?" asked Laura, regarding Billie's sober facecuriously. "I say, cheer up, old dear. What have _you_ got to gloomab
out?"
"I was just thinking about Amanda," said Billie, with all her sweetsympathy for the unfortunate. "I was wondering how it would feel to bein her shoes now."
"Out, out upon such doleful thoughts," Laura sang out airily. ButBillie, who had turned toward the window, suddenly clutched her by thearm.
"Look!" she said, excitedly. "There's Nick Budd!"