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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Sweet Girl Graduate, by Mrs. L.T. Meade
+
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+Title: A Sweet Girl Graduate
+
+Author: Mrs. L.T. Meade
+
+Release Date: January, 2004  [EBook #4989]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 7, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A SWEET GIRL GRADUATE ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Jim Weiler, xooqi.com
+
+
+
+                          A SWEET GIRL GRADUATE
+
+by MRS. L. T. MEADE, 1891
+  _________________________________________________________________
+
+  CHAPTER I
+
+ GOING OUT INTO THE WORLD
+
+PRISCILLA'S trunk was neatly packed. It was a new trunk and had a nice
+canvas covering over it. The canvas was bound with red braid, and
+Priscilla's initials were worked on the top in large plain letters.
+Her initials were P. P. P., and they stood for Priscilla Penywern
+Peel. The trunk was corded and strapped and put away, and Priscilla
+stood by her aunt's side in the little parlor of Penywern Cottage.
+
+"Well, I think I've told you everything," said the aunt.
+
+"Oh, yes, Aunt Raby, I sha'n't forget. I'm to write once a week, and
+I'm to try not to be nervous. I don't suppose I shall be-- I don't see
+why I should. Girls aren't nervous nowadays, are they?"
+
+"I don't know, my dear. It seems to me that if they aren't they ought
+to be. I can understand girls doing hard things if they must. I can
+understand any one doing anything that has to be done, but as to not
+being nervous-- well-- there! Sit down, Prissie, child, and take your
+tea."
+
+Priscilla was tall and slight. Her figure was younger than her years,
+which were nearly nineteen, but her face was older. It was an almost
+careworn face, thoughtful, grave, with anxious lines already deepening
+the seriousness of the too serious mouth.
+
+Priscilla cut some bread and butter and poured out some tea for her
+aunt and for herself.
+
+Miss Rachel Peel was not the least like her niece. She was short and
+rather dumpy. She had a sensible, downright sort of face, and she took
+life with a gravity which would have oppressed a less earnest spirit
+than Priscilla's.
+
+"Well, I'm tired," she said, when the meal was over. "I suppose I've
+done a great deal more than I thought I had all day. I think I'll go
+to bed early. We have said all our last words, haven't we, Priscilla?"
+
+"Pretty nearly, Aunt Raby."
+
+"Oh, yes, that reminds me-- there's one thing more. Your fees will be
+all right, of course, and your traveling, and I have arranged about
+your washing money."
+
+"Yes, Aunt Raby, oh, yes; everything is all right."
+
+Priscilla fidgeted, moved her position a little and looked longingly
+out of the window.
+
+"You must have a little money over and above these things," proceeded
+Miss Peel in her sedate voice. "I am not rich, but I'll allow you--
+yes, I'll manage to allow you two shillings a week. That will be for
+pocket-money, you understand, child."
+
+The girl's old-young face flushed painfully.
+
+"I'll want a few pence for stamps, of course," she said. "But I
+sha'n't write a great many letters. I'll be a great deal too busy
+studying. You need not allow me anything like so large a sum as that,
+Aunt Raby."
+
+"Nonsense, child. You'll find it all too small when you go out into
+the world. You are a clever girl, Prissie, and I'm going to be proud
+of you. I don't hold with the present craze about women's education.
+But I feel somehow that I shall be proud of you. You'll be learned
+enough, but you'll be a woman with it all. I wouldn't have you stinted
+for the world, Prissie, my dear. Yes, I'll make it ten shillings a
+month-- yes, I will. I can easily screw that sum out of the butter
+money. Now, not another word. I'm off to bed. Good night, my love."
+
+Priscilla kissed her aunt and went out. It was a lovely autumn
+evening. She stepped on to the green sward which surrounded the little
+cottage, and with the moonlight casting its full radiance on her slim
+figure, looked steadily out over the sea. The cottage was on the top
+of some high cliffs. The light of the moon made a bright path over the
+water, and Priscilla had a good view of shining, silvered water and
+dark, deep blue sky.
+
+She stood perfectly still, gazing straight out before her. Some of the
+reflection and brightness of the moonlight seemed to get into her
+anxious eyes and the faint dawn of a new-born hope to tremble around
+her lips. She thought herself rich with ten shillings a month
+pocket-money. She returned to the house, feeling overpowered at Aunt
+Raby's goodness.
+
+Upstairs in Prissie's room there were two beds. One was small; in this
+she herself slept. The other had now three occupants. Three heads were
+raised when Prissie entered the room and three shrill voices
+exclaimed:
+
+"Here we are, all wide awake, Prissie, darling!"
+
+This remark, made simultaneously, was followed by prolonged peals of
+laughter.
+
+"Three of you in that small bed!" said Priscilla.
+
+She stood still, and a smile broke all over her face. "Why, Hattie,"
+she said, catching up the eldest of the three girls and giving her a
+fervent hug-- "how did you slip out of Aunt Raby's room?"
+
+"Oh, I managed to," said Hattie in a stage whisper. "Aunt Raby came
+upstairs half an hour ago, and she undressed very fast, and got into
+bed, and I heard her snoring in about a minute. It was then I slipped
+away. She never heard."
+
+"Hop up on the bed now, Prissie," exclaimed Rose, another of the
+children, "and let us all have a chat. Here, Katie, if you'll promise
+not to cry, you may get into the middle, between Hattie and me, then
+you'll be very close to darling Prissie."
+
+Katie was the youngest of the three occupants of the bed; she was
+about eight years old; her small face was delicate in its outline, her
+mouth peevish; she did not look a strong child, and self-control could
+scarcely be expected of her.
+
+Priscilla placed her candle on the chimney-piece, jumped on the bed
+according to orders and looked earnestly at her three small sisters.
+
+"Now, Prissie," said Hattie in the important little voice which she
+always used, "begin, go on-- tell us all about your grand college
+life."
+
+"How can I, Hattie, when I don't know what to say. I can't guess what
+I am to do at college."
+
+"Oh, dear," sighed Rose, "I only wish I were the one to go! It will be
+very dull living with Aunt Raby when you are away, Priscilla. She
+won't let us take long walks, and if ever we go in for a real, jolly
+lark we are sure to be punished. Oh, dear, oh, dear!"
+
+"Even though it is for your good, I wish with all my heart you were
+not going away, Prissie," said Hattie in her blunt fashion.
+
+Katie burst into sudden loud wails.
+
+Priscilla colored. Then she spoke with firmness. "We have had enough
+of this kind of talk. Katie, you shall come and sit in my lap,
+darling. I'll wrap you up quite warm in this big shawl. Now, girls,"
+she said, "what is the use of making things harder? You know,
+perfectly, you two elder ones, why I must go away, and you, Katie, you
+know also, don't you, pet?"
+
+"Yes, Prissie," answered Katie, speaking in a broken, half-sobbing
+voice, "only I am so lonely."
+
+"But you're not going to be selfish, darling. By and by I'll come back
+to you all. Once every year, at least, I'll come back. And then, after
+I've gone through my course of study, I'll get a situation of some
+sort-- a good situation-- and you three shall come and live with me.
+There, what do you say to that? Only three years, and then such a
+jolly time. Why, Katie will be only eleven then."
+
+Priscilla spoke in a remarkably cheerful voice, but the appalling
+magnitude of three years could not be diminished, and the three little
+sisters who were to stay behind with Aunt Raby were still disposed to
+view things dismally.
+
+"If she wasn't just what she is----" began Hattie.
+
+"If she didn't think the least tiny morsel of a lark wrong----"
+continued Rose.
+
+"Why, then we could pull along somehow," sighed Hattie.
+
+"Oh, you'll pull along as it is," said Priscilla "I'll write to you as
+often as ever I can. If possible I'll keep a sort of journal and send
+it to you. And perhaps there'll be stories and larks in it. Now you
+really must go to sleep, for I have to get up so early in the morning.
+Katie, darling, I'll make a corner for you in my bed to-night. Won't
+that be a treat?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Prissie."
+
+Katie's pale face was lit up by a radiant smile; Hattie and Rose lay
+down side by side and closed their eyes. In a few moments they were
+sound asleep.
+
+As they lay in the sound, happy sleep of healthy childhood Priscilla
+bent over them and kissed them. Then before she lay down herself she
+knelt by the window, looked up at the clear, dark sky in which the
+moon sailed in majesty, bent her head, murmured a few words of prayer,
+then crept into bed by her little sister's side.
+
+Prissie felt full of courage and good resolves. She was going out into
+the world to-morrow, and she was quite determined that the world
+should not conquer her, although she knew that she was a very poor
+maiden with a specially heavy load of care on her young shoulders.
+
+  CHAPTER II
+
+ THE DELIGHTS OF BEING A FRESHER
+
+THE college was quite shut away in its own grounds, and only from the
+upper windows did the girls get a peep of the old university town of
+Kingsdene. From these, however, particularly in the winter, they could
+see the gabled colleges, the chapels with their rich glory of
+architecture and the smooth lawns of the college gardens as they
+sloped gently down to the river.
+
+St. Benet's, the college for women, was approached by a private road,
+and high entrance gates obstructed the gaze of the curious. Inside
+there were cheerful halls and pleasant gardens and gay, fresh,
+unrestrained life. But the passer-by got no peep of these things
+unless the high gates happened to be open.
+
+This was the first evening of term, and most of the girls were back.
+There was nothing very particular going on, and they were walking
+about the gardens, and greeting old friends, and telling each other
+their experiences, and more or less picking up the threads which had
+been broken or loosened in the long vacation.
+
+The evenings were drawing in, but the pleasant twilight which was soon
+to be rendered brilliant by the full moon seemed to the girls even
+nicer than broad daylight to linger about in. They did not want to go
+into the houses; they flitted about in groups here and there, chatting
+and laughing merrily.
+
+St. Benet's had three halls, each with its own vice-principal, and a
+certain number of resident students. Each hall stood in its own
+grounds and was more or less a complete home in itself. There were
+resident lecturers and demonstrators for the whole college and one
+lady principal, who took the lead and was virtually head of the
+college.
+
+Miss Vincent was the name of the present principal. She was an old
+lady and had a vice-principal under her at Vincent Hall, the largest
+and newest of these spacious homes, where young women received the
+advantages of university instruction to prepare them for the battle of
+life.
+
+Priscilla was to live at Heath Hall-- a slightly smaller house, which
+stood at a little distance away-- its grounds being divided from the
+grounds of Vincent Hall by means of a rustic paling. Miss Heath was
+the very popular vice-principal of this hall, and Prissie was
+considered a fortunate girl to obtain a home in her house. She sat now
+a forlorn and rather scared young person, huddled up in one corner of
+the fly which turned in at the wide gates, and finally deposited her
+and her luggage at the back entrance of Heath Hall.
+
+Priscilla looked out in the darkness of the autumn night with
+frightened eyes. She hated herself for feeling nervous. She had told
+Aunt Raby that, of course, she would have no silly tremors, yet here
+she was trembling and scarcely able to pay the cabman his fare.
+
+She heard a girl's laugh in the distance, and it caused her to start
+so violently that she dropped one of her few treasured sixpences,
+which went rolling about aimlessly almost under the horse's hoofs.
+
+"Stop a minute, I'll find it for you," said a voice. A tall girl with
+big, brown eyes suddenly darted into view, picked up the sixpence as
+if by magic, popped it into Priscilla's hand and then vanished.
+Priscilla knew that this was the girl who had laughed; she heard her
+laughing again as she turned to join some one who was standing beside
+a laurel hedge. The two linked their arms together and walked off in
+the darkness.
+
+"Such a frightened poor fresher!" said the girl who had picked up the
+sixpence to her companion.
+
+"Maggie," said the other in a warning voice, "I know you, I know what
+you mean to do."
+
+"My dear, good Nancy, it is more than I know myself. What awful
+indiscretion does your prophetic soul see me perpetrating?"
+
+"Oh, Maggie, as if anything could change your nature! You know you'll
+take up that miserable fresher for about a fortnight, and make her
+imagine that you are going to be excellent friends for the rest of
+your life, and then-- p---- f! you'll snuff her out as if she had
+never existed; I know you, Maggie, and I call it cruel."
+
+"Is not that Miss Banister I hear talking?" said a voice quite close
+to the two girls.
+
+They both turned, and immediately with heightened color rushed up
+eagerly to shake hands with the vice-principal of their college.
+
+"How do you do, my dears?" she said in a hearty voice. "Are you quite
+well, Maggie, and you, Nancy? Had you a pleasant holiday? And did you
+two great chums spend it together?"
+
+The girls began answering eagerly; some other girls came up and joined
+the group, all anxious to shake hands with Miss Heath and to get a
+word of greeting from her.
+
+At this moment the dressing-gong for dinner sounded, and the little
+group moved slowly toward the house.
+
+In the entrance hall numbers of girls who had recently arrived were
+standing about; all had a nod, or a smile, or a kiss for Maggie
+Oliphant.
+
+"How do you do, Miss Oliphant? Come and see me to-night in my room,
+won't you, dear?" issued from many throats.
+
+Maggie promised in her good-natured, affectionate, wholesale way.
+
+Nancy Banister was also greeted by several friends. She, too, was gay
+and bright, but quieter than Maggie. Her face was more reliable in its
+expression, but not nearly so beautiful.
+
+"If you accept all these invitations, Maggie," she said as the two
+girls walked down the corridor which led to their rooms, "you know you
+will have to sit up until morning. Why will you say 'yes' to every
+one? You know it only causes disappointment and jealousy."
+
+Maggie laughed.
+
+"My dear, good creature, don't worry your righteous soul," she
+answered. "I'll call on all the girls I can, and the others must grin
+and bear it. Now we have barely time to change our dresses for dinner.
+Surely, though, Nance, there's a light under Annabel Lee's door. Who
+have they dared to put into her room? It must be one of those wretched
+freshers. I don't think I can bear it. I shall have to go away into
+another corridor."
+
+"Maggie, dear-- you are far too sensitive. Could the college afford to
+keep a room empty because poor, dear Annie Lee occupied it?"
+
+"They could, they ought," burst from Maggie. She stamped her foot with
+anger. "That room is a shrine to me. It will always be a shrine. I
+shall hate the person who lives in it." Tears filled her bright brown
+eyes. Her arched, proud lips trembled. She opened her door, and going
+into her room, shut it with a bang, almost in Nancy Banister's face.
+
+Nancy stood still for a moment. A quick sigh came from her lips.
+
+"Maggie is the dearest girl in the college," she said to herself; "the
+dearest, the sweetest, the prettiest, yet also the most tantalizing,
+the most provoking, the most inconsequent. It is the greatest wonder
+she has kept so long out of some serious scrape. She will never leave
+here without doing something outrageous, and yet there isn't a girl in
+the place to be named with her. I wish--" here Nancy sighed again and
+put her hand to her brow as if to chase away some perplexity.
