Part 8 (1/2)
”Good night, Miss Peel,” said Miss Marsh. The girls went gently out of the room. They closed the door behind them, without making any noise.
Nancy Banister remained behind. She came up to Priscilla and kissed her.
”You are brave,” she said. ”I admire you. I-- I-- am proud of you. I am glad to know that a girl like you has come to live here.”
”Don't-- don't,” said poor Prissie. Her little burst of courage had deserted her. She covered her face with her trembling hands. She did not want Nancy Banister to see that her eyes were full of tears.
CHAPTER VII
IN MISS OLIPHANT'S ROOM
”MY dear,” said Nancy Banister that same evening-- ”my dear and beloved Maggie, we have both been guilty of a huge mistake.”
”What is that?” asked Miss Oliphant. She was leaning back in a deep easy-chair, and Nancy, who did not care for luxurious seats, had perched herself on a little stool at her feet. Nancy was a small, nervous-looking person; she had a zealous face and eager, almost too active movements. Nancy was the soul of bustling good nature, of brightness and kindness. She often said that Maggie Oliphant's laziness rested her.
”What is it?” said Maggie again. ”How are we in the wrong, Nance?”
She lifted her dimpled hand as she spoke and contemplated it with a slow, satisfied sort of smile.
”We have made a mistake about Miss Peel, that is all; she is a very n.o.ble girl.”
”Oh, my dear Nance! Poor little Puritan Prissie! What next?”
”It is all very fine to call her names,” replied Nancy-- here she sprang to her feet-- ”but I couldn't do what she did. Do you know that she absolutely and completely turned the tables on that vulgar Annie Day and that pus.h.i.+ng, silly little Lucy Marsh. I never saw any two look smaller or poorer than those two when they skedaddled out of her room. Yes, that's the word-- they skedaddled to the door, both of them, looking as limp as a cotton dress when it has been worn for a week, and one almost treading on the other's heels; and I do not think Prissie will be worried by them any more.”
”Really, Nancy, you look quite pretty when you are excited! Now, what did this wonderful Miss Peel do? Did she box the ears of those two detestable girls? If so, she has my hearty congratulations.”
”More than that, Maggie-- that poor, little, meek, awkward, slim creature absolutely demolished them. Oh! she did it in such a fine, simple, unworldly sort of way. I only wish you had seen her! They were twitting her about not going in for all the fun here, and, above everything, for keeping her room so bare and unattractive. You know she has been a fortnight here to-day, and she has not got an extra thing-- not one. There isn't a room in the hall like hers-- it's so bare and unhomelike. What's the matter, Maggie?”
”You needn't go on, Nancy; if it's about the room, I don't want to hear it. You know I can't-- I can't bear it.”
Maggie's lips were trembling, her face was white. She shaded her eyes with her hand.
”Oh, my darling, I am so sorry. I forgot-- I really did! There, you must try and think it was any room. What she did was all the same.
Well, those girls had been twitting her. I expect she's had a nice fortnight of it! She turned very white, and at last her blood was up, and she just gave it to them. She opened her little trunk. I really could have cried. It was such a poor, pathetic sort of receptacle to be capable of holding all one's worldly goods, and she showed it to them-- empty! 'You see,' she said, 'that I have no pictures nor ornaments here!' Then she turned the contents of her purse into her hand. I think, Maggie, she had about thirty s.h.i.+llings in the world, and she asked Lucy Marsh to count her money, and inquired how many things she thought it would purchase at Spilman's. Then, Maggie, Priscilla turned on them. Oh, she did not look plain then, nor awkward either. Her eyes had such a splendid good, brave sort of light in them. And she said she had come here to work, and she meant to work, and her room must stay bare, for she had no money to make it anything else. 'But,' she said, 'I am not afraid of you, but I am afraid of hurting those'-- whoever 'those' are-- 'those'-- oh, with such a ring on the word-- 'who have sent me here!'
”After that the two girls skedaddled; they had had enough of her, and I expect, Maggie, your little Puritan Prissie will be left in peace in the future.”
”Don't call her my little Puritan,” said Maggie. ”I have nothing to say to her.”
Maggie was leaning back again in her chair now; her face was still pale and her soft eyes looked troubled.
”I wish you wouldn't tell me heroic stories, Nancy,” she remarked after a pause. ”They make me feel so uncomfortable. If Priscilla Peel is going to be turned into a sort of heroine, she'll be much more unbearable than in her former character.”
”Oh, Maggie, I wish you wouldn't talk in that reckless way nor pretend that you hate goodness. You know you adore it-- you know you do! You know you are far and away the most lovable and bewitching, and the-- the very best girl at St. Benet's.”
”No, dear little Nance, you are quite mistaken. Perhaps I'm bewitching-- I suppose to a certain extent I am, for people always tell me so-- but I'm not lovable and I'm not good. There, my dear, do let us turn from that uninteresting person-- Maggie Oliphant. And so, Nancy, you are going to wors.h.i.+p Priscilla Peel in future?”
”Oh, dear no! that's not my way. But I'm going to respect her very much. I think we have both rather shunned her lately, and I did feel sure at first that you meant to be very kind to her, Maggie.”
Miss Oliphant yawned. It was her way to get over emotion very quickly.
A moment before her face had been all eloquent with feeling; now its expression was distinctly bored, and her lazy eyes were not even open to their full extent.