Reviewing the whole affair more calmly, Jess could understand that Miss Carrington would consider her guilty—if she could bring herself to think any girl of Central High would do such a thing.
Jess sat there, dumb, unable to work, unable to concentrate her mind on anything but the horribly unjust accusation of her teacher. How she disliked Gee Gee!
The other girls were not particularly devoted to the task set them for the moment, either. Laura did not sit very near her chum in this room. She asked permission to speak with Jess and Miss Carrington said:
“No, Miss Belding; sit down!” and she said it in her very grimmest way. Usually the teacher was very lenient with Mother Wit, for of all her pupils Laura gave her the least trouble.
A feeling of expectancy controlled the whole roomful of girls. It came to a crisis—every girl jumped!—when the door opened and Mr. Sharp walked in.
The principal of Central High seldom troubled the girls’ class rooms with his presence. When he addressed the young ladies it was usually _en masse_. He trusted Miss Carrington, almost entirely, in the management of the girls.
His rosy cheeks shone and his eyes twinkled through his glasses as he walked quickly to the platform and sat down beside Gee Gee at her table, which faced the girls, whereas her roll-top desk was at the rear of the platform, against the wall of the room.
Principal and teacher talked in low voices for some moments. Mr. Sharp cast no confusing glances about the room. He ignored the girls, as though his entire business was with their teacher.
At length he looked around, smiling as usual, Mr. Sharp was a pleasant and fair-minded man and the girls all liked him. He had their undivided attention in a moment, without the rapping of Miss Carrington’s hard knuckle on the table top. Bobby said that that knuckle of Gee Gee’s middle finger had been abnormally developed by continued bringing the class to order.
“Young ladies!” said Gee Gee, snappily. “Mr. Sharp will speak to you.”
The principal looked just a little annoyed—just a little; and for only the moment while he was rising to speak. He never liked to hear his pupils treated like culprits. He usually treated them at assembly with elaborate politeness if he had to criticise, and with perfect good-fellowship if praise was in order. This little scene staged by Miss Carrington grated on him.