+
+Then, after a moment's hesitation, she went up to the door of the room
+next to Maggie's and knocked.
+
+There was a moment's silence, then a constrained voice said:
+
+"Come in."
+
+Nancy entered at once.
+
+Priscilla Peel was standing in the center of the room. The electric
+light was turned on, revealing the bareness and absence of all
+ornament of the apartment; a fire was laid in the grate but not lit,
+and Priscilla's ugly square trunk, its canvas covering removed, stood
+in a prominent position, half on the hearthrug, half on the square of
+carpet which covered the center of the floor. Priscilla had taken off
+her jacket and hat. She had washed her hands, and removed her muddy
+boots, and smoothed out her straight, light brown hair. She looked
+what she felt-- a very stiff and unformed specimen of girlhood. There
+was a great lump in her throat, brought there by mingled nervousness
+and home-sickness, but that very fact only made her manner icy and
+repellent.
+
+"Forgive me," said Nancy, blushing all over her rosy face. "I thought
+perhaps you might like to know one or two things as you are quite
+strange here. My name is Banister. I have a room in the same corridor,
+but quite at the other end. You must come and visit me presently. Oh,
+has no one lit your fire? Wouldn't you like one? The evenings are
+turning so chilly now, and a fire in one's room gives one a home-like
+feeling, doesn't it? Shall I light it for you?"
+
+"No, no, thank you," said Priscilla stiffly. She longed to rush at
+Nancy and smother her with kisses, but she could only stand in the
+middle of her room, helpless and awkward, held in a terrible bondage
+of shyness.
+
+Nancy drew back a step, chilled in spite of herself.
+
+"I see there are matches on the chimney-piece," she said, "so you can
+light the fire yourself whenever you like. The gong that will sound in
+a minute will be for dinner, and Miss Heath always likes us to be
+punctual for that meal. It does not matter about any other. Do you
+think you can find your way to the dining-hall or shall I come and
+fetch you?"
+
+"No-- thank you. I-- I can manage."
+
+"But I'll come with pleasure if you like me to."
+
+"No, I'd rather you didn't trouble, please."
+
+"Very well; if you're sure you know the way. You go down the broad
+stairs, then turn to the right, then to the left. Good-by. I must rush
+off, or I shall be late."
+
+Nancy shut the door behind her. She did it gently, although she did
+not feel gentle, for she had a distinct sensation of being irritated.
+
+Meanwhile Priscilla, clasping her hands together behind the closed
+door, looked yearningly in the direction where the bright face and
+trim, neat girlish figure had stood. She was trembling slightly and
+her eyes slowly filled with tears.
+
+"I feel sick and lonely and horrid," she said under her breath. "Talk
+of nerves; oh, if Aunt Raby could see me now! Why, I'm positively
+shaking, I can scarcely speak, I can scarcely think properly. What
+would the children say if they saw their Prissie now? And I'm the girl
+who is to fight the world, and kill the dragon, and make a home for
+the nestlings. Don't I feel like it! Don't I look like it! Don't I
+just loathe myself! How hideously I do my hair, and what a frightful
+dress I have on. Oh, I wish I weren't shaking so much. I know I shall
+get red all over at dinner. I wish I weren't going to dinner. I wish,
+oh, I wish I were at home again."
+
+Crash! bang! pealed the great gong through the house. Doors were
+opened all along the corridor; light steps passed Priscilla's room.
+She heard the rustle of silk and the sweet, high tinkle of girlish
+laughter.
+
+She stayed in her room till the last footsteps had died away, then in
+desperation made a rush for it, flew down the wide stairs in a bashful
+agony, and, as a matter of course, entered the spacious dining-hall by
+the door devoted to the dons.
+
+A girl's life at one of the women's colleges is supposed to be more or
+less an unfettered sort of existence. The broad rules guiding conduct
+are few and little more than those which must be exercised in any
+well-organized family. But there is the unspoken etiquette made
+chiefly by the students themselves, which fills the place like an
+atmosphere, and which can only be transgressed at the risk of surly
+glances and muttered comments and even words of derision.
+
+No student was expected to enter the hall by the dons' entrance, and
+for this enormity to be perpetrated by a fresher immediately made her
+the cynosure of all eyes. Poor Priscilla was unconscious of any
+offense. She grew scarlet under the gaze of the merciless young eyes
+and further added to her sins by sitting down at one of the tables at
+the top of the hall.
+
+No one reproved her in words or requested her to take a lower seat,
+but some rude giggles were not inaudible; and Priscilla, who would
+thankfully have taken her dinner in the scullery, heard hints about a
+certain young person's presumption, and about the cheek of those
+wretched freshers, which must instantly be put down with a high hand.
+
+Priscilla had choked over her soup, and was making poor way with the
+fish that followed, when suddenly a sweet, low voice addressed her.
+
+"This is your first evening at St. Benet's," said the voice. "I hope
+you will be happy. I know you will, after a little."
+
+Priscilla turned and met the full gaze of lovely eyes, brown like a
+nut, soft and deep as the thick pile of velvet, and yet with a latent
+flash and glow in them which gave them a red, half-wild gleam now and
+then. The lips that belonged to this face were slightly parted in a
+smile; the smile and the expression in the eyes stole straight down
+with a glow of delicious comfort into Priscilla's heart.
+
+"Thank you," she said in her stiff, wooden tone; but her eyes did not
+look stiff, and the girl began to talk again.
+
+"I believe my room is next to yours. My name is Oliphant-- Margaret
+Oliphant, but every one calls me Maggie. That is, of course, I mean my
+friends do. Would you like to come into my room and let me tell you
+some of the rules?"
+
+"Thank you," said Priscilla again. She longed to add, "I should love
+beyond words to come into your room"; but instead she remarked icily,
+"I think Miss Heath has given me printed rules."
+
+"Oh, you have seen our dear Dorothea-- I mean Miss Heath. Isn't she
+lovely?"
+
+"I don't know," answered Priscilla. "I think she's rather a plain
+person."
+
+"My dear Miss"-- I have not caught your name-- "you really are too
+deliciously prosaic. Stay here for a month, and then tell me if you
+think Dorothea-- I mean Miss Heath-- plain. No, I won't say any more.
+You must find out for yourself. But now, about the rules. I don't mean
+the printed rules. We have, I assure you, at St. Benet's all kinds of
+little etiquettes which we expect each other to observe. We are
+supposed to be democratic and inclined to go in for all that is
+advanced in womanhood. But, oh dear, oh dear! let any student dare to
+break one of our own little pet proprieties, and you will see how
+conservative we can be."
+
+"Have I broken any of them?" asked Priscilla in alarm. "I did notice
+that every one stared at me when I came into the hall, but I thought
+it was because my face was fresh, and I hoped people would get
+accustomed to me by and by."
+
+"You poor, dear child, there are lots of fresh faces here besides
+yours. You should have come down under the shelter of my wing, then it
+would have been all right."
+
+"But what have I done? Do tell me. I'd much rather know."
+
+"Well, dear, you have only come into the hall by the dons' entrance,
+and you have only seated yourself at the top of the table, where the
+learned students who are going in for a tripos take their august
+meals. That is pretty good for a fresher. Forgive me, we call the new
+girls freshers for a week or two. Oh, you have done nothing wrong. Of
+course not, how could you know any better? Only I think it would be
+nice to put you up to our little rules, would it not?"
+
+"I should be very much obliged," said Priscilla. "And please tell me
+now where I ought to sit at dinner."
+
+Miss Oliphant's merry eyes twinkled.
+
+"Look down this long hall," she said. "Observe that door at the
+further end-- that is the students' door; through that door you ought
+to have entered."
+
+"Yes-- well, well?"
+
+"What an impatient 'well, well.' I shall make you quite an
+enthusiastic Benetite before dinner is over."
+
+Priscilla blushed.
+
+"I am sorry I spoke too eagerly," she said.
+
+"Oh, no, not a bit too eagerly."
+
+"But please tell me where I ought to have seated myself."
+
+"There is a table near that lower entrance, Miss----"
+
+"Peel," interposed Priscilla. "My name is Priscilla Peel."
+
+"How quaint and great-grandmotherly. Quite delicious! Well, Miss Peel,
+by that entrance door is a table, a table rather in a draught, and
+consecrated to the freshers-- there the freshers humbly partake of
+nourishment."
+
+"I see. Then I am as far from the right place as I can be."
+
+"About as far as you can be."
+
+"And that is why all the girls have stared so at me."
+
+"Yes, of course; but let them stare. Who minds such a trifle?"
+
+Priscilla sat silent for a few moments. One of the neat waiting-maids
+removed her plate; her almost untasted dinner lay upon it. Miss
+Oliphant turned to attack some roast mutton with truly British vigor.
+
+By and by Priscilla's voice, stiff but with a break in it, fell upon
+her ear.
+
+"I think the students at St. Benet's must be very cruel."
+
+"My dear Miss Peel, the honor of the most fascinating college in
+England is imperiled. Unsay those words."
+
+Maggie Oliphant was joking. Her voice was gay with badinage, her eyes
+brimful of laughter. But Priscilla, unaccustomed to light repartee or
+chaff in any form, replied to her with heavy and pained seriousness.
+
+"I think the students here are cruel," she repeated. "How can a
+stranger know which is the dons' entrance and which is the right seat
+to take at table? If nobody shows her, how can a stranger know? I do
+think the students are cruel, and I am sorry-- very sorry I came."
+
+  CHAPTER III
+
+ AN UNWILLING AT HOME
+
+MOST of the girls who sat at those dinner-tables had fringed or
+tousled or curled locks. Priscilla's were brushed simply away from her
+broad forehead. After saying her last words, she bent her head low
+over her plate and longed even for the protection of a fringe to hide
+her burning blushes. Her momentary courage had evaporated; she was
+shocked at having betrayed herself to a stranger; her brief fit of
+passion left her stiffer and shyer than ever. Blinding tears rushed to
+Priscilla's eyes, and her terror was that they would drop on to her
+plate. Suppose some of those horrid girls saw her crying? Hateful
+thought. She would rather die than show emotion before them.
+
+At this moment a soft, plump little hand was slipped into hers and the
+sweetest of voices said:
+
+"I am so sorry anything has seemed unkind to you. Believe me, we are
+not what you imagine. We have our fun and our prejudices, of course,
+but we are not what you think we are."
+
+Priscilla could not help smiling, nor could she resist slightly
+squeezing the fingers which touched hers.
+
+"You are not unkind, I know," she answered; and she ate the rest of
+her dinner in a comforted frame of mind.
+
+After dinner one of the lecturers who resided at Heath Hall, a
+pleasant, bright girl of two- or three-and-twenty, came and introduced
+herself, and presently took Priscilla with her to her own room, to
+talk over the line of study which the young girl proposed to take up.
+This conference lasted some little time, and then Priscilla, in the
+lecturer's company, returned to the hall for tea.
+
+A great many girls kept coming in and out. Some stayed to have tea,
+but most helped themselves to tea and bread and butter and took them
+away to partake of in their own private rooms.
+
+Maggie Oliphant and Nancy Banister presently rushed in for this
+purpose. Maggie, seeing Priscilla, ran up to her.
+
+"How are you getting on?" she asked brightly. "Oh, by-the-by, will you
+cocoa with me to-night at half-past ten?"
+
+"I don't know what you mean," answered Priscilla. "But I'll do it,"
+she added, her eyes brightening.
+
+"All right, I'll explain the simple ceremony when you come. My room is
+next to yours, so you'll have no difficulty in finding me out. I don't
+expect to have any one present except Miss Banister," nodding her head
+in Nancy's direction, "and perhaps one other girl. By-by, I'll see you
+at half-past ten."
+
+Maggie turned to leave the hall, but Nancy lingered for a moment by
+Priscilla's side.
+
+"Wouldn't you like to take your tea up to your room?" she asked. "We
+most of us do it. You may, you know."
+
+"I don't think I wish to," answered Priscilla in an uncertain voice.
+
+Nancy half turned to go, then came back.
+
+"You are going to unpack by and by, aren't you?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, yes, when I get back to my room."
+
+"Perhaps you ought to know beforehand; the girls will be coming to
+call."
+
+Priscilla raised her eyes.
+
+"What girls?" she asked, alarm in her tone.
+
+"Oh, most of the students in your corridor. They always call on a
+fresher the first night in her room. You need not bother yourself
+about them; they'll just talk for a little while and then go away.
+What is the matter, Miss Peel? Maggie has told me your name, you see."
+
+"What you tell me sounds so very-- very formal."
+
+"But it isn't-- not really. Shall I come and help you to entertain
+them?"
+
+"I wish----" began Priscilla. She hesitated; the words seemed to stick
+in her throat.
+
+"What did you say?" Nancy bent forward a little impatiently.
+
+"I wish-- yes, do come," with a violent effort.
+
+"All right, you may expect me."
+
+Nancy flew after Maggie Oliphant, and Priscilla went slowly up the
+wide, luxurious stairs. She turned down the corridor which led to her
+own room. There were doors leading out of this corridor at both sides,
+and Priscilla caught glimpses of luxurious rooms bright with flowers
+and electric light. Girls were laughing and chatting in them; she saw
+pictures on the walls and lounges and chairs scattered about. Her own
+room was at the far end of the corridor. The electric light was also
+brightening it, but the fire was unlit, and the presence of the
+unpacked trunk, taking up a position of prominence on the floor, gave
+it a very unhomelike feel. In itself the room was particularly
+picturesque. It had two charming lattice windows, set in deep square
+bays. One window faced the fireplace, the other the door. The effect
+was slightly irregular, but for that very reason all the more
+charming. The walls of the room were painted light blue; there was a
+looking-glass over the mantel-piece set in a frame of the palest, most
+delicate blue. A picture-rail ran round the room about six feet from
+the ground, and the high frieze above had a scroll of wild roses
+painted on it in bold, free relief.
+
+The panels of the doors were also decorated with sprays of wild
+flowers in picturesque confusion. Both the flowers and the scroll were
+boldly designed, but were unfinished, the final and completing touches
+remaining yet to be given.
+
+Priscilla looked hungrily at these unexpected trophies of art. She
+could have shouted with glee as she recognized some of her dear, wild
+Devonshire flowers, among the groups on the door panels. She wondered
+if all the rest of the students were treated to these artistic
+decorations and grew a little happier and less homesick at the
+thought.
+
+Priscilla could have been an artist herself had the opportunity
+arisen, but she was one of those girls all alive with aspiration and
+longing who never up to the present had come in the way of special
+culture in any style.
+
+She stood for some time gazing at the groups of wild flowers, then
+remembering with horror that she was to receive visitors that night,
+she looked round the room to see if she could do anything to make it
+appear homelike and inviting.
