by L. T. Meade
her. The great dignity,however, of her teacher's manner, and the half-sorrowful, half-indignantlook she bestowed on the excited girl, calmed her down after a time.Mrs Willis felt full sympathy for Dora, and could well understand howtrying and aggravating this practical joke must be to so proud a girl;but although her faith was undoubtedly shaken in Annie, she would notallow this sentiment to appear.
"I will do all I can for you, Dora," she said, when the weeping Anniehad left the room; "I will do everything in my power to find out who hasinjured you. Annie has absolutely denied the accusation you bringagainst her, and unless her guilt can be proved it is but right tobelieve her innocent. There are many other girls in Lavender House; andto-morrow morning I will sift this unpleasant affair to the very bottom.Go, now, my dear, and if you have sufficient self-command andself-control, try to have courage to write your essay over again. Ihave no doubt that your second rendering of your subject will be moreattractive than the first. Beginners cannot too often re-write theirthemes."
Dora gave her head a proud little toss, but she was sufficiently in aweof Mrs Willis to keep back any retort, and she went out of the roomfeeling unsatisfied and wretched, and inclined for a sympathising chatwith her little friend, Hester Thornton.
Hester, however, when she reached her, seemed not at all disposed totalk to anyone.
"I've had it all out with Mrs Willis, and there is no doubt she will beexposed to-morrow morning," said Dora, half aloud.
Hester, whose head was bent over her French history, looked up with anannoyed expression.
"Who will be exposed?" she asked, in a petulant voice.
"Oh, how stupid you are growing, Hester Thornton!" exclaimed Dora; "why,that horrid Annie Forest, of course--but really I have no patience totalk to you; you have lost all your spirit. I was very foolish todemean myself by taking so much notice of one of the little girls."
Dora sailed down the play-room to her own drawing-room, fully expectingHester to rise and rush after her; but to her surprise Hester did notstir, but sat with her head bent over her book, and her cheeks slightlyflushed.
The next morning Mrs Willis kept her word to Dora, and made the verystrictest inquiries with regard to the practical joke to which Dora hadbeen subjected. She first of all fully explained what had taken placein the presence of the whole school, and then each girl was called up inrotation, and asked two questions: first, had she done this mischievousthing herself? second, could she throw any light on the subject?
One by one each girl appeared before her teacher, replied in thenegative to both queries, and returned to her seat.
"Now, girls," said Mrs Willis, "you have each of you denied thischarge. Such a thing as has happened to Dora could not have been donewithout hands. The teachers in the school are above suspicion; theservants are none of them clever enough to perform this base trick. Isuspect one of you, and I am quite determined to get at the truth.During the whole of this half-year there has been a spirit ofunhappiness, of mischief, and of suspicion in our midst. Under thesecircumstances love cannot thrive; under these circumstances the true andennobling sense of brotherly kindness, and all those feelings which realreligion prompt must languish. I tell you all now plainly that I willnot have this thing in Lavender House. It is simply disgraceful for onegirl to play such tricks on her fellows. This is not the first time northe second time that the school-desks have been tampered with. I willfind out--I am determined to find out, who this dishonest person is; andas she has not chosen to confess to me, as she has preferred falsehoodto truth, I will visit her, when I do discover her, with my very gravestdispleasure. In this school I have always endeavoured to inculcate thetrue principles of honour and of trust. I have laid down certain broadrules, and expect them to be obeyed; but I have never hampered you withpetty and humiliating restraints. I have given you a certain freedom,which I believed to be for your best good, and I have never suspectedone of you until you have given me due cause.
