TEACHER AND PUPIL.
The day after the escapade was the worst one that Peggy Montfort had
ever known. She was too strong and healthy to lie awake all night,
though it was much later than usual before she ceased to toss in uneasy
wretchedness and lay peacefully sleeping. When morning came, she woke,
and for a moment greeted the bright day joyfully. Then remembrance came
like a hand at her throat, and she shivered, and all the blue seemed to
fade away, and leave nothing but cold, miserable gray over all the
world. What had she done? What would Uncle John and Margaret, what would
Brother Hugh think, if they should know this? Slowly and heavily she
dressed and went down to breakfast. There, it seemed as if everybody
knew what she had done. Miss Russell's eyes rested thoughtfully on her
as she bade her good morning; Peggy shrank away, and could not meet the
gaze. If she did not know now, she would soon. "An honest, steady,
sensible girl!" Well, Miss Russell would find she had been mistaken,
that was all; and of course she would never trust again where she had
once been deceived. And yet Peggy knew in her heart that there was no
girl in the school who was so little likely to do this thing again as
herself. She was by nature, as I have said, a law-abiding creature, with
a natural reverence for authority. To have set the law at defiance was
bad enough; to have done it secretly, and betrayed the trust that had
been placed in her, that was worse! That was beyond possibility of
pardon. Thus argued Peggy in her wretchedness; and all through the
morning she went over it again and again, and yet again, seeing no help
or comfort anywhere. Bertha Haughton, always quick in sympathy, saw the
trouble in her friend's face, and came over in "gym" and begged to know
what was the matter. Wasn't Peggy well? Had anything happened to trouble
her? Peggy shook her head; she could not tell even this good
friend--yet. There was some one else who must be told first. She
promised to come to the Owls' Nest later in the day, and Bertha was
forced to be content with this, and left her with a vague sense of
uneasiness and a feeling that somehow little Peggy had grown suddenly
older and more mature. Yes, there is nothing like trouble for that!
It was almost a relief when the summons came.
"Miss Montfort, Miss Russell would like to see you in the study."
Peggy steadied herself for the encounter, and went quietly. If only she
could be met with a cold look, it would be easier, somehow--but no! the
Principal's gray eyes were as kind as ever, her smile as gravely sweet,
as she said, pleasantly, "Good morning, Miss Montfort. Good afternoon, I
should say; I forgot how late it was. Sit down for a moment, will you? I
want to ask you about something."
Peggy did not want to sit down. She wanted to stand still and go through
with it, and then get away to her own room. But there was no
disregarding the request, so she sat down on the edge of a chair and set
her teeth.
"I hardly know where to begin!" said Miss Russell. "I am going to take
you into my confidence--Peggy."
Peggy shivered a little, but said nothing, only set her teeth harder.
"There has been a good deal of trouble," Miss Russell went on, "a good
deal of trouble in former years with the room which you now occupy. The
girl who occupied it was--was wild and undisciplined, and took pleasure
in breaking bounds, and in inducing others to do so. She--there were a
number of girls who used to go out without leave, by way of the
fire-escape outside the window."
She paused a moment, and looked at Peggy, but Peggy made no sign.
"That girl--left the school last year, not to return; but there are
several still here who used to share in those wild pranks (undertaken in
mere thoughtlessness, I am glad to think, and not with any evil intent),
and I have been afraid--in fact, it has come to my ears, that the room
was again being used for the same purpose."
She paused again; but still Peggy was silent. What could she say?
Besides, no question had been asked her--yet!
The question came. "You are silent, Peggy. Do you know anything about
this matter?"
"Yes, Miss Russell!" said Peggy, faintly.
"I feel," said the Principal, in a tone of regret, "that I have been to
blame in not warning you of this beforehand, and putting you on your
guard. I had hoped that when Bil--when the young lady of whom I spoke
was gone, the whole thing would die out; it is a distressing thing to
warn a pupil against her schoolmates. Still, I feel that in this case I
ought to have done so. I place entire confidence in you, Peggy. I am
sure that you would not yourself break the rules of the school; but you
may have been put to inconvenience and distress by the lawlessness of
others. I am very sorry if this has been the case."
Peggy shut her eyes tight, and said "Margaret!" twice to herself. Then
she looked at the Principal.
"Miss Russell," she said,--she tried to steady her voice, but it would
come strange and shaky,--"you are mistaken about me. I am not the kind
of girl you think I am. I--I went out last night without leave, by the
fire-escape."
There was a silence.
"Who induced you--that is, with whom did you go?" asked Miss Russell,
presently.
"I--I didn't say that any one else went."
"No, my dear, you did not say so. But--" and here Miss Russell rose,
and, crossing the room, laid her hand on Peggy's shoulder; "if I know
anything at all of girls, you did not go alone, and you did not go of
your own motion. And--Peggy, if you were not the kind of girl I thought
you, you would not be feeling as you do now about the whole thing."
This was too much. Peggy could have borne, or she thought she could have
borne, anger or scorn, or the cold indifference that is born of
contempt; but the kind tone, the look of affectionate inquiry, the
friendly hand on her shoulder,--all this she could not bear. She
covered her face with her hands and burst into a passion of tears.