+
+It was a nice room, certainly. Priscilla had never before in her whole
+life occupied such a luxurious apartment, and yet it had a cold,
+dreary, uninhabited feel. She had an intuition that none of the other
+students' rooms looked like hers. She rushed to light the fire, but
+could not find the matches, which had been removed from their place on
+the mantel-piece, and felt far too shy to ring the electric bell. It
+was Priscilla's fashion to clasp her hands together when she felt a
+sense of dismay, and she did so now as she looked around the pretty
+room, which yet with all its luxuries looked to her cold and dreary.
+
+The furniture was excellent of its kind. A Turkey carpet covered the
+center of the floor, the boards round the edge were stained and
+brightly polished. In one corner of the room was a little bed, made to
+look like a sofa by day, with a Liberty cretonne covering. A curtain
+of the same shut away the wardrobe and washing apparatus. Just under
+one of the bay windows stood a writing-table, so contrived as to form
+a writing-table, and a bookcase at the top, and a chest of drawers to
+hold linen below. Besides this there was a small square table for tea
+in the room and a couple of chairs. The whole effect was undoubtedly
+bare.
+
+Priscilla was hesitating whether to begin to unpack her trunk or not
+when a light knock was heard at her door. She said "Come in," and two
+girls burst rather noisily into the apartment.
+
+"How do you do?" they said, favoring the fresh girl with a brief nod.
+"You came to-day, didn't you? What are you going to study? Are you
+clever?"
+
+These queries issued rapidly from the lips of the tallest of the
+girls. She had red hair, tousled and tossed about her head. Her face
+was essentially commonplace; her small restless eyes now glanced at
+Priscilla, now wandered over the room. She did not wait for a reply to
+any of her queries, but turned rapidly to her companion.
+
+"I told you so, Polly," she said. "I was quite sure that she was going
+to be put into Miss Lee's room. You see, I'm right; this is Annabel
+Lee's old room; it has never been occupied since."
+
+"Hush!" said the other girl.
+
+The two walked across the apartment and seated themselves on
+Priscilla's bed.
+
+There came a fresh knock at the door, and this time three students
+entered. They barely nodded to Priscilla and then rushed across the
+room with cries of rapture to greet the girls who were seated on the
+bed.
+
+"How do you do, Miss Atkins? How do you do, Miss Jones?"
+
+Miss Jones and Miss Atkins exchanged kisses with Miss Phillips, Miss
+Marsh and Miss Day. The babel of tongues rose high, and every one had
+something to say with regard to the room which had been assigned to
+Priscilla.
+
+"Look," said Miss Day, "it was in that corner she had her
+rocking-chair. Girls, do you remember Annabel's rocking-chair, and how
+she used to sway herself backward and forward in it and half-shut her
+lovely eyes?"
+
+"Oh, and don't I just seem to see that little red tea-table of hers
+near the fire," burst from Miss Marsh. "That Japanese table, with the
+Japanese tea-set-- oh dear, oh dear! those cups of tea-- those cakes!
+Well, the room was luxurious, was worth coming to see in Annabel's
+time."
+
+"It's more than it is now," laughed Miss Jones in a harsh voice. "How
+bare the walls look without her pictures. It was in that recess the
+large figure of Hope by Burne-Jones used to hang, and there, that
+queer, wild, wonderful head looking out of clouds. You know she never
+would tell us the artist's name. Yes, she had pretty things
+everywhere! How the room is altered! I don't think I care for it a bit
+now."
+
+"Could any one who knew Annabel Lee care for the room without her?"
+asked one of the girls. She had a common, not to say vulgar, face, but
+it wore a wistful expression as she uttered these words.
+
+All this time Priscilla was standing, feeling utterly shy and
+miserable. From time to time other girls came in; they nodded to her
+and then rushed upon their companions. The eager talk began afresh,
+and always there were looks of regret and allusions, accompanied by
+sighs, to the girl who had lived in the room last.
+
+"Well," said one merry little girl, who was spoken to by the others as
+Ada Hardy, "I have no doubt that by and by, when Miss----" She glanced
+toward Priscilla.
+
+"Peel," faltered Priscilla.
+
+"When Miss Peel unpacks her trunk, she'll make the room look very
+pretty, too."
+
+"She can't," said Miss Day in a tragic voice; "she never could make
+the room look at it used to-- not if she was to live till the age of
+Methuselah. Of course you'll improve it, Miss Peel; you couldn't
+possibly exist in it as it is now."
+
+"I can tell you of a capital shop in Kingsdene, Miss Peel," said Miss
+Marsh, "where you can buy tables and chairs, and pretty artistic
+cloths, and little whatnots of all descriptions. I'd advise you to go
+to Rigg's. He's in the High Street, No. 48."
+
+"But Spilman has much the most recherche' articles, you know, Lucy,"
+interposed Miss Day. "I'll walk over to Spilman's to-morrow with you,
+if you like, Miss Peel."
+
+Before Priscilla had time to reply there was again a knock at the
+door, and this time Nancy Banister, looking flushed and pretty, came
+in.
+
+She took in the scene at a glance; numbers of girls making themselves
+at home in Priscilla's room, some seated on her trunk, some on her
+bureau, several curled up in comfortable attitudes on her bed and she
+herself standing, meek, awkward, depressed, near one of the windows.
+
+"How tired you look, Miss Peel!" said Nancy Banister.
+
+Priscilla smiled gratefully at her.
+
+"And your trunk is not unpacked yet?"
+
+"Oh! there is time enough," faltered Priscilla.
+
+"Are we in your way?" suddenly spoke Miss Marsh, springing to her
+feet. "Good night. My name is Marsh, my room is thirty-eight."
+
+She swung herself lazily and carelessly out of the room, followed, at
+longer or shorter intervals, by the other girls, who all nodded to
+Priscilla, told her their names and one or two the numbers of their
+rooms. At last she was left alone with Nancy Banister.
+
+"Poor thing! How tired and white you look!" said Nancy. "But now that
+dreadful martyrdom is over, you shall have a real cozy time. Don't you
+want a nice hot cup of cocoa? It will be ready in a minute or two. And
+please may I help you to unpack?"
+
+"Thank you," said Priscilla; her teeth were chattering. "If I might
+have a fire?" she asked suddenly.
+
+"Oh, you poor, shivering darling! Of course. Are there no matches
+here? There were some on the mantel-piece before dinner. No, I declare
+they have vanished. How careless of the maid. I'll run into Maggie's
+room and fetch some."
+
+Miss Banister was not a minute away. She returned with a box of
+matches, and, stooping down, set a light to the wood, and a pleasant
+fire was soon blazing and crackling merrily.
+
+"Now, isn't that better?" said Nancy. "Please sit down on your bed and
+give me the key of your trunk. I'll soon have the things out and put
+all to rights for you. I'm a splendid unpacker."
+
+But Priscilla had no desire to have her small and meager wardrobe
+overhauled even by the kindest of St. Benet's girls.
+
+"I will unpack presently myself, if you don't mind," she said. She
+felt full of gratitude, but she could not help an almost surly tone
+coming into her voice.
+
+Nancy drew back, repulsed and distressed.
+
+"Perhaps you would like me to go away?" she said. "I will go into
+Maggie's room and let you know when cocoa is ready."
+
+"Thank you," said Prissie. Miss Banister disappeared, and Priscilla
+sat on by the fire, unconscious that she had given any pain or
+annoyance, thinking with gratitude of Nancy, and with feelings of love
+of Maggie Oliphant, and wondering what her little sisters were doing
+without her at home to-night.
+
+By and by there came a tap at her door. Priscilla ran to open it. Miss
+Oliphant stood outside.
+
+"Won't you come in?" said Priscilla, throwing the door wide open and
+smiling with joy. It was already delightful to her to look at Maggie.
+"Please come in," she added in a tone almost of entreaty.
+
+Maggie Oliphant started and turned pale. "Into that room? No, no, I
+can't," she said in a queer voice. She rushed back to her own, leaving
+Priscilla standing in amazement by her open door.
+
+There was a moment's silence. Then Miss Oliphant's voice, rich, soft
+and lazy, was heard within the shelter of her own apartment.
+
+"Please come in, Miss Peel; cocoa awaits you. Do not stand on
+ceremony."
+
+Priscilla went timidly across the landing, and the instant found
+herself in one of the prettiest of the students' rooms at St. Benet's.
+A few rare prints and some beautiful photogravures of well-known
+pictures adorned the walls. The room was crowded with knick-knacks and
+rendered gay and sweet by many tall flowers in pots. A piano stood
+open by one of the walls and a violin lay carelessly on a chair not
+far off. There were piles of new music and some tempting, small,
+neatly bound books lying about. A fire glowed on the hearth and a
+little brass kettle sang merrily on the hob. The cocoa-table was drawn
+up in front of the fire and on a quaintly shaped tray stood the bright
+little cocoa-pot and the oddly devised cups and saucers.
+
+"Welcome to St. Benet's!" said Maggie, going up and taking Priscilla's
+hand cordially within her own. "Now you'll have to get into this low
+chair and make yourself quite at home and happy."
+
+"How snug you are here," said Prissie, her eyes brightening and a pink
+color mounting into her cheeks. She was glad that Maggie was alone;
+she felt more at ease with her than with any one, but the next moment
+she said with a look of apparent regret:
+
+"I thought Miss Banister was in your room?"
+
+"No; Nancy has gone to her own room at the end of the corridor to do
+some work for an hour. She will come back to say good night. She
+always does. Are you sorry to have me by myself?"
+
+"Indeed I am not," said Priscilla. The smile, which made her rather
+plain face attractive, crept slowly back to it. Maggie poured out a
+cup of cocoa and brought it to her. Then, drawing another chair
+forward, she seated herself in it, sipped her own cocoa and began to
+talk.
+
+Long afterward Priscilla remembered that talk. It was not what Maggie
+said, for her conversation in itself was not at all brilliant, but it
+was the sound of her rich, calm, rather lazy voice, the different
+lights which glanced and gleamed in her eyes, the dimples about her
+mouth, the attitude she put herself in. Maggie had a way of changing
+color, too, which added to her fascination. Sometimes the beautiful
+oval of her face would he almost ivory white, but then again a rosy
+cloud would well up and up the cheeks and even slightly suffuse the
+broad, low forehead. Her face was never long the same, never more than
+a moment in repose; eyes, mouth, brow, even the very waves of her hair
+seemed to Priscilla, this first night as she sat by her hearth, to be
+all speech.
+
+The girls grew cozy and confidential together. Priscilla told Maggie
+about her home, a little also about her past history and her motive in
+coming to St. Benet's. Maggie sympathized with all the expression she
+was capable of. At last Priscilla bade her new friend good night, and,
+rising from her luxurious chair, prepared to go back to her own room.
+
+She had just reached the door of Maggie's room, and was about to turn
+the handle, when a sudden thought arrested her. She came back a few
+steps.
+
+"May I ask you a question?" she said.
+
+"Certainly," replied Miss Oliphant.
+
+"Who is the girl who used to live in my room? Annabel Lee, the other
+girls call her. Who is she? What is there remarkable about her?"
+
+To Priscilla's astonishment, Maggie started a step forward, her eyes
+blazed with an expression which was half frightened-- half angry. She
+interlocked one soft hand inside the other, her face grew white, hard
+and strained.
+
+"You must not ask me about Annabel Lee," she said in a whisper, "for
+I-- I can tell you nothing about her. I can never tell you about her--
+never."
+
+Then she rushed to her sofa-bed, flung herself upon it face downward,
+and burst into queer, silent, distressful tears.
+
+Some one touched Priscilla softly an her shoulder.
+
+"Let me take you to your room, Miss Peel," said Nancy Banister. "Don't
+take any notice of Maggie; she will be all right by and by."
+
+Nancy took Priscilla's hand and walked with her across the corridor.
+
+"I am so sorry I said anything to hurt Miss Oliphant," said Priscilla.
+
+"Oh, you were not to blame. You could not know any better. Of course,
+now that you do know, you will never do it again."
+
+"But I don't know anything now. Please will you tell me who Annabel
+Lee is?"
+
+"Hush! don't speak so loud. Annabel Lee" Nancy's eyes filled with
+tears-- "no girl in the college was so popular."
+
+"Why do you say was? and why do you cry?"
+
+"I did not know that I cried. Annabel Lee is dead."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+Priscilla walked into her room and Nancy went back to Maggie Oliphant.
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+
+ AN EAVESDROPPER
+
+THE students at St. Benet's were accustomed to unlimited license in
+the matter of sitting up at night. At a certain hour the electric
+light were put out, but each girl was well supplied with candles and
+could sit up and pursue her studies into the small hours, if she
+willed.
+
+It was late when Priscilla left Maggie Oliphant's room on this first
+night, but, long as her journey had been, and tired as she undoubtedly
+felt, the events of the evening had excited her, and she did not care
+to go to bed. Her fire was now burning well, and her room was warm and
+cozy. She drew the bolt of her door, and, unlocking her trunk, began
+to unpack. She was a methodical girl and well trained. Miss Rachel
+Peel had instilled order into Priscilla from her earliest days, and
+she now quickly disposed of her small but neat wardrobe. Her linen
+would just fit into the drawers of the bureau. Her two or three
+dresses and jackets were hung tidily away behind the curtain which
+formed her wardrobe.
+
+Priscilla pushed her empty trunk against the wall, folded up the bits
+of string and paper which lay scattered about, and then, slowly
+undressing, she got into bed.
+
+She undressed with a certain sense of luxuriousness and pleasure. Her
+room began to look charming to her now that her things were unpacked,
+and the first sharp pain of her homesickness was greatly softened
+since she had fallen in love with Maggie Oliphant.
+
+Priscilla had not often in the course of her life undressed by a fire,
+but then had she ever spent an evening like this one? All was fresh to
+her, new, exciting. Now she was really very tired, and the moment she
+laid her head on her pillow would doubtless be asleep.
+
+She got into bed, and, putting out her candle, lay down. The firelight
+played on the pale blue walls and lit up the bold design of the
+briar-roses which ran round the frieze at the top of the room.
+
+Priscilla wondered why she did not drop asleep at once. She felt vexed
+with herself when she discovered that each instant the chance of
+slumber was flying before her, that every moment her tired body became
+more restless and wide-awake. She could not help gazing at that scroll
+of briar-roses; she could not help thinking of the hand that had
+painted the flowers, of the girl whose presence had once made the room
+in which she now lay so charming.
+
+Priscilla had not yet been twelve hours at St. Benet's, and yet almost
+every student she had met had spoken of Annabel Lee-- had spoken of
+her with interest, with regret. One girl had gone further than this;
+she had breathed her name with bitter sorrow.
+
+Priscilla wished she had not been put into this room. She felt
+absolutely nervous; she had a sense of usurping some one else's place,
+of turning somebody else out into the cold. She did not believe in
+ghosts, but she had an uncomfortable sensation, and it would not have
+greatly surprised her if Annabel had come gliding back in the night
+watches to put the finishing touches to those scrolls of wild flowers
+which ornamented the panels of the doors, and to the design of the
+briar-rose which ran round the frieze of the room. Annabel might come
+in, and pursue this work in stealthy spirit fashion, and then glide up
+to her, and ask her to get out of this little white bed, and let the
+strange visitor, to whom it had once belonged, rest in it herself once
+more.
