Part 41 (1/2)
”Poor little girl; how sad to be without her!”
”Don't,” said Evelyn in a strained voice.
”You lived all your early days in Tasmania, and your mother was good to you because she loved you, and you loved her back; you tried to please her because you loved her.”
”Oh, bother!” said Evelyn.
”Come here, dear.”
Evelyn did not budge an inch.
”Come over to me,” said Miss Henderson.
Miss Henderson was not accustomed to being disobeyed. Her tone was not loud, but it was quiet and determined. She looked full at Evelyn. Her eyes were kind. Evelyn felt as if they mesmerized her. Step by step, very unwillingly, she approached the side of the head-mistress.
”I love girls like you,” said Miss Henderson then.
”Bother!” said Evelyn again.
”And I do not mind even when they are sulky and rude and naughty, as you are now; still, I love them-I love them because I am sorry for them.”
”You need not be sorry for me; I won't have you sorry for me,” said Evelyn.
”If I must not be sorry for you I must be something else.”
”What?”
”Angry with you.”
”Why so? I never! What do you mean now?”
”I must be angry with you, Evelyn-very angry. But I will say no more by way of excusing my own conduct. I will say nothing of either sorrow or anger. I want to state a fact to you.”
”Get it over,” said Evelyn.
Miss Henderson now approached the table; she opened the History at the reign of Edward I., and taking two tiny fragments of torn paper from the pages of the book, she laid them in her open palm. In her other hand she held the mutilated copy of _Sesame and Lilies_. The print on the torn sc.r.a.p exactly corresponded with the print in the injured volume. Miss Henderson glanced from Evelyn to the sc.r.a.ps of paper, and from Evelyn to the copy of Ruskin.
”You have intelligence,” she said; ”you must see what this means.”
She then carefully replaced the bits of paper in the History and laid it on the table by her side.
”Between now,” she said, ”and this time yesterday Miss Thompson discovered these sc.r.a.ps of paper in the copy of the History which you had to read on the morning of the day when you first came to school. The sc.r.a.ps are evidently part of the pages torn from the injured book. Have you anything to say with regard to them?”
Evelyn shook her head; her face was white and her eyes bright. But there was a small red spot on each cheek-a spot about the size of a farthing.
It did not grow any larger. It gave a curious effect to the pallid face.
The obstinacy of the mouth was very apparent. The cleft in the chin still further showed the curious bias of the girl's character.
”Have you anything to say-any remark to make?”
Again the head was slowly shaken.