twelve o'clock
Above all things , if _ she _ did not do it , who did ? '' Mrs. Willis turned away from these unpleasant whispers -- she would not let them stay with her , and turned a deaf ear to their ugly words . She had publicly declared in the school her belief in Annie 's absolute innocence , but at the moment when her pupil looked up at her with a world of love and adoration in her gaze , she found to her own infinite distress that she could not give her the old love . Annie went back to her companions , and bent her head over her lessons , and tried to believe that she was very thankful and very happy , and Cecil Temple managed to whisper a gentle word of congratulation to her , and at the twelve o'clock walk Annie perceived that a few of her schoolfellows looked at her with friendly eyes again . She perceived now that when she went into the play-room she was not absolutely tabooed , and that , if she chose , she might speedily resume her old reign of popularity . Annie had , to a remarkable extent , the gift of inspiring love , and her old favorites would quickly have flocked back to their sovereign had she so willed it . It is certainly true that the girls to whom the whole story was known in all its bearings found it difficult to understand how Annie could be innocent ; but Mr. Everard 's and Mrs. Willis ' assertions were too potent to be disregarded , and most of the girls were only too willing to let the whole affair slide from their minds , and to take back their favorite Annie to their hearts again .