seven o'clock
`` She may be going back in it . '' At tea-time Miss Poppleton 's accustomed place was empty , and speculation ran high among her pupils . All kinds of wild rumours circulated round the table , but there was no means of verifying any of them , and the girls were obliged to go to preparation with their curiosity still unsatisfied . At seven o'clock , however , when the Juniors had finished their work and trooped back to their own sitting-room , they found the mystery solved . In front of the fire , warming her hands between the bars of the high fender , and looking as comfortably at home as if she owned the place , stood the stranger who had skipped so quickly out of the cab that afternoon . She was a girl who , wherever she was seen , would have attracted notice -- slim and erect and trim in figure , and a decided brunette , a real `` nut-brown maid '' , with a pale olive complexion , the brightest of soft , dark , southern eyes , and a quantity of fluffy , silky , dusky curls , tied -- American fashion -- with two big bows of very wide scarlet ribbon , one on the top of her head and one at the nape of her neck . She smiled as the others entered , showing an even little set of white teeth , and four roguish dimples made their appearance at the corners of her mouth .