UNTRUSTWORTHY.
Dora Russell had declared, in Hester's presence, and with intense energy
in her manner, that the author of the insult to which she had been
exposed should be publicly punished and, if possible, expelled. On the
evening of her interview with the head teacher, she had so far forgotten
herself as to reiterate this desire with extreme vehemence. She had
boldly declared her firm conviction of Annie's guilt, and had broadly
hinted at Mrs. Willis' favoritism toward her. The great dignity, however,
of her teacher's manner, and the half-sorrowful, half-indignant look she
bestowed on the excited girl, calmed her down after a time. Mrs. Willis
felt full sympathy for Dora, and could well understand how trying and
aggravating this practical joke must be to so proud a girl; but although
her faith was undoubtedly shaken in Annie, she would not allow this
sentiment to appear.
"I will do all I can for you, Dora," she said, when the weeping Annie had
left the room; "I will do everything in my power to find out who has
injured you. Annie has absolutely denied the accusation you bring against
her, and unless her guilt can be proved it is but right to believe her
innocent. There are many other girls in Lavender House, and to-morrow
morning I will sift this unpleasant affair to the very bottom. Go, now,
my dear, and if you have sufficient self-command and self-control, try to
have courage to write your essay over again. I have no doubt that your
second rendering of your subject will be more attractive than the first.
Beginners cannot too often re-write their themes."
Dora gave her head a proud little toss, but she was sufficiently in awe
of Mrs. Willis to keep back any retort, and she went out of the room
feeling unsatisfied and wretched, and inclined for a sympathizing chat
with her little friend Hester Thornton.
Hester, however when she reached her, seemed not at all disposed to talk
to any one.
"I've had it all out with Mrs. Willis, and there is no doubt she will be
exposed to-morrow morning," said Dora half aloud.
Hester, whose head was bent over her French history, looked up with an
annoyed 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 to
talk to you; you have lost all your spirit. I was very foolish to demean
myself by taking so much notice of one of the little girls."
Dora sailed down the play-room to her own drawing-room, fully expecting
Hester to rise and rush after her; but to her surprise Hester did not
stir, but sat with her head bent over her book, and her cheeks slightly
flushed.
The next morning Mrs. Willis kept her word to Dora, and made the very
strictest inquiries with regard to the practical joke to which Dora had
been subjected. She first of all fully explained what had taken place in
the presence of the whole school, and then each girl was called up in
rotation, and asked two questions: first, had she done this mischievous
thing herself? second, could she throw any light on the subject.
One by one each girl appeared before her teacher, replied in the negative
to both queries, and returned to her seat.
"Now, girls," said Mrs. Willis, "you have each of you denied this charge.
Such a thing as has happened to Dora could not have been done without
hands. The teachers in the school are above suspicion; the servants are
none of them clever enough to perform this base trick. I suspect 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 of unhappiness, of mischief, and
of suspicion in our midst. Under these circumstances love cannot thrive;
under these circumstances the true and ennobling sense of brotherly
kindness, and all those feelings which real religion prompt must
languish. I tell you all now plainly that I will not have this thing in
Lavender House. It is simply disgraceful for one girl to play such tricks
on her fellows. This is not the first time nor the second time that the
school desks have been tampered with. I will find out--I am determined to
find out, who this dishonest person is; and as she has not chosen to
confess to me, as she has preferred falsehood to truth, I will visit her,
when I do discover her, with my very gravest displeasure. In this school
I have always endeavored to inculcate the true principles of honor and of
trust. I have laid down certain broad rules, and expect them to be
obeyed; but I have never hampered you with petty and humiliating
restraints. I have given you a certain freedom, which I believed to be
for your best good, and I have never suspected one of you until you have
given me due cause.
"Now, however, I tell you plainly that I alter all my tactics. One girl
sitting in this room is guilty. For her sake I shall treat you all as
guilty, and punish you accordingly. For the remainder of this term, or
until 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. I
withdraw your half-holidays, I take from you the use of the south parlor
for your acting, and every drawing-room in the play-room is confiscated.
But this is not all that I do. In taking from you my trust, I must treat
you as untrustworthy--you will no longer enjoy the liberty you used to
delight in--everywhere you will be watched. A teacher will sit in your
play-room with you, a teacher will accompany you into the grounds, and I
tell you plainly, girls, that chance words and phrases which drop from
your lips shall be taken up, and used, if necessary, to the elucidation
of this disgraceful mystery."
Here Mrs. Willis left the room, and the teachers desired the several
girls in their classes to attend to their morning studies.
Nothing could exceed the dismay which her words had produced. The
innocent girls were fairly stunned, and from that hour for many a day all
sunshine and happiness seemed really to have left Lavender House.
The two, however, who felt the change most acutely, and on whose altered
faces their companions began to fix suspicious eyes, were Annie Forest
and Hester Thornton. Hester was burdened with an intolerable sense of the
shameful falsehood she had told; Annie, guilty in another matter,
succumbed at last utterly to a sense of misery and injustice. Her
orphaned 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, and her
health really suffered.
All the routine of happy life at Lavender House was changed. In the large
play-room the drawing-rooms were unused; there were no pleasant little
knots of girls whispering happily and confidentially together, for
whenever two or three girls sat down to have a chat they found that one
or another of the teachers was within hearing. The acting for the coming
play progressed so languidly that no one expected it would really take
place, and the one relief and relaxation to the unhappy girls lay in the
fact that the holidays were not far off, and that in the meantime they
might work hard for the prizes.
The days passed in a truly melancholy fashion, and, perhaps, for the
first time the girls fully appreciated the old privileges of freedom and
trust which were now forfeited. There was a feeble little attempt at a
joke and a laugh in the school at Dora's expense. The most frivolous of
the girls whispered of her as she passed as "the muddy stream;" but no
one took up the fun with avidity--the shadow of somebody's sin had fallen
too heavily upon all the bright young lives.