+
+Annabel Lee! It was a queer name-- a wild, bewitching sort of a name--
+the name of a girl in a song.
+
+Priscilla knew many of Poe's strange songs, and she found herself now
+murmuring some words which used to fascinate her long ago:
+
+  "And the angels, not half so happy in heaven,
+        Went envying her and me;
+   Yes! that was the reason (as all men know
+        In this kingdom by the sea)
+   That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
+        Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee!
+  "But our love it was stronger by far than the love
+        Of those who were older than we--
+        Of many far wiser than we;
+   And neither the angels in heaven above,
+        Nor the demons down under the sea,
+   Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
+        Of the beautiful Annabel Lee."
+
+Some ashes fell from the expiring fire; Priscilla jumped up in bed
+with a start. Her heart was beating fast. She thought of Maggie's
+exquisite face. She remembered it as she had seen it that night when
+they were sitting by the fire, as she had seen it last, when it turned
+so white and the eyes blazed at her in anger.
+
+Priscilla stretched out her hand for a box of matches. She would light
+her candle, and, as there was no chance of her going to sleep, sit up,
+put her dressing-jacket on and begin to write a long letter home to
+Aunt Raby and to her little sisters. Such methodical work would calm
+nerves not often so highly strung.
+
+She rose, and fetching her neat little leather writing-case from where
+she had placed it on the top of her bureau, prepared to open it.
+
+The little case was locked. Priscilla went over to her curtained
+wardrobe, pushed it aside and felt in the pocket of the dress she had
+worn that day for her purse. It was not there. Within that purse the
+little key was safely hiding, but the purse itself was nowhere to be
+found.
+
+Priscilla looked all around the room. In vain; the neat brown-leather
+purse, which held the key, some very precious memoranda of different
+sorts and her small store of worldly wealth, was nowhere to be found.
+
+She stood still for a moment in perplexity. All her nervous fears had
+now completely vanished; a real calamity and a grave one stared her in
+the face. Suppose her purse were gone? Suppose it had been stolen? The
+very small supply of money which that purse contained was most
+precious to Priscilla. It seemed to her that nothing could well be
+more terrible than for her now to have to apply to Aunt Raby for fresh
+funds. Aunt Raby had stinted herself dreadfully to get Priscilla's
+modest little outfit together, and now-- oh, she would rather starve
+than appeal to her again.
+
+Suddenly as she stood in the middle of her room a memory came back to
+her. It was the recollection of a very trivial incident. She
+remembered something dropping on the floor as she sat by Maggie's side
+at dinner. She had felt too nervous and miserable at the time to take
+any notice of the slight sound made by the fall, but now it returned
+vividly to her memory. She was sure that her purse must have dropped
+out of her pocket at that moment, and was now convinced that it was
+now lying quietly under the table where she had sat.
+
+Priscilla felt far too excited to wait until the morning to make
+herself sure on this point. No; happen what might, she would set her
+fears at rest now and find her way somehow through the strange and
+sleeping house until she discovered her lost treasure.
+
+Partly re-dressing, she took her candle in her hand and softly
+unhasped her door. It was a well-oiled lock and made no click or noise
+of any kind as she turned the handle. When she opened the door wide it
+did not creak. The long corridor outside had a stone floor and was
+richly carpeted. No fear of treacherous, creaking boards here.
+Priscilla prepared to walk briskly down the length of the corridor,
+when she was arrested by seeing a light streaming out of Maggie
+Oliphant's room.
+
+The electric lights were all extinguished, and this light alone shone
+like a ray in the darkness.
+
+Prissie stood still, with a gasp of dismay. She did not want Maggie to
+hear her now. She would have been distressed at Maggie being
+acquainted with her carelessness. She felt sure that a girl like
+Maggie Oliphant could never understand what a little purse, which only
+contained a sovereign or two, would mean to her.
+
+On tiptoe, and shading the candle with her hand, she stole past the
+partly open door. A rich tapestry curtain hung at the other side, and
+Maggie doubtless thought the door was shut.
+
+Priscilla had almost gone past the open door, when her steps were
+again arrested by the sound of voices. Some one said "Priscilla Peel,"
+and then some one else laughed.
+
+Priscilla stood perfectly still. Of course she had no right to listen,
+but she did. She waited breathless, in an agony of expectation, for
+the next words.
+
+"I would not be jealous if I were you, Nancy," said Maggie's lazy,
+sweet voice. "The poor girl is as queer as her name, but it gives me a
+kind of aesthetic pleasure to be good to people. You have no cause to
+be jealous, sweet pet."
+
+Priscilla raised one trembling hand and noiselessly put out her
+candle. Her feet seemed rooted to the spot.
+
+Nancy murmured something which Priscilla could not hear. Then there
+was the sound of one girl kissing another, and Maggie's light laugh
+was heard again.
+
+"The unfortunate girl has fallen in love with you, there's no doubt
+about that, Maggie," said Nancy.
+
+"Well, my dear, she'll get over that little fever presently. When I'm
+kind to them, they all have it. I believe I am gracious to them just
+because I like to see that grateful, affectionate expression in their
+eyes. The fact is, Nance, I have a perfectly crazy desire to excite
+love."
+
+"But do you give love, Maggie? Do you ever give it back in return?"
+
+"Sometimes. I don't know, I believe I am rather fond of you, for
+instance."
+
+"Maggie, was Geoffrey Hammond at St. Hilda's this afternoon?"
+
+"I can't possibly say," replied Maggie in a cold voice. Then she added
+excitedly, "I don't believe the door is shut! You are so careless,
+Nannie, so indifferent to the fact that there may be eavesdroppers
+about."
+
+Priscilla crept back to her room. She had forgotten all about her
+purse; every other feeling was completely swallowed up in a burning,
+choking sense of anger.
+
+  CHAPTER V
+
+ WHY PRISCILLA PEEL WENT TO ST. BENET'S
+
+PRISCILLA had received a shock, and hers was not the sort of nature to
+take such a blow easily. She was a reserved girl, but her feelings
+were deep, her affections very strong. Priscilla had a rather
+commonplace past, but it was the sort of past to foster and deepen the
+peculiarities of her character. Her father had died when she was
+twelve, her mother when she was fourteen. They were north-country
+folk, and they possessed all the best characteristics of their class.
+They were rigidly upright people, they never went in debt; they
+considered luxuries bad for the soul and the smaller refinements of
+life altogether unnecessary.
+
+Mr. Peel managed to save a little money out of his earnings. He took
+year by year these savings to the nearest county bank and invested
+them to the best of his ability. The bank broke, and in one fell
+stroke he lost all the savings of a life. This affected his health,
+and he never held up his head or recovered his vigor of mind and body
+again.
+
+He died and two years afterward his wife followed him. Priscilla was
+then fourteen and there were three little sisters several years
+younger. They were merry little children, strong, healthy, untouched
+by care. Priscilla, on the contrary, was grave and looked much older
+than her years.
+
+On the night their mother was buried Aunt Rachel Peel, their father's
+sister, came from her home far away on the borders of Devonshire, and
+told the four desolate children that she was going to take them away
+to live on her little farm with her.
+
+Aunt Raby spoke in a very frank manner. She concealed nothing.
+
+"It's only fair to tell you, Prissie," she said, addressing the tall,
+gawky girl, who stood with her hands folded in front of her-- "it's
+only fair to tell you that hitherto I've just made two ends meet for
+one mouth alone, and how I'm to fill four extra ones the Lord knows,
+but I don't. Still, I'm going to try, for it shall never be said that
+Andrew Peel's children wanted bread while his sister, Rachel Peel,
+lived."
+
+"We have none of us big appetites," said Priscilla after a long,
+solemn pause; "we can do with very little food-- very little. The only
+one who ever is really hungry is Hattie."
+
+Aunt Raby looked up at the pale face, for Prissie was taller than her
+aunt even then, and said in a shocked voice:
+
+"Good gracious, child! do you think I'd stint one of you? You ought
+all to be hearty, and I hope you will be. No, no, it isn't that,
+Prissie, but there'll be no luxuries, so don't you expect them."
+
+"I don't want them," answered Priscilla.
+
+The children all went to Devonshire, and Aunt Raby toiled, as perhaps
+no woman had ever toiled before, to put bread into their mouths. Katie
+had a fever, which made her pale and thin and took away that look of
+robustness which had characterized the little Yorkshire maiden. Nobody
+thought about the children's education, and they might have grown up
+without any were it not for Priscilla, who taught them what she knew
+herself. Nobody thought Priscilla clever; she had no brilliance about
+her in any way, but she had a great gift for acquiring knowledge.
+Wherever she went she picked up a fresh fact, or a fresh fancy, or a
+new idea, and these she turned over and over in her active, strong,
+young brain until she assimilated them and made them part of herself.
+
+Among the few things that had been saved from her early home there was
+a box of her father's old books, and as these comprised several of the
+early poets and essayists, she might have gone further and fared
+worse.
+
+One day the old clergyman who lived at a small vicarage near called to
+see Miss Peel. He discovered Priscilla deep over Carlyle's "History of
+the French Revolution." The young girl had become absorbed in the
+fascination of the wild and terrible tale. Some of the horror of it
+had got into her eyes as she raised them to return Mr. Hayes'
+courteous greeting. His attention was arrested by the look she gave
+him. He questioned her about her reading, and presently offered to
+help her. From this hour Priscilla made rapid progress. She was not
+taught in the ordinary fashion, but she was being really educated. Her
+life was full now; she knew nothing about the world, nothing about
+society. She had no ambitions and she did not trouble herself to look
+very far ahead. The old classics which she studied from morning till
+night abundantly satisfied her really strong intellectual nature.
+
+Mr. Hayes allowed her to talk with him, even to argue points with him.
+He always liked her to draw her own conclusions; he encouraged her
+really original ideas; he was proud of his pupil, and he grew fond of
+her. It was not Priscilla's way to say a word about it, but she soon
+loved the old clergyman as if he were her father.
+
+Some time between her sixteenth and seventeenth birthday that
+awakening came which altered the whole course of her life. It was a
+summer's day Priscilla was seated in the old wainscoted parlor of the
+cottage, devouring a book lent to her by Mr. Hayes on the origin of
+the Greek drama and occasionally bending to kiss little Katie, who sat
+curled up in her arms, when the two elder children rushed in with the
+information that Aunt Raby had suddenly lain flat down in the
+hayfield, and they thought she was asleep.
+
+Prissie tumbled her book in one direction and Katie in the other. In a
+moment she was kneeling by Miss Peel's side.
+
+"What is it, Aunt Raby?" she asked tenderly. "Are you ill?"
+
+The tired woman opened her eyes slowly.
+
+"I think I fainted, dear love," she said. "Perhaps it was the heat of
+the sun."
+
+Priscilla managed to get her back into the house. She grew better
+presently and seemed something like herself, but that evening the aunt
+and niece had a long talk, and the next day Prissie went up to see Mr.
+Hayes.
+
+"I am interested," he said when he saw her enter the room, "to see how
+you have construed that passage in Cicero, Priscilla. You know I
+warned you of its difficulty."
+
+"Oh, please, sir, don't," said Prissie, holding up her hand with an
+impatient movement, which she now and then found herself indulging in.
+"I don't care if Cicero is at the bottom of the sea. I don't want to
+speak about him or think about him. His day is over, mine is-- oh,
+sir, I beg your pardon."
+
+"Granted, my dear child. Sit down, Prissie. I will forgive your
+profane words about Cicero, for I see you are excited. What is the
+matter?"
+
+"I want you to help me, Mr. Hayes. Will you help me? You have always
+been my dear friend, my good friend."
+
+"Of course I will help you. What is wrong? Speak to me fully."
+
+"Aunt Raby fainted in the hayfield yesterday."
+
+"Indeed? It was a warm day; I am truly concerned. Would she like to
+see me? Is she better to-day?"
+
+"She is quite well to-day-- quite well for the time."
+
+"My dear Priscilla, what a tragic face! Your Aunt Raby is not the
+first woman who has fainted and got out of her faint again and been
+none the worse."
+
+"That is just the point, Mr. Hayes. Aunt Raby has got out of her
+faint, but she is the worse."
+
+Mr. Hayes looked hard into his pupil's face. There was no beauty in
+it. The mouth was wide, the complexion dull, the features irregular.
+Even her eyes-- and perhaps they were Prissie's best point-- were
+neither large nor dark; but an expression now filled those eyes and
+lingered round that mouth which made the old rector feel solemn.
+
+He took one of the girl's thin unformed hands between his own.
+
+"My dear child," he said, "something weighs on your mind. Tell your
+old friend-- your almost father-- all that is in your heart."
+
+Thus begged to make a confidence, Priscilla did tell a commonplace,
+and yet tragic, story. Aunt Raby was affected with an incurable
+illness. It would not kill her soon; she might live for years, but
+every year she would grow a little weaker and a little less capable of
+toil. As long as she lived the little farm belonged to her, but
+whenever she died it would pass to a distant cousin. Whenever Aunt
+Raby died, Priscilla and her three sisters would be penniless.
+
+"So I have come to you," continued Prissie, "to say that I must take
+steps at once to enable me to earn money. I must support Hattie and
+Rose and Katie whenever Aunt Raby goes. I must earn money as soon as
+it is possible for a girl to do so, and I must stop dreaming and
+thinking of nothing but books, for perhaps books and I will have
+little to say to each other in future."
+
+"That would be sad," replied Mr. Hayes, "for that would be taking a
+directly opposite direction to the path which Providence clearly
+intends you to walk in."
+
+Priscilla raised her eyes and looked earnestly at the old rector.
+Then, clasping her hands tightly together, she said with suppressed
+passion:
+
+"Why do you encourage me to be selfish, Mr. Hayes?"
+
+"I will not," he replied, answering her look; "I will listen patiently
+to all you have to say. How do you propose to earn bread for yourself
+and your sisters?"
+
+"I thought of dressmaking."
+
+"Um! Did you-- make-- the gown you have on?"
+
+"Yes," replied Priscilla, looking down at her ungainly homespun
+garment.
+
+The rector rose to his feet and smiled in the most sweet and
+benevolent way.
+
+"I am no judge of such matters," he said, "and I may be wrong. But my
+impression is that the style and cut of that dress would scarcely have
+a large demand in fashionable quarters."
+
+"Oh, sir!" Prissie blushed all over. "You know I said I should have to
+learn."
+
+"My dear child," said Mr. Hayes firmly, "when it becomes a question of
+a woman earning her bread, let her turn to that path where promise
+lies. There is no promise in the fit of that gown, Prissie. But here--
+here there is much."
+
+He touched her big forehead lightly with his hand.
