Jill looked the picture of a good, industrious child as she lay with her back to the large table, her book held so that nothing was to be seen but one cheek and a pair of lips moving busily.  Fortunately, it is difficult for little sinners to act a part, and, even if the face is hidden, something in the body seems to betray the internal remorse and shame.  Usually, Jill lay flat and still; now her back was bent in a peculiar way as she leaned over her book, and one foot wagged nervously, while on the visible cheek was a Spanish stamp with a woman’s face looking through the black bars, very suggestively, if she had known it.  How long the minutes seemed till some one came, and what a queer little jump her heart gave when Mrs. Minot’s voice said, cheerfully, “Jack is all right, and, I declare, so is Jill.  I really believe there is a telegraph still working somewhere between you two, and each knows what the other is about without words.”

“I didn’t have any other book handy, so I thought I’d study awhile,” answered Jill, feeling that she deserved no praise for her seeming industry.

She cast a sidelong glance as she spoke, and seeing that Mrs. Minot was looking for the letter, hid her face and lay so still she could hear the rustle of the paper as it was taken from the floor.  It was well she did not also see the quick look the lady gave her as she turned the letter and found a red stamp sticking to the under side, for this unlucky little witness told the story.

Mrs. Minot remembered having seen the stamp lying close to the sofa when she left the room, for she had had half a mind to take it to Jack, but did not, thinking Frank’s plan had some advantages.  She also recollected that a paper flew off the table, but being in haste she had not stopped to see what it was.  Now, the stamp and the letter could hardly have come together without hands, for they lay a yard apart, and here, also, on the unwritten portion of the page, was the mark of a small green thumb.  Jill had been winding wool for a stripe in her new afghan, and the green ball lay on her sofa.  These signs suggested and confirmed what Mrs. Minot did not want to believe; so did the voice, attitude, and air of Jill, all very unlike her usual open, alert ways.

The kind lady could easily forgive the reading of her letter since the girl had found such sad news there, but the dangers of disobedience were serious in her case, and a glance showed that she was suffering either in mind or body—­perhaps both.

“I will wait for her to tell me.  She is an honest child, and the truth will soon come out,” thought Mrs. Minot, as she took a clean sheet, and Jill tried to study.

“Shall I hear your lesson, dear?  Jack means to recite his like a good boy, so suppose you follow his example,” she said, presently.

“I don’t know as I can say it, but I’ll try.”

Jill did try, and got on bravely till she came to the word “permanent;” there she hesitated, remembering where she saw it last.