Part 16 (2/2)
It never occurred to her as she got up and hurried after her father to his room that the trouble might be of her causing. When she reached the study she found Dr. Trenire standing by the table holding a letter which he was reading. He looked up from it when she entered, and in answer to the alarmed questioning in her eyes, he, after hesitating a moment, put the letter into her hand. ”Read that,” he said sternly, ”and tell me what it means.”
Kitty took the letter, but she was so bewildered and troubled by her father's manner, and the mystery, and her own dread, that she gazed at it for seconds, unable to take in a word that it contained.
”Well?”
”I--I haven't read it yet, father,” she stammered. ”Do tell me; is it-- is it anything about Dan?”
Dr. Trenire looked at her very searchingly. ”This is not the time for trifling, Kitty,” he said. ”The letter is about you, I am sorry to say.
I am so shocked, so grieved, and astonished at what it tells me, that I--I cannot make myself believe it unless you tell me that I must.
Read it.”
Kitty read it this time--read it with the blood rus.h.i.+ng over her face and neck, her eyes smarting, her cheeks tingling; and as she more and more clearly grasped the meaning, her heart beat hot and fast with indignation.
When she looked up, her hurt, shamed eyes struck reproach to Dr.
Trenire's heart. ”Father, you didn't--you didn't think that I--I--that what that letter says is true?” The feeling that he had, if only for a moment, done so hurt her far more than did the letter, which was from Miss Richards.
”It had been discovered,” wrote Miss Richards, evidently in a great state of wrath and indignation, ”that one of the boarders had been in the habit of writing to and receiving surrept.i.tious letters from a person with whom she had been forbidden to correspond. This she could only have accomplished with the aid of some one outside the school.
On that very evening a letter had been intercepted, and the messenger almost caught; but though she had escaped she had been partially recognized by the governess, who had fortunately discovered these shocking and flagrantly daring misdoings, and the governess had no doubt in her mind that the culprit was Dr. Trenire's elder daughter.”
Miss Richards was deeply grieved to have to write such unpleasant tidings to him, but she begged he would make strict inquiries into the matter at once. In the meantime Miss Lettice Kitson, who was forbidden to leave her room, refused to make any communication on the matter.
”How dare she!” cried Kitty. ”How dare she accuse me of doing such a thing! I hardly ever speak to Lettice. We are not at all friendly, and Miss Richards knows it. I have never liked her, and--and,” she broke off hotly--”as if, even if I did like her, I would behave so.
Father, you know I wouldn't; don't you?” she entreated pa.s.sionately.
”Have you any idea who the real culprit is?” asked her father, greatly troubled. In his heart he implicitly believed her, but he had to inquire into the matter without prejudice. ”If you have a suspicion, do give me the clue, that you may be cleared. Of course it wouldn't be Betty--”
”Oh no, of course not,” cried Kitty emphatically. ”She has been in the playroom with me all the evening; besides, Betty wouldn't behave so.
Why, only the other day she was fearfully disgusted with--”
Kitty stopped abruptly, a flood of colour pouring over her face as a sudden suspicion rushed over her mind with overwhelming force.
Dr. Trenire was watching her closely. ”You have some suspicion?”
Kitty opened her lips, then closed them. ”I--I have nothing I can say, father,” she said at last in a m.u.f.fled tone.
”But you must clear yourself, Kitty,” he said gravely.
”Lettice Kitson can clear me,” she replied. ”She knows, and of course she will tell Miss Richards when she hears that they are accusing me.
You believe me; don't you, father?” she asked again, looking up at him pleadingly.
”Certainly, Kitty,” he said heartily, unable to withstand the appeal in her gray eyes. ”I would not believe you capable of such dishonourable conduct unless you yourself told me you were guilty.”
In the joy and relief of her heart Kitty forgot all about any suspicions others might entertain, until Dr. Trenire mentioned Mrs. Pike. At the mention of that name her heart sank down and down. ”O father,” she cried, ”Aunt Pike need not know anything about it, need she?”
”Of course she need, dear. Why should she not? You have nothing to fear from her knowing it. When you deny the guilt there will be an inquiry into the matter, of course, so that it must come to the knowledge of, at any rate, the elder girls and the parents, and Anna will be amongst the elder ones, I suppose. At any rate she is as tall as you are, and in your cla.s.s.”
”As tall as you are.” The words struck Kitty with a new suggestiveness.
<script>