nine o'clock
You can learn your dates in a corner of the lecture room or in the studio . '' It was rather hard to be thus ordered away from the quiet place which she had chosen , and Patty stood hesitating whether to comply or not , when the question was settled by the ringing of the tea bell , and both girls were obliged to hurry to the refectory . Patty did not think much of this incident at the time , only setting it down to Muriel 's caprice , and being quite accustomed to her cousin 's ill humours ; but in the light of after events it wore a different aspect . One morning at nine o'clock , when Miss Rowe had taken the register , and the girls were in their places waiting for school to begin , Miss Harper entered the room with an extremely grave look on her face . Instead of commencing the lesson as usual , she stood for a few moments without speaking , and her silence filled her class with an uneasy apprehension that all was not right . `` Girls , '' she said at last , `` something has happened which gives me more pain than anything else I have experienced during the five years I have taught at The Priory . Yesterday the monitress , when tidying the room , found this book , which she very rightly brought at once to me .