Part 25 (1/2)
”How foolish, child. It might have been a joke--Tell me about it!”
”If you would excuse me, Mrs. Pangborn, and not think me rude, I would rather not,” said Dorothy, her cheeks aflame.
”Not tell me!” and the lady raised her eyebrows. ”Why, Dorothy! Is there any good reason why you do not wish to tell me?”
”Yes, I have made a promise. It may not be of much account, but, if you will excuse me, it would relieve me greatly not to go over it.”
Mrs. Pangborn did not answer at once. For a girl to admit she had ridden in a police van and for that girl to be Dorothy Dale! It seemed incredible.
”Dorothy,” she began, gravely, ”whatever may be back of this, I am sure you have not been at fault--seriously at least. And since you prefer not to make me your confidant I cannot force you to do so. I am sorry.
I had expected something different. The young ladies will scarcely make apologies to you under the circ.u.mstances.”
She made a motion as if to dismiss Dorothy. Plainly the head of Glenwood School could not be expected to plead with a pupil--certainly not to-day, when her new and poignant grief could not be hidden.
”I shall say to the young ladies,” said the teacher, finally, ”that they are to show you all the respect they had shown you heretofore.
That you have done nothing to be ashamed of--I am sure of this, although you make the matter so mysterious. I would like to have compelled the girl who spread this report to make amends, but I cannot do that. You do not deny her story.”
At that moment Dorothy saw, or at least guessed, what it all meant.
That had been the story of her trouble! It was that which made the girls turn their backs on her--that which had almost broken her heart.
And now she had put it out of her power to contradict their charges!
Mrs. Pangborn had said ”good morning,” Dorothy was alone in the corridor. She had left the office and could not now turn back!
Oh, why had she been so easily deceived? Why had Viola made her give that promise? Surely it must have been more than that! The story, to cause all the girls to shun her! And perhaps Mrs. Pangborn believed it all! No, she had refused to believe it. But what should Dorothy do now?
Oh, what a wretched girl she was! How much it had cost her to lose Tavia! Tavia would have righted this wrong long ago. But now she stood alone! She could not even speak of leaving the school without strengthening the cruel suspicion, whatever it might be.
What would she do? To whom would she turn?
Heart-sick, and all but ill, Dorothy turned into her lonely little room. She would not attempt to go to cla.s.ses that morning.
CHAPTER XX
SUSPICIONS
”What did she say?” eagerly asked a knot of girls, as Viola Green made her appearance the morning after her interview with the head of Glenwood school.
”Humph!” sniffed Viola, ”what could she say?”
”Did she send for Dorothy?” went on the curious ones.
”I have just seen her step out of the office this minute and she couldn't see me. Her eyes wouldn't let her.”
”Then she didn't deny it!” spoke Amy Brook. ”I could scarcely make myself believe that of her.”
”Ask her about it, then,” suggested Viola, to whom the term brazen would seem, at that moment, to be most applicable.
”Oh, excuse me,” returned Amy. ”I never wound where I can avoid it.