+
+"You must not give up your books, my dear," he said, "for,
+independently of the pleasure they afford, they will also give you
+bread and butter. Go home now and let me think over matters. Come
+again to-morrow. I may have important things to say to you."
+
+From this conversation came the results which, shortly after the
+completion of her eighteenth year, made Priscilla an inmate of St.
+Benet's far-famed college for women. Mr. Hayes left no stone unturned
+to effect his object. He thought Priscilla could do brilliantly as a
+teacher, and he resolved that for this purpose she should have the
+advantages which a collegiate life alone could offer to her. He
+himself prepared her for her entrance examination, and he and Aunt
+Raby between them managed the necessary funds to give the girl a
+three-years' life as a student in these halls of learning.
+
+Prissie knew very little about the money part of the scheme. She only
+guessed what had become of Aunt Raby's watch and chain; and a spasm
+crossed her face when one day she happened to see that Aunt Raby's
+poor little jewel case was empty. The jewels and the watch could
+certainly not fetch much, but they provided Prissie with a modest
+little outfit, and Mr. Hayes had got a grant from a loan society,
+which further lightened expenses for all parties.
+
+Priscilla bade her sisters, her aunt and the old rector good-by and
+started on her new life with courage.
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+
+ COLLEGE LIFE
+
+THE routine of life at St. Benet's was something as follows:
+
+The dressing-bell was rung at seven, and all the students were
+expected to meet in the chapel for prayers at eight. Nothing was said
+if they did not appear; no reproofs were uttered and no inquiries
+made; but the good-fellowship between the students and the dons was so
+apparent in the three halls that known wishes were always regarded,
+and, as a rule, there were few absentees.
+
+The girls went to chapel in their white-straw sailor-hats, simply
+trimmed with a broad band of ribbon of the college colors, green with
+a narrow stripe of gold. Breakfast immediately followed chapel; tea
+and coffee and different cold meats were placed on the side-tables,
+and the girls helped themselves to what they pleased.
+
+The great event at breakfast was the post. Each student, when she
+entered the breakfast-hall, would make an eager rush to the side-table
+where the letters were neatly placed. During breakfast these were read
+and chatted over. The whole meal was most informal and seldom lasted
+more than a quarter of an hour.
+
+After breakfast the notice-board in the large entrance-hall was
+visited and eagerly scanned, for it contained a detailed account of
+the hours for the different lectures and the names of the lecturers
+who would instruct the students during the day. By the side of the
+large official notice-board hung another, which was read with quite as
+deep interest. This contained particulars of the meetings of the
+different clubs and societies for pleasure or profit got up by the
+girls themselves.
+
+On the morning after her arrival Priscilla, with the other students,
+read the contents of these two boards, and then, in the company of a
+fresher nearly as shy as herself, she wandered about the lovely
+grounds which surrounded Heath Hall until nine o'clock, when lectures
+began.
+
+Lectures continued without interruption until lunchtime, a meal which
+was taken very much when the girls pleased. The time allowed for this
+light midday refreshment was from half-past twelve to two.
+The-afternoons were mostly given up to games and gymnastics, although
+occasionally there were more lectures, and the more studious of the
+girls spent a considerable part of the time studying in their own
+rooms.
+
+Tea was the convivial meal of the day. To this the girls invited
+outside friends and acquaintances, and, as a rule, they always took it
+in their own rooms.
+
+Dinner was at half-past six, and from half-past seven to half-past
+nine was usually the time when the different clubs and societies met.
+
+There was a regularity and yet a freedom about the life; invisible
+bounds were prescribed, beyond which no right-minded or conscientious
+girl cared to venture, but the rules were really very few. Students
+might visit their friends in Kingsdene and receive them at the
+college. They might entertain them at luncheon or dinner or at tea in
+their own rooms at a fixed charge, and provided the friends left at a
+certain hour, and the girls themselves asked for leave of absence when
+they wished to remain out, and mentioned the place to which they
+proposed to go, no questions were asked and no objections offered.
+
+They were expected to return to the college not later than eleven at
+night, and one invitation to go out in the week was, as a rule, the
+most they ever accepted.
+
+Into this life Priscilla came, fresh from the Devonshire farm and from
+all the pursuits and interests which had hitherto formed her world.
+She had made a very firm niche for herself in Aunt Raby's old cottage,
+and the dislodgment therefrom caused her for the time such mental
+disquiet and so many nervous and queer sensations that her pain was
+often acute and her sense of awkwardness considerable.
+
+Priscilla's best in her early life always seemed but a poor affair,
+and she certainly neither looked nor was at her best at first here.
+After a few days, however, she fitted into her new grooves, took up
+the line of study which she intended to pursue and was quickly
+absorbed in all the fascinations which it offered to a nature like
+hers.
+
+Her purse was restored to her on the morning after her arrival, and
+neither Maggie Oliphant nor Nancy Banister ever guessed that she had
+overheard some words of theirs on the night of her arrival, and that
+these had put bitterness into her heart and nearly destroyed her faith
+in her fellow-students. Both Maggie and Nance made several overtures
+of kindness to Prissie, but the cold manner which was more or less
+habitual to her never thawed, and, after a time, they left her alone.
+There is no saying what might have happened to Prissie had she never
+overheard this conversation. As it was, however, after the first shock
+it gave her courage.
+
+She said to herself:
+
+"I should think very little of myself if I did not despise a girl like
+Miss Oliphant. Is it likely I should care to imitate one whom I
+despise? There was a brief, dreadful hour when I absolutely pined to
+have pretty things in my room as she has in hers; now I can do without
+them. My room shall remain bare and unadorned. In this state it will
+at least look unique."
+
+It did. The other students who lived in the same corridor came to
+visit Priscilla in the free and easy manner which characterized them
+and made remarks the reverse of flattering. When was she going to put
+her pictures up? Miss Day would be delighted to help her whenever she
+chose to do it. When did she intend to go down to Kingsdene to order
+her easy-chairs and little Japanese tables, and rugs, and the other
+small but necessary articles which would be required to make her room
+habitable?
+
+For several days Priscilla turned these inquiries aside. She blushed,
+stammered, looked awkward and spoke of something else. At last,
+however, she summoned up courage, and, once for all, delivered herself
+from her tormentors. She did that remarkably brave thing which
+sometimes very nervous people can brace themselves to do.
+
+It was evening and Miss Day, Miss Marsh and Nancy Banister had all
+come in for a few minutes to see Priscilla on their way to their own
+rooms.
+
+"Do come and cocoa with me to-night, Miss Peel," said Miss Day.
+"You're so dreadfully unsociable, not a bit like an ordinary St.
+Benet's girl. If you go on in this fashion, you'll be moped to death
+before your first term is over."
+
+"I am accustomed to a very quiet life," responded Priscilla, "and I
+want to work; I have come here to work."
+
+"Dear, dear! any one would suppose you were going in for a tripos. If
+this were your last term I could understand it-- but your first!"
+
+It was Miss Marsh who said these words. She was a bright-eyed,
+merry-looking girl, the reverse of over-studious herself.
+
+"Oh, come along, dear; I'll give you such a delicious cup of cocoa,"
+said Miss Day.
+
+She crossed the room and tried to link her hand affectionately in
+Prissie's arm. Miss Peel drew back a step.
+
+"Thank you," she said, "but I-- I-- cannot come."
+
+"I must say you have a blunt way of refusing," said Miss Day. She felt
+inclined to be offended, but Nancy Banister, who was standing by and
+had not hitherto spoken, bestowed a quick glance of approval on
+Priscilla and then said something soothing to Miss Day.
+
+"May I cocoa with you instead, Annie?" she said. "I am afraid no one
+can accuse me of killing myself with work, but we all respect earnest
+workers-- we must. It is for them St. Benet's is really meant. It was
+endowed for them, and built for them, and we poor drones must not
+throw disparaging remarks on the busy bees."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" said Miss Marsh; "St. Benet's was made for sociability
+as well as study, and I have no patience with the students who don't
+try to combine the two. By the way," she added, turning round and
+speaking in a rather impertinent voice to Priscilla, "I sent you a
+message to say I was going down to Kingsdene this afternoon and would
+be happy to take you with me if you would care to visit Spilman's."
+
+"Thank you," said Priscilla, "I got your note just too late to answer
+it. I was going to speak to you about it," she added.
+
+"Then you would have come?"
+
+Priscilla's face grew very red.
+
+"No, I should not have come."
+
+It was Miss Marsh's turn to get red.
+
+"Come! Annie," she exclaimed, turning to Miss Day, "we had better
+waste no more time here. Miss Banister, we'll see you presently, won't
+we? Good night, Miss Peel. Perhaps you don't mind my saying something
+very frank?"
+
+"I do," said Priscilla, "but that won't prevent your saying it, will
+it?"
+
+"I don't think it will. After you have been at St. Benet's a little
+longer you will know that we not only appreciate cleverness and
+studious ways, but also obliging and sociable and friendly manners;
+and-- and-- pretty rooms-- rooms with easy-chairs, and comfortable
+lounges, and the thousand and one things which give one a feeling of
+home. Take my advice, Miss Peel, there's no use fighting against the
+tide. You'll have to do as others do in the long run, and you may as
+well do it at once. That is my plain opinion, and I should not have
+given it to you if I had not thought you needed it. Good night."
+
+"No, stop a minute," said Priscilla. Every scrap of color had left her
+face, every trace of nervousness her manner. She walked before the two
+girls to the door and closed it. "Please stay just for a minute
+longer, Miss Day and Miss Marsh, and you too, Miss Banister, if you
+will."
+
+She went across the room again, and, opening the top drawer of her
+bureau, took out her purse. Out of the purse she took a key. The key
+fitted a small padlock and the padlock belonged to her trunk. She
+unlocked her empty trunk and opened it.
+
+"There," she said, turning to the girls-- "there," she continued, "you
+will be good enough to notice that there are no photographs concealed
+in this trunk, no pictures, no prints." She lifted the tray. "Empty,
+you see," she added, pointing with her hand to the lower portion of
+the trunk-- "nothing here to make my room pretty, and cozy, and
+home-like." Then she shut the trunk again and locked it, and going up
+to where the three girls stood, gazing at her in bewilderment and some
+alarm, she unfastened her purse and turned all its contents into the
+palm of her hand.
+
+"Look, Miss Marsh," she said, turning to the girl who had spoken last.
+"You may count what is here. One sovereign, one half-sovereign, two or
+three shillings, some pence. Would this money go far at Spilman's, do
+you think?"
+
+Priscilla put it all slowly back again into her purse. Her face was
+still absolutely colorless. She laid the purse on the top of her
+bureau.
+
+"I do not suppose," she said in a low, sad voice, "that I am the sort
+of girl who often comes to a place of this sort. I am poor, and I have
+got to work hard, and I have no time for pleasure. Nevertheless," she
+added-- and now a great wave of color swept over her face, and her
+eyes were lit up, and she had a sensation of feeling quite glad, and
+strong, and happy-- "I am not going away because I am poor, and I am
+not going to mind what any one thinks of me as long as I do right. My
+room must stay empty and bare, because I have no money to make it full
+and beautiful. And do you think that I would ask those-- those who
+sent me here-- to add one feather's weight to their cares and
+expenses, to give me money to buy beautiful things because I am afraid
+of you? No, I should be awfully afraid to do that; but I am not afraid
+of you."
+
+Priscilla opened the drawer of her bureau and put her little light
+purse back again in its hiding-place.
+
+"Good night, Miss Peel," said Miss Day in a thin, small kind of voice.
+
+"Good night, Miss Peel," said Miss Marsh. The girls went gently out of
+the room. They closed the door behind them, without making any noise.
+Nancy Banister remained behind. She came up to Priscilla and kissed
+her.
+
+"You are brave," she said. "I admire you. I-- I-- am proud of you. I
+am glad to know that a girl like you has come to live here."
+
+"Don't-- don't," said poor Prissie. Her little burst of courage had
+deserted her. She covered her face with her trembling hands. She did
+not want Nancy Banister to see that her eyes were full of tears.
+
+  CHAPTER VII
+
+ IN MISS OLIPHANT'S ROOM
+
+"MY dear," said Nancy Banister that same evening-- "my dear and
+beloved Maggie, we have both been guilty of a huge mistake."
+
+"What is that?" asked Miss Oliphant. She was leaning back in a deep
+easy-chair, and Nancy, who did not care for luxurious seats, had
+perched herself on a little stool at her feet. Nancy was a small,
+nervous-looking person; she had a zealous face and eager, almost too
+active movements. Nancy was the soul of bustling good nature, of
+brightness and kindness. She often said that Maggie Oliphant's
+laziness rested her.
+
+"What is it?" said Maggie again. "How are we in the wrong, Nance?"
+
+She lifted her dimpled hand as she spoke and contemplated it with a
+slow, satisfied sort of smile.
+
+"We have made a mistake about Miss Peel, that is all; she is a very
+noble girl."
+
+"Oh, my dear Nance! Poor little Puritan Prissie! What next?"
+
+"It is all very fine to call her names," replied Nancy-- here she
+sprang to her feet-- "but I couldn't do what she did. Do you know that
+she absolutely and completely turned the tables on that vulgar Annie
+Day and that pushing, silly little Lucy Marsh. I never saw any two
+look smaller or poorer than those two when they skedaddled out of her
+room. Yes, that's the word-- they skedaddled to the door, both of
+them, looking as limp as a cotton dress when it has been worn for a
+week, and one almost treading on the other's heels; and I do not think
+Prissie will be worried by them any more."
+
+"Really, Nancy, you look quite pretty when you are excited! Now, what
+did this wonderful Miss Peel do? Did she box the ears of those two
+detestable girls? If so, she has my hearty congratulations."
+
+"More than that, Maggie-- that poor, little, meek, awkward, slim
+creature absolutely demolished them. Oh! she did it in such a fine,
+simple, unworldly sort of way. I only wish you had seen her! They were
+twitting her about not going in for all the fun here, and, above
+everything, for keeping her room so bare and unattractive. You know
+she has been a fortnight here to-day, and she has not got an extra
+thing-- not one. There isn't a room in the hall like hers-- it's so
+bare and unhomelike. What's the matter, Maggie?"
+
+"You needn't go on, Nancy; if it's about the room, I don't want to
+hear it. You know I can't-- I can't bear it."
+
+Maggie's lips were trembling, her face was white. She shaded her eyes
+with her hand.
+
+"Oh, my darling, I am so sorry. I forgot-- I really did! There, you
+must try and think it was any room. What she did was all the same.