It seemed hours that she wept, and sobbed, and wept again. It did not
seem as if she could ever stop, the tears came rushing so fast and so
violently; but however long it was, Miss Russell did not try to stop or
check her, only stood by with her hand on the girl's shoulder, patting
it now and then, or putting back with the other hand--such a soft, firm,
motherly hand it was!--the stray locks which kept falling over Peggy's
face as the sobs shook her from head to foot.
At last, however, the storm abated a little; and then, while Peggy was
trying to dry her tears, and the choking sobs were subsiding into long,
deep breathings, Miss Russell spoke again.
"Peggy, we teachers have to go a good deal by instinct, do you know it?
It is not possible for me, for example, to know every one of seventy-odd
girls as I ought to know her, by actual contact and communion. But I
have acquired a sort of sense,--I hardly know what to call it,--an
insight by means of which I can tell pretty well what a girl's standard
of life is, and how I can best help her. I know that now I can best help
you and myself by saying--and meaning--just what I said before. I place
entire confidence in you, Peggy Montfort."
Peggy looked up in amazement; could she believe what she heard?
"To some girls," the Principal went on, "the taste of stolen fruit is
sweet, and having once tasted it, they hanker for more. To you, it is
bitter."
"Oh!" said Peggy; and the gasping exclamation was enough.
"Very bitter!" said the Principal. "I speak not from impulse, but from
experience, when I tell you that there is no girl in the school to-day
whom I could sooner trust not to commit this offence than you, who
committed it last night."
Her own thought, almost her own words. Peggy raise her head again, and
this time her eyes were full of a new hope, a new courage.
"I believe that is true, Miss Russell," she said, simply. "I had
thought that myself, but I didn't suppose--I didn't think--"
"You did not think that I would know enough to understand it!" said Miss
Russell, smiling. "Well, you see I do, though we both owe it partly to
dear Emily Cortlandt, who reminded me of my duty and of your position.
Now, Peggy, I have a recitation, and we must part. I put you in charge
of 'Broadway,' fully and freely. No one must come in, and no one must go
out, by that window. And if you have any trouble," she added, with a
smile, "if you have any trouble and do not think it right to tell me,
call for the Owls, and they will help you. Good-bye, my child!"
She held out her hand, and Peggy took it with a wild desire to kiss it,
or to fall down and kiss the hem of her gown who had shown herself thus
an angel of sympathy and kindness. But the Principal bent down and
kissed the girl's forehead lightly and tenderly.
"We shall be friends always now," she said, simply. "Don't forget,
Peggy!"
She was gone, and Peggy took her own way in the opposite direction,
hardly knowing whither she was going. Her heart was so full of joy and
love and gratitude, it seemed as if she must break out into singing or
shouting. Was ever any one so kind, so noble, so lovely? How could any
one not try to do her very, very best, to deserve the care and
friendship of such a teacher as this?
Passing as if on wings through the geometry room, she saw a figure
crouching over a desk, and was aware of Rose Barclay, bent over her
book, and crying bitterly. Nothing could hold Peggy back in that moment
of exaltation. In an instant she was at the girl's side. "Let me help
you!" she cried. "Please let me; I know I can."
Rose Barclay looked up fiercely. "I asked you to help me, once!" she
said. "I am not likely to ask again. Go away, please, and let me alone."
"No, I won't!" said stout Peggy. "You never would let me explain, but
now you are going to let me. I couldn't show you my example, and I
wouldn't, and I never will; but I could make you see how to do your own
right, and that's what I am going to do now."
Down she sat without more ado; took the pencil from the unwilling hand,
and set to work on an imaginary problem. Rose Barclay sat still for a
moment with averted face, pride and shame doing their best to silence
the better voices within her. At length she stole a glance at Peggy's
face, and there beheld such a shining expanse of goodwill and
friendliness that Pride and Co. gave up the battle, and retreated into
their dens. Heaving a long sigh of relief, she bent forward, and soon
was following with all her might Peggy's clear and lucid explanation.
"Why, yes!" said Rose, at last. "Why, I do see. Why, I do believe I
could do that myself."
"Of course you can!" said Peggy. "Here, take the pencil, and I'll give
you one."
She did so, and, after some screwing of the mouth and knitting of the
brows, Rose actually did do it, and felt like Wellington after Waterloo.
Then, at Peggy's instigation, she tackled the actual lesson, and,
steered by Professor Peggy, went through it triumphantly. Then she
turned on her instructor.
"What made you come and help me, Peggy Montfort? I've been perfectly
hateful to you, you know I have. I wouldn't have helped you, if you had
acted the way I have."
"Oh, yes, you would," said Peggy, good-naturedly.
"Why--why, you have been crying, too!" said Rose, examining her
benefactress more closely. "Peggy, you have been crying awfully, I know
you have."
"Yes, I have," said Peggy; "I have cried my eyes out, and I never was so
happy in my life. Come on, and have a game of ball!"