Part 42 (2/2)
Take courage; it is not the first time.”
”I think,” said Brenda Fox later on that same day to Audrey, ”that Miss Henderson is right.”
”Then I think her wrong,” answered Audrey. ”Of course I do not know her as well as you do, Brenda, and I am also ignorant with regard to the ordinary rules of school-life, but I cannot but feel it would be much better, if the guilty girl will not confess, to punish her at once and put an end to the thing.”
”It would be pleasanter for us,” replied Brenda Fox; ”but then, Miss Henderson never thinks of that.”
”What do you mean?”
”I mean that Miss Henderson is the sort of woman who would think very little of small personal pain and inconvenience compared with the injury which might be permanently inflicted on a girl who was harshly dealt with.”
”Still I do not quite understand. If any girl in the school did such a disgraceful thing it ought to be known at once.”
”Miss Henderson evidently does know, but for some reason she hopes the girl will repent.”
”And we are to be punished?”
”Is it not worth having a little discomfort if the girl's character can be saved?”
”Yes, of course; if it does save her.”
”We must hope for that. For my part,” said Brenda in a reverent tone, ”I shall pray about it. I believe in prayer.”
”And so do I,” answered Audrey. ”But do you know, Brenda, that I think Miss Henderson was greatly wanting in tact when she mentioned my poor little cousin's name two days ago.”
”Why so? Your cousin did happen to be alone in the room.”
”But it seemed to draw a very unworthy suspicion upon her head.”
”Oh no, no, Audrey!” answered Brenda. ”Who could think that your cousin would do it? Besides, she is quite a stranger; it was her first day at school.”
”Then have you the least idea who did it?”
”None; no one has. We are all very fond of Miss Thompson. We are all fond of Miss Henderson; we respect her and Miss Lucy as most able and worthy mistresses. We enjoy our school-life. Who could have been so unkind?”
Audrey had an uncomfortable sensation at her heart that Evelyn at least did not enjoy her school-life; that Evelyn disliked Miss Thompson, and openly said that she hated Miss Henderson. Still, that Evelyn could really be guilty did not for an instant visit her brain.
Meanwhile Evelyn went recklessly on her way. The _denouement_, of whatever nature, was still a week off. For a week she could be gay or impertinent or rude or defiant or good, just as the mood took her; at the end of the week, or towards the end, she would run away. She would go to Jasper and tell her she must hide her. This was her resolve. She was as inconsequent as an infant. To save herself trouble and pain was her one paramount idea; even her schoolfellows' annoyance and distress scarcely worried her. As she and Audrey always spent their evenings at home, the dulness of the school, the increase of lessons and the absence of play, the walks two and two in absolute silence, scarcely depressed her; she could laugh and play at home, and talk to her uncle and draw him out to tell her stories of her father. The one redeeming trait in her character was her love for Uncle Edward. She was certainly going downhill very rapidly at this time. Poor child! who was there to understand her, to bring her to a standstill, to help her to choose right?
CHAPTER XXIV.-”WHO IS E. W.?”
The one person who might have helped Evelyn was too busy with her own troubles just then to think a great deal about her. Poor Sylvia was visited with a very great dread. Her father's manner was strange; she began to fear that he suspected Jasper's presence in the house. If Jasper left, Sylvia felt that things must come to a crisis; she could not stand the life she had lived before the comfortable advent of this kindly but ill-informed woman. Sylvia was really very much attached to Jasper, and although she argued much over Evelyn, and disagreed strongly with her with regard to the best way to treat this unruly little member of society, Sylvia's very life depended on Jasper's purse and Jasper's tact.
One by one the fowls disappeared, the same boy receiving them over the hedge day by day from Jasper. The boy sold each of the old hens for sixpence, and reaped quite a harvest in consequence. He was all too willing to keep Jasper's secret. Jasper bought tender young c.o.c.kerels from a neighbor in the village, conveyed them home under her arm, killed them, and dressed them in various and dainty manners for Mr. Leeson's meals. He was loud in his praise of Sylvia, and told her that if the worst came to the worst she could go out as a lady cook.
”Nothing could give me such horror, my dear child,” he said, ”as to think that a Leeson, and a member of one of the proudest families in the kingdom, should ever demean herself to earn money; but, my dear girl, in these days of chance and change one must be prepared for the worst-there never is any telling. Sylvia, I go through anxious moments-very, very anxious moments.”
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