+Well, those girls had been twitting her. I expect she's had a nice
+fortnight of it! She turned very white, and at last her blood was up,
+and she just gave it to them. She opened her little trunk. I really
+could have cried. It was such a poor, pathetic sort of receptacle to
+be capable of holding all one's worldly goods, and she showed it to
+them-- empty! 'You see,' she said, 'that I have no pictures nor
+ornaments here!' Then she turned the contents of her purse into her
+hand. I think, Maggie, she had about thirty shillings in the world,
+and she asked Lucy Marsh to count her money, and inquired how many
+things she thought it would purchase at Spilman's. Then, Maggie,
+Priscilla turned on them. Oh, she did not look plain then, nor awkward
+either. Her eyes had such a splendid good, brave sort of light in
+them. And she said she had come here to work, and she meant to work,
+and her room must stay bare, for she had no money to make it anything
+else. 'But,' she said, 'I am not afraid of you, but I am afraid of
+hurting those'-- whoever 'those' are-- 'those'-- oh, with such a ring
+on the word-- 'who have sent me here!'
+
+"After that the two girls skedaddled; they had had enough of her, and
+I expect, Maggie, your little Puritan Prissie will be left in peace in
+the future."
+
+"Don't call her my little Puritan," said Maggie. "I have nothing to
+say to her."
+
+Maggie was leaning back again in her chair now; her face was still
+pale and her soft eyes looked troubled.
+
+"I wish you wouldn't tell me heroic stories, Nancy," she remarked
+after a pause. "They make me feel so uncomfortable. If Priscilla Peel
+is going to be turned into a sort of heroine, she'll be much more
+unbearable than in her former character."
+
+"Oh, Maggie, I wish you wouldn't talk in that reckless way nor pretend
+that you hate goodness. You know you adore it-- you know you do! You
+know you are far and away the most lovable and bewitching, and the--
+the very best girl at St. Benet's."
+
+"No, dear little Nance, you are quite mistaken. Perhaps I'm
+bewitching-- I suppose to a certain extent I am, for people always
+tell me so-- but I'm not lovable and I'm not good. There, my dear, do
+let us turn from that uninteresting person-- Maggie Oliphant. And so,
+Nancy, you are going to worship Priscilla Peel in future?"
+
+"Oh, dear no! that's not my way. But I'm going to respect her very
+much. I think we have both rather shunned her lately, and I did feel
+sure at first that you meant to be very kind to her, Maggie."
+
+Miss Oliphant yawned. It was her way to get over emotion very quickly.
+A moment before her face had been all eloquent with feeling; now its
+expression was distinctly bored, and her lazy eyes were not even open
+to their full extent.
+
+"Perhaps I found her stupid," she said, "and so for that reason
+dropped her. Perhaps I would have continued to be kind if she had
+reciprocated attentions, but she did not. I am glad now, very glad,
+that we are unlikely to be friends, for, after what you have just told
+me, I should probably find her insupportable. Are you going, Nancy?"
+
+"Yes, I promised to have cocoa with Annie Day. I had almost forgotten.
+Good night, Maggie."
+
+Nancy shut the door softly behind her, and Maggie closed her eyes for
+a moment with a sigh of relief.
+
+"It's nice to be alone," she said softly under her breath, "it's nice
+and yet it isn't nice. Nancy irritated me dreadfully this evening. I
+don't like stories about good people. I don't wish to think about good
+people. I am determined that I will not allow my thoughts to dwell on
+that unpleasant Priscilla Peel, and her pathetic poverty, and her
+burst of heroics. It is too trying to hear footsteps in that room. No,
+I will not think of that room nor of its inmate. Now, if I could only
+go to sleep!"
+
+Maggie curled herself up in her luxurious chair, arranged a soft
+pillow under her head and shut her eyes. In this attitude she made a
+charming picture: her thick black lashes lay heavily on her pale
+cheeks; her red lips were slightly parted; her breathing came quietly.
+By and by repose took the place of tension-- her face looked as if it
+were cut out of marble. The excitement and unrest, which her words had
+betrayed, vanished utterly; her features were beautiful, but almost
+expressionless.
+
+This lasted for a short time, perhaps ten minutes; then a trivial
+circumstance, the falling of a coal in the grate, disturbed the light
+slumber of the sleeper. Maggie stirred restlessly and turned her head.
+She was not awake, but she was dreaming. A faint rose tint visited
+each cheek, and she clenched one hand, then moved it, and laid it over
+the other. Presently tears stole from under the black eyelashes and
+rolled down her cheeks. She opened her eyes wide; she was awake again;
+unutterable regret, remorse, which might never be quieted, filled her
+face.
+
+Maggie rose from her chair, and, going across the room, sat down at
+her bureau. She turned a shaded lamp, so that the light might fall
+upon the pages of a book she was studying, and, pushing her hands
+through her thick hair, she began to read a passage from the splendid
+Prometheus Vinctus of AEschylus:
+
+  "O divine ether, O swift-winged winds!"
+
+She muttered the opening lines to herself, then turning the page began
+to translate from the Greek with great ease and fluency:
+
+  "O divine ether, and swift-winged winds,
+   O flowing rivers, and ocean with countless-dimpling
+         smile,
+   Earth, mother of all, and the all-seeing circle of the
+         sun, to you I call;
+   Behold me, and the things that I, a god, suffer at the
+         hands of gods.
+   Behold the wrongs with which I am worn away, and
+         which I shall suffer through endless time.
+   Such is the shameful bondage which the new ruler of
+         the Blessed Ones has invented for me.
+   Alas! Alas! I bewail my present and future misery----"
+
+Any one who had seen Maggie in her deep and expressionless sleep but a
+few minutes before would have watched her now with a sensation of
+surprise. This queer girl was showing another phase of her complex
+nature. Her face was no longer lacking in expression, no longer
+stricken with sorrow nor harrowed with unavailing regret. A fine fire
+filled her eyes; her brow, as she pushed back her hair, showed its
+rather massive proportions. Now, intellect and the triumphant delight
+of overcoming a mental difficulty reigned supreme in her face. She
+read on without interruption for nearly an hour. At the end of that
+time her cheeks were burning like two glowing crimson roses.
+
+A knock came at her door; she started and turned round petulantly.
+
+"It's just my luck," muttered Maggie. "I'd have got the sense of that
+whole magnificent passage in another hour. It was beginning to fill
+me: I was getting satisfied-- now it's all over! I'd have had a good
+night if that knock hadn't come-- but now-- now I am Maggie Oliphant,
+the most miserable girl at St. Benet's, once again."
+
+The knock was repeated. Miss Oliphant sprang to her feet.
+
+"Come in," she said in a petulant voice.
+
+The handle of the door was slowly turned, the tapestry curtain moved
+forward and a little fair-haired girl, with an infantile expression of
+face and looking years younger than her eighteen summers, tripped a
+few steps into the room.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Maggie," she said. "I had not a moment to come
+sooner-- not one really. That stupid Miss Turner chose to raise the
+alarm for the fire brigade. Of course I had to go, and I've only just
+come back and changed my dress."
+
+"You ought to be in bed, Rosalind; it's past eleven o'clock."
+
+"Oh, as if that mattered! I'll go in a minute. How cozy you look
+here."
+
+"My dear, I am not going to keep you out of your beauty sleep. You can
+admire my room another time. If you have a message for me, Rosalind,
+let me have it, and then-- oh, cruel word, but I must say it, my
+love-- Go!"
+
+Rosalind Merton had serene baby-blue eyes; they looked up now full at
+Maggie. Then her dimpled little hand slid swiftly into the pocket of
+her dress, came out again with a quick, little, frightened dart and
+deposited a square envelope with some manly writing on it on the
+bureau, where Maggie had been studying Prometheus Vinctus. The letter
+covered the greater portion of the open page. It seemed to Maggie as
+if the Greek play had suddenly faded and gone out of sight behind a
+curtain.
+
+"There," said Rosalind, "that's for you. I was at Kingsdene to-day--
+and-- I-- I said you should have it, and I-- I promised that I'd help
+you, Maggie. I-- yes-- I promised. I said I would help you, if you'd
+let me."
+
+"Thank you," replied Miss Oliphant in a lofty tone. The words came out
+of her lips with the coldness of ice. "And if I need you-- I--
+promise-- to ask your help. Where did you say you met Mr. Hammond?"
+
+Maggie took up her letter and opened it slowly.
+
+"At Spilman's. He was buying something for his room. He----" Rosalind
+blushed all over her face.
+
+Maggie took her letter out of its envelope. She looked at the first
+two or three words, then laid it, open as it was, on the table.
+
+"Thank you, Rosalind," she said in her usual tone. "It was kind of you
+to bring this, certainly; but Mr. Hammond would have done better--
+yes, undoubtedly better-- had he sent his letter by post. There would
+have been no mystery about it then, and I should have received it at
+least two hours ago. Thank you, Rosalind, all the same-- good night."
+
+Rosalind Merton stepped demurely out of the room. In the corridor,
+however, a change come over her small childish face. Her blue eyes
+became full of angry flame and she clenched her baby hand and shook it
+in the direction of the closed door.
+
+"Oh, Maggie Oliphant, what a deceiver you are!" she murmured. "You
+think that I'm a baby and notice nothing, but I'm on the alert now,
+and I'll watch-- and watch. I don't love you any longer, Maggie
+Oliphant. Who loves being snubbed? Oh, of course, you pretend you
+don't care about that letter! But I know you do care; and I'll get
+hold of all your secrets before many weeks are over, see if I don't!"
+
+  CHAPTER VIII
+
+ THE KINDEST AND MOST COMFORTING WAY
+
+MAGGIE was once more alone. She stood quite still for nearly half a
+minute in the center of her room. Her hands were clasped tightly
+together. The expression of her face and her attitude showed such
+intense feeling as to be almost theatrical. This was no acting,
+however; it was Maggie's nature to throw herself into attitudes before
+spectators or alone. She required some vent for all her passionate
+excitement, and what her girl friends called Miss Oliphant's poses may
+have afforded her a certain measure of relief.
+
+After standing still for these few seconds, she ran to the door and
+drew the bolt; then, sinking down once more in her easy-chair, she
+took up the letter which Rosalind Merton had brought her and began to
+read the contents. Four sides of a sheet of paper were covered with
+small, close writing, the neat somewhat cramped hand which at that
+time characterized the men of St. Hilda's College.
+
+Maggie's eyes seemed to fly over the writing; they absorbed the sense,
+they took the full meaning out of each word. At last all was known to
+her, burnt in, indeed, upon her brain.
+
+She crushed the letter suddenly in one of her hands, then raised it to
+her lips and kissed it; then fiercely, as though she hated it, tossed
+it into the fire. After this she sat quiet, her hands folded meekly,
+her head slightly bent. The color gradually left her cheeks. She
+looked dead tired and languid. After a time she arose, and, walking
+very slowly across her room, sat down by her bureau and drew a sheet
+of paper before her. As she did so her eyes fell for a moment on the
+Greek play which had fascinated her an hour ago. She found herself
+again murmuring some lines from Prometheus Vinctus:
+
+  "O divine ether, and swift-winged winds----"
+
+She interrupted herself with a petulant movement.
+
+"Folly!" she murmured, pushing the book aside. "Even glorious, great
+thoughts like those don't satisfy me. Whoever supposed they would?
+What was I given a heart for? Why does it beat so fiercely, and long,
+and love? and why is it wrong-- wrong of me to love? Oh, Annabel Lee!
+oh, darling! if only your wretched Maggie Oliphant had never known
+you!"
+
+Maggie dashed some heavy tears from her eyes. Then, taking up her pen,
+she began to write.
+
+                                                         "HEATH HALL,
+
+                                                        "ST. BENET'S.
+
+  "DEAR MR. HAMMMOND: I should prefer that you did not in future give
+  letters for me to any of my friends here. I do not wish to receive
+  them through the medium of any of my fellow-students. Please
+  understand this. When you have anything to say to me, you can write
+  in the ordinary course of post. I am not ashamed of any slight
+  correspondence we may have together; but I refuse to countenance,
+  or to be in any sense a party to, what may even seem underhand.
+
+  "I shall try to be at the Marshalls' on Sunday afternoon, but I
+  have nothing to say in reply to your letter. My views are
+  unalterable.
+
+                           "Yours sincerely,
+
+                                                 "MARGARET OLIPHANT."
+
+Maggie did not read the letter after she had written it. She put it
+into an envelope and directed it. Here was a large and bold hand and
+the address was swiftly written
+
+                       "GEOFFREY HAMMOND, ESQ.,
+
+                                                        "St. Hilda's,
+
+                                                         "Kingsdene."
+
+She stamped her letter and, late as it was, took it down herself and
+deposited it in the post-bag.
+
+The next morning, when the students strolled in to breakfast, many
+pairs of eyes were raised with a new curiosity to watch Priscilla
+Peel. Even Maggie, as she drank her coffee and munched a piece of dry
+toast, for she was a very poor eater, could not help flashing a keen
+and interested glance at the young girl as she came into the room.
+
+Prissie was the reverse of fashionable in her attire; her neat brown
+cashmere dress had been made by Aunt Raby. The hemming, the stitching,
+the gathering, the frilling which went to make up this useful garment
+were neat, were even exquisite; but then, Aunt Raby was not gifted
+with a stylish cut. Prissie's hair was smoothly parted, but the thick
+plait on the back of the neck was by no means artistically coiled.
+
+The girl's plain, pale face was not set off by the severity of her
+toilet; there was no touch of spring or brightness anywhere, no look
+or note which should belong to one so young, unless it was the extreme
+thinness of her figure.
+
+The curious eyes of the students were raised when she appeared and one
+or two laughed and turned their heads away. They had heard of her
+exploit of the night before. Miss Day and Miss Marsh had repeated this
+good story. It had impressed them at the time, but they did not tell
+it to others in an impressive way, and the girls, who had not seen
+Prissie, but had only heard the tale, spoke of her to one another as
+an "insufferable little prig."
+
+"Isn't it too absurd," said Rosalind Merton, sidling up to Maggie and
+casting some disdainful glances at poor Priscilla, "the conceit of
+some people! Of all forms of conceit, preserve me from the priggish
+style."
+
+"I don't understand you," said Maggie, raising her eyes and speaking
+in her lazy voice. "Are there any prigs about? I don't see them. Oh,
+Miss Peel"-- she jumped up hastily-- "won't you sit here by me? I have
+been reserving this place for you, for I have been so anxious to know
+if you would do me a kindness. Please sit down, and I'll tell you what
+it is. You needn't wait, Rosalind. What I have got to say is for Miss
+Peel's ears."
+
+Rosalind retired in dudgeon to the other end of the room, and, if the
+laughing and muttering continued, they now only reached Maggie and
+Priscilla in the form of very distant murmurs.
+
+"How pale you look," said Maggie, turning to the girl, "and how cold
+you are! Yes, I am quite sure you are bitterly cold. Now you shall
+have a good breakfast. Let me help you. Please do. I'll go to the
+side-table and bring you something so tempting; wait and see."
+
+"You mustn't trouble really," began Prissie.
+
+Miss Oliphant flashed a brilliant smile at her. Prissie found her
+words arrested, and, in spite of herself, her coldness began to thaw.
