four o'clock
Oh , Dick , your sweets were well meant , but you little know what they 're going to cost me ! '' Gwen had a very hazy remembrance of how she did her preparation that afternoon . She wrote a French exercise almost automatically , feeling the mistress 's eye upon her the whole time . At four o'clock , with her heart somewhere in the region of her shoes , she reported herself in the study . Miss Trent had been beforehand ; so when she entered Miss Roscoe was already aware of the nature and extent of her crime . The headmistress was not disposed to make light of the affair ; like Miss Trent , she considered that the reputation of the school might be seriously compromised by Gwen 's behaviour , and she did not spare the culprit . Gwen did not often cry at school , but on this occasion she left the Principal 's room weeping like Niobe , and poor Winnie , who had been called in to hear the tail end of the lecture , followed blinking a little on her own account .