"Now, however, I tell you plainly that I alter all my tactics. One girlsitting in this room is guilty. For her sake I shall treat you all asguilty, and punish you accordingly. For the remainder of this term, oruntil the hour when the guilty girl chooses to release her companions,you are all, with the exception of the little children and Miss Russell,who can scarcely have played this trick on herself, under punishment. Iwithdraw your half-holidays--I take from you the use of the SouthParlour for your acting, and every drawing-room in the play-room isconfiscated. But this, is not all that I do. In taking from you mytrust, I must treat you as untrustworthy--you will no longer enjoy theliberty you used to delight in--everywhere you will be watched. Ateacher will sit in your play-room with you, a teacher will accompanyyou into the grounds, and I tell you plainly, girls, that chance wordsand phrases which drop from your lips shall be taken up, and used, ifnecessary, to the elucidation of this disgraceful mystery."
Here Mrs Willis left the room, and the teachers desired the severalgirls in their classes to attend to their morning studies.
Nothing could exceed the dismay which her words had produced. Theinnocent girls were fairly stunned, and from that hour for many a dayall sunshine and happiness seemed really to have left Lavender House.
The two, however, who felt the change most acutely, and on whose alteredfaces their companions began to fix suspicious eyes, were Annie Forestand Hester Thornton. Hester was burdened with an intolerable sense ofthe shameful falsehood she had told; Annie, guilty in another matter,succumbed at last utterly to a sense of misery and injustice. Herorphaned and lonely position for the first time began to tell on her;she ate little and slept little, her face grew very pale and thin, andher health really suffered.
All the routine of happy life at Lavender House was changed. In thelarge play-room the drawing-rooms were unused; there were no pleasantlittle knots of girls whispering happily and confidentially together,for whenever two or three girls sat down to have a chat they found thatone or another of the teachers was within hearing. The acting for thecoming play progressed so languidly that no one expected it would reallytake place, and the one relief and relaxation to the unhappy girls layin the fact that the holidays were not far off, and that in the meantimethey might work hard for the prizes.
The days passed in a truly melancholy fashion, and, perhaps, for thefirst time the girls fully appreciated the old privileges of freedom andtrust which were now forfeited. There was a feeble little attempt at ajoke and a laugh in the school at Dora's expense. The most frivolous ofthe girls whispered of her as she passed as "the muddy stream;" but noone took up the fun with avidity--the shadow of somebody's sin hadfallen too heavily upon all the bright young lives.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
BETTY FALLS ILL AT AN AWKWARD TIME.
The eight girls who had gone out on their midnight picnic were muchstartled one day by an unpleasant discovery. Betty had never come forher basket. Susan Drummond, who had a good deal of curiosity, andalways poked her nose into unexpected corners, had been walking with aMiss Allison in that part of the grounds where the laurel-bush stood.She had caught a peep of the white handle of the basket, and hadinstantly turned her companion's attention to something else. MissAllison had not observed Susan's start of dismay; but Susan had takenthe first opportunity of getting rid of her, and had run off in searchof one of the girls who had shared in the picnic. She came across AnnieForest, who was walking, as usual, by herself, with her head slightlybent, and her curling hair in sad confusion. Susan whispered thedireful intelligence that old Betty had forsaken them, and that thebasket, with its ginger-beer bottles and its stained table-cloth, mightbe discovered at any moment.
Annie's pale face flushed slightly at Susan's words.
"Why should we try to conceal the thing?" she said, speaking with suddenenergy, and a look of hope and animation coming back to her face."Susy, let's go, all of us, and tell the miserable truth to Mrs Willis;it will be much the best way. We did not do the other thing, and whenwe have confessed about this our
hearts will be at rest."
"No, we did not do the other thing," said Susan, a queer grey colourcoming over her face; "but confess about this, Annie Forest!--I thinkyou are mad. You dare not tell."
"All right," said Annie, "I won't, unless you all agree to it," and thenshe continued her walk, leaving Susan standing on the gravelled pathwith her hands clasped together, and a look of most genuine alarm anddismay on her usually phlegmatic face.
Susan quickly found Phyllis and Nora, and it was only too easy to arousethe fears of these timid little people. Their poor little faces becamealmost pallid, and they were not a little startled at the fact of AnnieForest, their own arch-conspirator, wishing to betray their secret.
"Oh," said Susan Drummond, "she's not out and out shabby; she says shewon't tell unless we all wish it. But what is to