+Maggie ran over to the side-table and Priscilla kept repeating under
+her breath:
+
+"She's not true-- she's beautiful, but she's false; she has the
+kindest, sweetest, most comforting way in the world, but she only does
+it for the sake of an aesthetic pleasure. I ought not to let her. I
+ought not to speak to her. I ought to go away, and have nothing to do
+with her proffers of goodwill, and yet somehow or other I can't resist
+her."
+
+Maggie came back with some delicately carved chicken and ham and a hot
+cup of delicious coffee.
+
+"Is not this nice?" she said. "Now eat it all up and speak to me
+afterward. Oh, how dreadfully cold you do look!"
+
+"I feel cold-- in spirit as well as physically," retorted Priscilla.
+
+"Well, let breakfast warm you-- and-- and-- a small dose of the tonic
+of sympathy, if I may dare to offer it."
+
+Priscilla turned her eyes full upon Miss Oliphant.
+
+"Do you mean it?" she said in a choked kind of voice. "Is that quite
+true what you said just now?"
+
+"True? What a queer child! Of course it is true. What do you take me
+for? Why should not I sympathize with you?"
+
+"I want you to," said Prissie. Tears filled her eyes; she turned her
+head away. Maggie gave her hand a squeeze.
+
+"Now eat your breakfast," she said. "I shall glance through my letters
+while you are busy."
+
+She leaned back in her chair and opened several envelopes. Priscilla
+ate her chicken and ham, drank her coffee and felt the benefit of the
+double tonic which had been administered in so timely a fashion. It
+was one of Miss Oliphant's peculiarities to inspire in those she
+wanted to fascinate absolute and almost unreasoning faith for the time
+being. Doubts would and might return in her absence, but in the
+sunshine of her particularly genial manner they found it hard to live.
+
+After breakfast the girls were leaving the room together when Miss
+Heath, the principal of the hall in which they resided, came into the
+room. She was a tall, stately woman of about thirty-five and had seen
+very little of Priscilla since her arrival, but now she stopped to
+give both girls a special greeting. Her manners were very frank and
+pleasant.
+
+"My dear," she said to Prissie, "I have been anxious to cultivate your
+acquaintance. Will you come and have tea with me in my room this
+afternoon? And, Maggie, dear, will you come with Miss Peel?"
+
+She laid her hand on Maggie's shoulder as she spoke, looked swiftly
+into the young girl's face, then turned with a glance of great
+interest to Priscilla.
+
+"You will both come," she said. "That is right. I won't ask any one
+else. We shall have a cozy time together, and Miss Peel can tell me
+all about her studies, and aims, and ambitions."
+
+"Thank you," said Maggie, "I'll answer for Miss Peel. We'll both come;
+we shall be delighted."
+
+Miss Heath nodded to the pair and walked swiftly down the long hall to
+the dons' special entrance, where she disappeared.
+
+"Is not she charming?" whispered Maggie. "Did I not tell you you would
+fall in love with Dorothea?"
+
+"But I have not," said Priscilla, coloring. "And I don't know whether
+she is charming or not."
+
+Maggie checked a petulant exclamation which was rising to her lips.
+She was conscious of a curious desire to win her queer young
+companion's goodwill and sympathy.
+
+"Never mind," she said, "the moment of victory is only delayed. You
+will tell a very different story after you have had tea with Dorothea
+this evening. Now, let us come and look at the notice-boards and see
+what the day's program is. By the way, are you going to attend any
+lectures this morning?"
+
+"Yes, two," said Prissie-- "one on Middle History, from eleven to
+twelve, and I have a French lecture afterward."
+
+"Well, I am not doing anything this morning. I wish you were not. We
+might have taken a long walk together. Don't you love long walks?"
+
+"Oh, yes; but there is no time for anything of that sort here--
+nor----" Priscilla hesitated. "I don't think there's space for a very
+long walk here," she added. The color rushed into her cheeks as she
+spoke and her eyes looked wistful.
+
+Maggie laughed.
+
+"What are your ideas in regard to space, Miss Peel? The whole of
+Kingsdeneshire lies before us. We are untrammeled and can go where we
+please. Is not that a sufficiently broad area for our roamings?"
+
+"But there is no sea," said Priscilla. "We should never have time to
+walk from here to the sea, and nothing-- nothing else seems worth
+while."
+
+"Oh, you have lived by the sea?"
+
+"Yes, all my life. When I was a little girl, my home was near Whitby,
+in Yorkshire, and lately I have lived close to Lyme-- two extreme
+points of England, you will say; but no matter, the sea is the same.
+To walk for miles on the top of the cliffs, that means exercise."
+
+"Ah," said Maggie with a sigh, "I understand you-- I know what you
+mean."
+
+She spoke quickly, as she always did under the least touch of
+excitement. "Such a walk means more than exercise; it means thought,
+aspiration. Your brain seems to expand then and ideas come. Of course
+you don't care for poor flat Kingsdeneshire."
+
+Priscilla turned and stared at Miss Oliphant. Maggie laughed; she
+raised her hand to her forehead.
+
+"I must not talk any more," she said, turning pale and shrinking into
+herself. "Forgive my rhapsodies. You'll understand what they are worth
+when you know me better. Oh, by the way, will you come with me to
+Kingsdene on Sunday? We can go to the three o'clock service at the
+chapel and afterward have tea with some friends of mine-- the
+Marshalls-- they'd be delighted to see you."
+
+"What chapel is the service at?" inquired Priscilla.
+
+"What chapel? Is there a second? Come with me, and you will never ask
+that question again. Get under the shade of St. Hilda's-- see once
+those fretted roofs and those painted windows. Listen but once to that
+angel choir, and then dare to ask me what chapel I mean when I invite
+you to come and taste of heaven beforehand."
+
+"Thank you," said Priscilla, "I'll come. I cannot be expected to know
+about things before I have heard of them, can I? But I am very much
+obliged to you, and I shall be delighted to come."
+
+  CHAPTER IX
+
+ A NEW LIFE
+
+THE vice-principal's room at Heath Hall was double the size of those
+occupied by the students. Miss Heath had, of course, a separate
+sleeping apartment. Her delightful sitting-room, therefore, had not
+the curtained-off effect which took slightly from the charm of the
+students' rooms. In summer Miss Heath's room was beautiful, for the
+two deep bay windows-- one facing west, the other south-- looked out
+upon smoothly kept lawns and flower-beds, upon tall elm trees and also
+upon a distant peep of the river, for which Kingsdene was famous, and
+some of the spires and towers of the old churches. In winter, too,
+however-- and winter had almost come now-- the vice-principal's room
+had a unique effect, and Priscilla never forgot the first time she saw
+it. The young girl stepped across the threshold of a new life on this
+first evening. She would always remember it.
+
+It was getting dark, and curtains were drawn round the cozy bays, and
+the firelight blazed cheerfully.
+
+Prissie was a little before rather than behind her time, and there was
+no one in the room to greet her when she entered. She felt so
+overmastered by shyness, however, that this was almost a relief, and
+she sank down into one of the many comfortable chairs with a feeling
+of thankfulness and looked around her.
+
+The next moment a servant entered with a lamp, covered with a gold
+silk shade. She placed it on a table near the fire, and lit a few
+candles, which stood on carved brackets round the walls. Then Prissie
+saw what made her forget Miss Heath and her shyness and all else-- a
+great bank of flowers, which stretched across one complete angle of
+the room. There were some roses, some chrysanthemums, some geraniums.
+They were cunningly arranged in pots, but had the effect at a little
+distance of a gay, tropical garden. Prissie rushed to them, knelt down
+by a tall, white Japanese chrysanthemum and buried her face in its
+long, wavy petals.
+
+Prissie had never seen such flowers, and she loved all flowers. Her
+heart swelled with a kind of wonder; and when, the next moment, she
+felt a light and very soft kiss on her forehead she was scarcely
+surprised.
+
+"My dear child," said Miss Heath, "I am so sorry I was not in the room
+when you came in; but never mind, my flowers gave you welcome."
+
+"Yes," said Prissie, standing up pale and with a luminous light in her
+eyes.
+
+"You love flowers?" said Miss Heath, giving her a keen glance.
+
+"Oh, yes; but I did not know-- I could not guess-- that any flower
+could be as beautiful as this," and she touched the great white
+chrysanthemum with her finger.
+
+"Yes, and there are some flowers even more wonderful. Have you ever
+seen orchids?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then you have something to live for. Orchids are ordinary flowers
+spiritualized. They have a glamor over them. We have good orchid shows
+sometimes at Kingsdene. I will take you to the next."
+
+The servant brought in tea, and Miss Heath placed Prissie in a
+comfortable chair, where she was neither oppressed by lamplight nor
+firelight.
+
+"A shy little soul like this will love the shade," she said to
+herself. "For all her plainness this is no ordinary girl, and I mean
+to draw her out presently. What a brow she has, and what a light came
+into her eyes when she looked at my white chrysanthemum."
+
+There came a tap at the door, and Maggie Oliphant entered, looking
+fresh and bright. She gave Prissie an affectionate glance and nod and
+then began to busy herself, helping Miss Heath with the tea. During
+the meal a little pleasant murmur of conversation was kept up. Miss
+Heath and Maggie exchanged ideas. They even entered upon one or two
+delicate little skirmishes, each cleverly arguing a slight point on
+which they appeared to differ. Maggie could make smart repartees, and
+Miss Heath could parry her graceful young adversary's home thrusts
+with excellent effect.
+
+They talked of one or two books which were then under discussion; they
+said a little about music and a word or two with regard to the
+pictures which were just then causing talk among the art critics in
+London. It was all new to Prissie, this "light, airy, nothing" kind of
+talk. It was not study; could it be classed under the head of
+recreation?
+
+Prissie was accustomed to classify everything, but she did not know
+under what head to put this pleasant conversation. She was bewildered,
+puzzled. She listened without losing a word. She forgot herself
+absolutely.
+
+Miss Heath, however, who knew Maggie Oliphant, but did not know
+Prissie, was observant of the silent young stranger through all the
+delights of her pleasant talk. Almost imperceptibly she got Prissie to
+say a word or two. She paused when she saw a question in Prissie's
+eyes, and her timid and gentle words were listened to with deference.
+By slow degrees Maggie was the silent one and Priscilla and Miss Heath
+held the field between them.
+
+"No, I have never been properly educated," Prissie was saying. "I have
+never gone to a high school. I don't do things in the regular fashion.
+I was so afraid I should not be able to pass the entrance examination
+for St. Benet's. I was delighted when I found that I had done so."
+
+"You passed the examination creditably," said Miss Heath. "I have
+looked through your papers. Your answers were not stereotyped. They
+were much better; they were thoughtful. Whoever has educated you, you
+have been well taught. You can think."
+
+"Oh, yes, my dear friend, Mr. Hayes, always said that was the first
+thing."
+
+"Ah, that accounts for it," replied Miss Heath. "You have had the
+advantage of listening to a cultivated man's conversation. You ought
+to do very well here. What do you mean to take up?"
+
+"Oh, everything. I can't know too much."
+
+Miss Heath laughed and looked at Maggie. Maggie was lying back in her
+easy-chair, her head resting luxuriously against a dark velvet
+cushion. She was tapping the floor slightly with her small foot; her
+eyes were fixed on Prissie. When Miss Heath laughed Maggie echoed the
+sound, but both laughs were in the sweetest sympathy.
+
+"You must not overwork yourself, my dear," said Miss Heath. "That
+would be a very false beginning. I think-- I am sure-- that you have
+an earnest and ardent nature, but you must avoid an extreme which will
+only end in disaster."
+
+Prissie frowned.
+
+"What do you mean?" she said. "I have come here to study. It has been
+done with such, such difficulty. It would be cruel to waste a moment.
+I mustn't; it wouldn't be right. You can't mean what you say."
+
+Miss Heath was silent. She thought it kinder to look away from
+Prissie. After a moment she said in a voice which she on purpose made
+intensely quiet and matter of fact:
+
+"Many girls come to St. Benet's, Miss Peel, who are, I fancy,
+circumstanced like you. Their friends find it difficult to send them
+here, but they make the sacrifice, sometimes in one way, sometimes in
+another-- and the girls come. They know it is their duty to study;
+they have an ulterior motive, which underlies everything else. They
+know by and by they must pay back."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Priscilla, starting forward and a flush coming into
+her face. "I know that-- that is what it is for. To pay back
+worthily-- to give back a thousandfold what you have received. Those
+girls can't be idle, can they?" she added in a gentle, piteous sort of
+way.
+
+"My dear, there have been several such girls at St. Benet's, and none
+of them has been idle; they have been best and first among our
+students. Many of them have done more than well-- many of them have
+brought fame to St. Benet's. They are in the world now and earning
+honorable livelihoods as teachers or in other departments where
+cultivated women can alone take the field. These girls are all paying
+back a thousandfold those who have helped them."
+
+"Yes," said Prissie.
+
+"You would like to follow their example?"
+
+"Oh, yes; please tell me about them."
+
+"Some of them were like you and thought they would take up
+everything-- everything I mean in the scholastic line. They filled
+their days with lectures and studied into the short hours of the
+night. Maggie, dear, please tell Miss Peel about Good-night and
+Good-morning."
+
+"They were such a funny pair," said Maggie. "They had rooms next to
+each other in our corridor, Miss Peel. They were both studying for a
+tripos, and during the term before the examination one went to bed at
+four and one got up at four. Mary Joliffe used to go into Susan
+Martin's room and say good morning to her. Susan used to raise such a
+white face and say, 'Good night, my dear.' Well, poor things, neither
+of them got a tripos; they worked too hard."
+
+"The simple English of all this," said Miss Heath, "is that the
+successful girl here is the girl who takes advantage of the whole life
+mapped out for her, who divides her time between play and work, who
+joins the clubs and enters heartily into the social life of the place.
+Yes," she added, looking suddenly full at Priscilla, "these last words
+of mine may seem strange to you, dear. Believe me, however, they are
+true. But I know," she added with a sigh, "that it takes rather an old
+person to believe in the education of play."
+
+Priscilla looked unconvinced.
+
+"I must do what you wish," she said, "for, of course, you ought to
+know."
+
+"What a lame kind of assent, my love! Maggie, you will have to gently
+lure this young person into the paths of frivolity. I promise you, my
+dear, that you shall be a very cultivated woman some day; but I only
+promise this if you will take advantage of all sides of the pleasant
+life here. Now tell me what are your particular tastes? What branch of
+study do you like best?"
+
+"I love Latin and Greek better than anything else in the world."
+
+"Do you truly?" said Maggie, suddenly starting forward. "Then in one
+thing we have a great sympathy. What have you read? Do tell me."
+
+Miss Heath stepped directly into the background. The two girls
+conversed for a long time together.
