“That’s evident,” returned the teacher.  “How long has this note-and verse-writing been going on?”

“For a year, at least, among us.”

“Then you caught the habit from girls gone higher up?”

“Certainly.”

Bessy’s trenchant brevity was not lost upon Miss Hill.

“We’ve always gotten along—­you and I,” said Miss Hill, feeling her way with this strange girl.

“It’s because you’re kind and square, and I like you.”

Something told the teacher she had never been paid a higher compliment.

“Bessy, how much will you tell me?”

“Miss Hill, I’m in for it and I’ll tell you everything, if only you won’t punish Rose,” replied the girl, impulsively.  “Rose’s my best friend.  Her father’s a mean, drunken brute.  I’m afraid of what he’ll do if he finds out.  Rose has a hard time.”

“You say Rose is no more guilty than the other girls?”

“Rose Clymer never had an idea of her own.  She’s just sweet and willing.  I hate deceitful girls.  Every one of them wrote notes to the boys—­the same kind of notes—­and some of them tried to write poetry.  Most of them had a copy of the piece I wrote.  They had great fun over it—­getting the boys to guess what girl wrote it.  I’ve written a dozen pieces before this and they’ve all had them.”

“Well, that explains the verses....  Now I read in these notes about meetings with the boys?”

“That refers to mornings before school, and after school, and evenings when it’s nice weather.  And the literary society.”

“You mean the Girl’s Literary Guild, with rooms at the Atheneum?”

“Yes.  But, Miss Hill, the literary part of it is bunk.  We meet there to dance.  The boys bring the girls cigarettes.  They smoke, and sometimes the boys have something with them to drink.”

“These—­these girls—­hardly in their teens—­smoke and drink?” gasped Miss Hill.

“I’ll say they do,” replied Bessy Bell.

“What—­does the ‘Bell-garter’ mean?” went on the teacher, presently.

“One of the boys stole my garter and fastened a little bell to it.  Now it’s going the rounds.  Every girl who could has worn it.”

“What’s the ’Old Bench’?”

“Down in the basement here at school there’s a bench under the stairway in the dark.  The boys and girls have signals.  One boy will get permission to go out at a certain time, and a girl from his room, or another room, will go out too.  It’s all arranged beforehand.  They meet down on the Old Bench.”

“What for?”

“They meet to spoon.”

“I find the names Hardy Mackay, Captain Thesel, Dick Swann among these notes.  What can these young society men be to my pupils?”

“Some of the jealous girls have been tattling to each other and mentioning names.”

“Bessy!  Do you imply these girls who talk have had the—­the interest or attention of these young gentlemen named?”