It was a true feline screech, impossible to localize; but it was interrupted by a sob, a snarl, a fierce spitting, and a scuffling, coming unmistakably from a room on the floor beneath, in which, at that hour, the older girls assembled for study.
"My poor Gracchy!" exclaimed Mrs.Miller, running downstairs as fast as she could.

She found the room unusually quiet.

Every girl was deep in study except Miss Carpenter, who, pretending to pick up a fallen book, was purple with suppressed laughter and the congestion caused by stooping.
"Where is Miss Ward ?" demanded Mrs.Miller.
"Miss Ward has gone for some astronomical diagrams in which we are interested," said Agatha, looking up gravely.

Just then Miss Ward, diagrams in hand, entered.
"Has that cat been in here ?" she said, not seeing Mrs.Miller, and speaking in a tone expressive of antipathy to Gracchus.
Agatha started and drew up her ankles, as if fearful of having them bitten.

Then, looking apprehensively under the desk, she replied, "There is no cat here, Miss Ward." "There is one somewhere; I heard it," said Miss Ward carelessly, unrolling her diagrams, which she began to explain without further parley.