GOOD AND BAD ANGELS.
Hester stayed behind in the shady little arbor, and then, on that soft
spring day, while the birds sang overhead, and the warm light breezes
came in and fanned her hot cheeks, good angels and bad drew near to fight
for a victory. Which would conquer? Hester had many faults, but hitherto
she had been honorable and truthful; her sins had been those of pride and
jealousy, but she had never told a falsehood in her life. She knew
perfectly--she trembled as the full knowledge overpowered her--that she
had it in her power to exonerate Annie. She could not in the least
imagine how stupid Susan Drummond could contrive and carry out such a
clever and deep-laid plot; but she knew also that if she related what she
had seen with her own eyes the night before, she would probably give such
a clue to the apparent mystery that the truth would come to light.
If Annie was cleared from this accusation, doubtless the old story of her
supposed guilt with regard to Mrs. Willis' caricature would also be read
with its right key. Hester was a clever and sharp girl; and the fact of
seeing Susan Drummond in the school-room in the dead of night opened her
eyes also to one or two other apparent little mysteries. While Susan was
her own room-mate she had often given a passing wonder to the fact of her
extraordinary desire to overcome her sleepiness, and had laughed over the
expedients Susan had used to wake at all moments.
These things, at the time, had scarcely given her a moment's serious
reflection; but now she pondered them carefully, and became more and more
certain, that, for some inexplicable and unfathomable reason sleepy, and
apparently innocent, Susan Drummond wished to sow the seeds of mischief
and discord in the school. Hester was sure that if she chose to speak now
she could clear poor Annie, and restore her to her lost place in Mrs.
Willis' favor.
Should she do so? ah! should she? Her lips trembled, her color came and
went as the angels, good and bad, fought hard for victory within her. How
she had longed to revenge herself on Annie! How cordially she had hated
her! Now was the moment of her revenge. She had but to remain silent now,
and to let matters take their course; she had but to hold her tongue
about the little incident of last night, and, without any doubt,
circumstantial evidence would point at Annie Forest, and she would be
expelled from the school. Mrs. Willis must condemn her now. Mr. Everard
must pronounce her guilty now. She would go, and when the coast was again
clear the love which she had taken from Hester--the precious love of
Hester's only little sister--would return.
"You will be miserable; you will be miserable," whispered the good angels
sorrowfully in her ear; but she did not listen to them.
"I said I would revenge myself, and this is my opportunity," she
murmured. "Silence--just simply silence--will be my revenge."
Then the good angels went sorrowfully back to their Father in heaven, and
the wicked angels rejoiced. Hester had fallen very low.