Part 34 (1/2)

”I have taken the votes of the members on that point,” Margaret continued, ”therefore I know what I am speaking about. What we do most emphatically require is that you carry your confession to its logical conclusion--that what you have said to us you say to the kindest woman in all the world, to dear Mrs. Haddo, and that you put the little packet which has cost you such misery into Mrs. Haddo's hands. Don't speak for a minute, please, Betty. We have been praying about you, all of us; we have been longing--longing for you to do this thing. Please don't speak for a minute. It is not in our power to turn you from the school, nor to relate to Mrs. Haddo nor to any of the teachers what you have told us.

But we can dismiss you from the Speciality Club--that does lie in our province; and we must do so, bitterly as we shall regret it, if you do not carry your confession to its logical conclusion.”

”Then I must go,” said Betty very gently.

”Oh Betty!” exclaimed Olive; and she burst into a flood of weeping.

”Dear, dear, dear Betty, don't go--please don't go!”

”We will all support you if you are nervous,” continued Margaret. ”I think we may say we will all support you, and Mrs. Haddo is so sweet; and then, if you want to see him, there's Mr. Fairfax, who could tell you what to do better than we can. Don't decide now, dear Betty. Please, please consider this question, and let us know.”

”But I have decided,” said Betty. ”I told you what I thought right. I love the club, and every single member of it--except my cousin, f.a.n.n.y Crawford. I don't love f.a.n.n.y, and she doesn't love me--I say so quite plainly; therefore, once again, I break Rule I. You see, girls, I cannot stay. I must become again an undistinguished member of this great school. Don't suppose it will hurt my vanity; but it will touch deeper things in me, and I shall never, never forget your kindness. I can by no possibility do more than I have done. Good-bye, dear Margaret; I am more than sorry that I have given you all this trouble.”

As Betty spoke she unclasped the little silver true-lover's knot from the bosom of her dress and put it into Margaret's hand. Then she walked out of the room, a Speciality no longer.

When she had gone, the girls talked softly together. They were terribly depressed.

”We never had a member like her. What a pity our rules are so strict!”

said Olive.

”Nonsense, Olive!” said Margaret. ”We must do our best, our very best; and even yet I have great hopes of Betty. She can be re-elected some day, perhaps.”

”Oh, she is like no one else!” said one girl after another.

The girls soon dispersed; but as f.a.n.n.y was going to her room Martha West joined her. ”f.a.n.n.y,” she said, ”I, as the youngest member of the Specialities, would like to ask you a question. Why is it that your cousin dislikes you so much?”

”I can't tell,” replied f.a.n.n.y. ”I have always tried to be kind to her.”

”But you don't cordially like her yourself!”

”That is quite true,” said f.a.n.n.y; ”but then I have seen her at home, when you have not. She has great gifts of fascination; but I know her for what she really is.”

”When you speak like that, f.a.n.n.y Crawford, I no longer like you,”

remarked Martha; and she walked away in the direction of her room.

All the Speciality girls, including Betty, were present at prayers in the chapel that evening. Betty sat a little apart from her companions, she stood apart from them, she prayed apart from them. She seemed like one isolated and alone. Her face was very white, her eyes large and dark and anxious. From time to time the girls who loved her looked at her with intense compa.s.sion. But f.a.n.n.y gave her very different glances.

f.a.n.n.y rejoiced in her discomfort, and heartily hoped that she would now lose her prestige in the school.

Until the advent of Betty Vivian, f.a.n.n.y was rather a favorite at Haddo Court. She was certainly not the least bit original. She was prim and smug and self-satisfied to the last degree, but she always did the right thing in the right way. She always looked pretty, and no one ever detected any fault in her. Her mistresses trusted her, and some of the girls thought it worth their while to become chums with her.

f.a.n.n.y, however, now saw at a glance that she was in the black looks of the other Specialities. This fact angered her uncontrollably, and she made up her mind to bring Betty to further shame. It was not sufficient that she should be expelled from the Speciality Club; the usual formula must be gone through. All the girls knew of this formula; and they all, with the exception of f.a.n.n.y, wished it not to be observed in the case of Betty Vivian. But f.a.n.n.y knew her power, and was resolved to use it. The Speciality Club exercised too great an influence in the school for its existence to be lightly regarded. A member of the club, as has been said, enjoyed many privileges besides being accorded certain exemptions from various irksome duties. It was long, long years since any member had been dismissed in disgrace; it was certainly not within the memory of any girl now in the school. But f.a.n.n.y had searched the old annals, and had come across the fact that about thirty years ago a Speciality had done something which brought discredit on herself and the club, and had therefore been expelled; she had also discovered that the fact of her expulsion had been put up in large letters on a blackboard. This board hung in the central hall, and generally contained notices of entertainments or cla.s.s-work of a special order for the day's programme.

Miss Symes wrote out this programme day by day.

On the morning after Betty had been expelled from the Specialities, f.a.n.n.y ran up to Miss Symes. ”By the way,” she said, ”I am afraid you will have to do it, for it is the rule of the club.”

”I shall have to do what, my dear f.a.n.n.y?”

”You will just have to say, please, on the blackboard that Betty Vivian is no longer a member of the Specialities.”

Miss Symes stopped writing. She was busily engaged notifying the hour of a very important German lesson to be given by a professor who came from town. ”What do you mean, f.a.n.n.y?”