+
+  CHAPTER X
+
+ ST. HILDA'S CHAPEL
+
+"HERE we are now," said Maggie Oliphant, touching her young companion;
+"we are in good time; this is the outer chapel. Yes, I know all that
+you are thinking, but you need not speak; I did not want to speak the
+first time I came to St. Hilda's. Just follow me quickly. I know this
+verger; he will put us into two stalls; then it will be perfect."
+
+"Yes," answered Priscilla. She spoke in an awed kind of voice. The
+cool effect of the dark oak, combined with the richness of the many
+shafts of colored light coming from the magnificent windows, gave her
+own face a curious expression. Was it caused by emotion or by the
+strange lights in the chapel?
+
+Maggie glanced at her, touched her hand for a moment and then hurried
+forward to her seat.
+
+The girls were accommodated with stalls just above the choir. They
+could read out of the college prayer-books and had a fine view of the
+church.
+
+The congregation streamed in, the choir followed; the doors between
+the chapel and ante-chapel were shut, the curtains were dropped and
+the service began.
+
+There is no better musical service in England than that which Sunday
+after Sunday is conducted at St. Hilda's Chapel at Kingsdene. The
+harmony and the richness of the sounds which fill that old chapel can
+scarcely be surpassed. The boys send up notes clear and sweet as
+nightingales into the fretted arches of the roof; the men's deeper
+notes swell the music until it breaks on the ears in a full tide of
+perfect harmony; the great organ fills in the breaks and pauses. This
+splendid service of song seems to reach perfection. In its way earth
+cannot give anything more perfect.
+
+Maggie Oliphant did not come very often to St. Hilda's. At one time
+she was a constant worshiper there, but that was a year ago, before
+something happened which changed her. Then Sunday after Sunday two
+lovely girls used to walk up the aisle side by side. The verger knew
+them and reserved their favorite stalls for them. They used to kneel
+together and listen to the service, and, what is more, take part in
+it.
+
+But a time came when one of the girls could never return to St.
+Hilda's and the other, people said, did not care to sit in the old
+seat without her. They said she missed her friend and was more cut up
+than any one else at the sudden death of one so fair and lovely.
+
+When Maggie took her place in the old stall to-day more than one
+person turned to look at her with interest.
+
+Maggie always made a picturesque effect; she wore a large hat, with a
+drooping plume of feathers; her dress was very rich and dark; her fair
+face shone in the midst of these surroundings like an exquisite
+flower.
+
+The service went on. During the prayers Maggie wept, but, when a great
+wave of song filled the vast building, she forgot all her sorrow; her
+voice rose with the other singers, clear, sweet and high. Her soul
+seemed to go up on her voice, for all the sadness left her face; her
+eyes looked jubilant.
+
+Prissie had never been in any place like St. Hilda's before. It had
+been one of her dreams to go to the cathedral at Exeter, but year
+after year this desire of hers had been put off and put off, and this
+was the first time in her life that she had ever listened to cathedral
+music. She was impressed, delighted, but not overpowered.
+
+"The organ is magnificent," she said to herself, "but not grander than
+the sea. The sea accompanies all the service at the dear little old
+church at home."
+
+People met and talked to one another in the green quadrangle outside
+the chapel. Several other St. Benet girls had come to the afternoon
+service. Among them was Miss Day and that fair, innocent-looking
+little girl, Rosalind Merton.
+
+Miss Day and Miss Merton were together. They were both stepping back
+to join Maggie and Prissie, when a tall, dark young man came hastily
+forward, bowed to Rosalind Merton, and, coming up to Maggie Oliphant,
+shook hands with her.
+
+"I saw you in chapel," he said. "Are you coming to the Marshall's to
+tea?"
+
+"I am. Let me introduce to you my friend, Miss Peel. Miss Peel, this
+is Mr. Hammond."
+
+Hammond raised his hat to Prissie, said a courteous word to her and
+then turned to speak again to Maggie.
+
+The three walked through the gates of the quadrangle and turned up the
+narrow, picturesque High Street. It would soon be dusk; a wintry light
+was over everything. Rosalind Merton and Miss Day followed behind.
+Maggie, who was always absorbed with the present interest, did not
+heed or notice them, but Priscilla heard one or two ill-bred giggles.
+
+She turned her head with indignation and received scornful glances
+from both girls. The four met for a moment at a certain corner. Maggie
+said something to Annie Day and introduced Mr. Hammond to her. As she
+did so, Rosalind took the opportunity to come up to Priscilla and
+whisper to her:
+
+"You're not wanted, you know. You had much better come home with us."
+
+"What do you mean?" replied Prissie in her matter-of-fact voice. "Miss
+Oliphant has asked me to go with her to the Marshalls'."
+
+"Oh, well-- if you care to be in the----" resumed Rosalind.
+
+Maggie suddenly flashed round on her.
+
+"Come, Miss Peel, we'll be late," she said. "Goodby." She nodded to
+Rosalind; her eyes were full of an angry fire; she took Prissie's hand
+and hurried down the street.
+
+The two girls walked away, still giggling; a deep color mantled
+Maggie's cheeks. She turned and began to talk desperately to Mr.
+Hammond. Her tone was flippant; her silvery laughter floated in the
+air. Priscilla turned and gazed at her friend. She was seeing Maggie
+in yet another aspect. She felt bewildered.
+
+The three presently reached a pleasant house standing in its own
+grounds. They were shown into a large drawing-room, full of young
+people. Mrs. Marshall, a pretty old lady, with white hair, came
+forward to receive them. Maggie was swept away amid fervent embraces
+and handshakes to the other end of the room. Mrs. Marshall saw that
+Priscilla looked frightened; she took her under her wing, sat down by
+her on a sofa and began to talk.
+
+Prissie answered in a sedate voice. Mrs. Marshall had a very gentle
+manner. Prissie began to lose her shyness; she almost imagined that
+she was back again with Aunt Raby.
+
+"My dear, you will like us all very much," the old lady said. "No life
+can be so absolutely delightful as that of a girl graduate at St.
+Benet's. The freedom from care, the mixture of study with play, the
+pleasant social life, all combine to make young women both healthy and
+wise. Ah, my love, we leave out the middle of the old proverb. The
+girls at St. Benet's are in that happy period of existence when they
+need give no thought to money-making."
+
+"Some are," said Prissie. She sighed and the color rushed into her
+cheeks. Mrs. Marshall looked at her affectionately.
+
+"Helen," she called to her granddaughter who was standing near, "bring
+Miss Peel another cup of tea-- and some cake, Helen-- some of that
+nice cake you made yesterday. Now, my love, I insist. You don't look
+at all strong. You really must eat plenty."
+
+Helen Marshall supplied Prissie's wants, was introduced to her, and,
+standing near, joined in the talk.
+
+"I am so glad you know Miss Oliphant," said Mrs. Marshall. "She will
+make a delightful friend for you."
+
+"And isn't she lovely?" said Helen Marshall. "I don't think I know any
+one with such a beautiful face. You ought to be very proud to have her
+as a friend. Aren't you very proud?"
+
+"No," said Prissie, "I don't know that I am. I am not even sure that
+she is my friend."
+
+"Of course she is-- she wrote most affectionately of you to
+grandmother. You can't think how nicely she spoke. We were glad, we
+were delighted, because Maggie-- dear Maggie-- has had no great
+friends lately. Now, if you have had your tea, Miss Peel, I'll take
+you about the room and introduce you to one or two people."
+
+Priscilla rose from her seat at once, and the two girls began to move
+about the crowded drawing-room. Helen Marshall was very slight and
+graceful; she piloted Prissie here and there without disturbing any
+one's arrangements. At last the two girls found themselves in an
+immense conservatory, which opened into the drawing-room at one end.
+
+A great many of the guests were strolling about here. Priscilla's eyes
+sparkled at the sight of the lovely flowers. She forgot herself and
+made eager exclamations of ecstasy. Helen, who up to now had thought
+her a dull sort of girl, began to take an interest in her.
+
+"I'll take you into our fern-house, which is just beyond here," she
+said. "We have got such exquisite maidenhairs and such a splendid
+Killarney fern. Come; you shall see."
+
+The fern-house seemed to be deserted. Helen opened the door first and
+ran forward. Prissie followed. The fern-house was not large; they had
+almost reached the end when a girl stood up suddenly and confronted
+them. The girl was Maggie Oliphant. She was sitting there alone. Her
+face was absolutely colorless and tears were lying wet on her
+eyelashes.
+
+Maggie made a swift remark, a passing jest, and hurried past the two
+into the conservatory.
+
+Priscilla could scarcely tell why, but at that moment she lost all
+interest in both ferns and flowers. The look of misery on Maggie's
+face seemed to strike her own heart like a chill.
+
+"You look tired," said Helen Marshall, who had not noticed Maggie's
+tearful eyes.
+
+"Perhaps I am," answered Prissie.
+
+They went back again into the drawing-room. Prissie still could see
+nothing but Miss Oliphant's eyes and the look of distress on her pale
+face.
+
+Helen suddenly made a remark.
+
+"Was there ever such a merry creature as Maggie?" she said. "Do look
+at her now."
+
+Prissie raised her eyes. Miss Oliphant was the center of a gay group,
+among whom Geoffrey Hammond stood. Her laugh rang out clear and
+joyous; her smile was like sunshine, her cheeks had roses in them and
+her eyes were as bright as stars.
+
+  CHAPTER XI
+
+ CONSPIRATORS
+
+ANNIE DAY and her friend Rosalind ceased to laugh as soon as they
+turned the corner. Annie now turned her eyes and fixed them on
+Rosalind, who blushed and looked uncomfortable.
+
+"Well," said Annie, "you are a humbug, Rose! What a story you told me
+about Mr. Hammond-- how he looked at you and was so anxious to make
+use of you. Oh, you know all you said. You told me a charming story
+about your position as gooseberry.' You expected a little fun for
+yourself, didn't you, my friend? Well, it seems to me that if any one
+is to have the fun, it is Priscilla Peel."
+
+Rosalind had rather a nervous manner. She bit her lips now; her
+baby-blue eyes looked angry, her innocent face wore a frown. She
+dropped her hold of Annie Day's arm.
+
+Miss Day was one of the most commonplace girls at Heath Hall. She had
+neither good looks nor talent; she had no refinement of nature nor had
+she those rugged but sterling qualities of honesty and integrity of
+purpose which go far to cover a multitude of other defects.
+
+"I wish you wouldn't speak to me in that way," said Rosalind with a
+little gasp. "I hate people to laugh at me, and I can't stand sneers."
+
+"Oh, no! you're such a dear little innocent baby. Of course, I can
+quite understand. And does she suppose I'll ruffle her pretty little
+feathers? No, not I. I'd rather invent a new cradle song for you,
+Rosie, dear."
+
+"Don't, don't!" said Rosalind. "Look here, Annie, I must say
+something-- yes, I must. I hate Maggie Oliphant!"
+
+"You hate Miss Oliphant?" Annie Day stood still, turned round and
+stared at her companion. "When did this revolution take place, my
+dear? What about Rose and Maggie sitting side by side at dinner? And
+Rose creeping away all by herself to Maggie's room and angling for an
+invitation to cocoa, and trying hard, very hard, to become a member of
+the Dramatic Society, just because Maggie acts so splendidly. Has it
+not been Maggie-- Maggie-- ever since the term began, until we girls,
+who were not in love with this quite too charming piece of perfection,
+absolutely hated the sound of her name? Oh, Rose, what a fickle baby
+you are. I am ashamed of you!"
+
+"Don't!" said Rose again. She linked her hand half timidly in Miss
+Day's arm. Miss Day was almost a head and shoulders above the little,
+delicate, fairy-like creature. "I suppose I can't help changing my
+mind," she said. "I did love Maggie, of course I loved her-- she
+fascinated me; but I don't care for her-- no, I hate her now!"
+
+"How vehemently you pronounce that naughty word, my fair Rosalind. You
+must give me some reasons for this grievous change in your feelings."
+
+"She snubbed me," said Rosalind; "she made little of me. I offered to
+do her a kindness and she repulsed me. Who cares to be made little of
+and repulsed?"
+
+Who, truly, Rosie?-- not even an innocent baby. Now then, my love, let
+me whisper a little secret to you. I have never loved Miss Oliphant. I
+have never been a victim to her charms. Time was when she and Miss
+Lee-- poor Annabel!-- ruled the whole of our hall. Those two girls
+carried everything before them. That was before your day, Rose. Then
+Miss Lee died. She caught a chill, and had a fever, and was dead in a
+couple of days. Yes, of course, it was shocking. They moved her to the
+hospital, and she died there. Oh, there was such excitement, and such
+grief-- even I was sorry; for Annabel had a way about her, I can't
+describe it, but she could fascinate you. It was awfully interesting
+to talk to her, and even to look at her was a pleasure. We usedn't to
+think much about Maggie when Annabel was by; but now, what with Maggie
+and her mystery, and Maggie and her love affair, and Maggie and her
+handsome face, and her wealth, and her expectations, why she bids fair
+to be more popular even than the two were when they were together.
+Yes, little Rose, I don't want her to be popular any more than you do.
+I think it's a very unhealthy sign of any place to have all the girls
+sighing and groaning about one or two-- dying to possess their
+autographs, and kissing their photographs, and framing them, and
+putting them up in their rooms. I hate that mawkish kind of nonsense,"
+continued Miss Day, looking very virtuous, "and I think Miss Heath
+ought to know about it, and put a stop to it. I do, really."
+
+Rosalind was glad that the gathering darkness prevented her sharp
+companion from seeing the blush on her face, for among her own sacred
+possessions she kept an autograph letter of Maggie's, and she had
+passionately kissed Maggie's beautiful face as it looked at her out of
+a photograph, and, until the moment when all her feelings had
+undergone such a change, was secretly saving up her pence to buy a
+frame for it. Now she inquired eagerly:
+
+"What is the mystery about Miss Oliphant? So many people hint about
+it, I do wish you would tell me, Annie."
+
+"If I told you, pet, it would cease to be a mystery."
+
+"But you might say what you know. Do, Annie!"
+
+"Oh, it isn't much-- it's really nothing; and yet-- and yet--"
+
+"You know it isn't nothing, Annie!"
+
+"Well, when Annabel died, people said that Maggie had more cause than
+any one else to be sorry. I never could find out what that cause was;
+but the servants spread some reports. They said they had found Maggie
+and Annabel together; Annabel had fainted; and Maggie was in an awful
+state of misery-- in quite an unnatural state, they said; she went
+into hysterics, and Miss Heath was sent for, and was a long time
+soothing her. There was no apparent reason for this, although, somehow
+or other, little whispers got abroad that the mystery of Annabel's
+illness and Maggie's distress was connected with Geoffrey Hammond. Of
+course, nothing was known, and nothing is known; but, certainly, the
+little whisper got into the air. Dear me, Rosalind, you need not eat
+me with your eyes. I am repeating mere conjectures, and it is highly
+probable that not the slightest notice would have been taken of this
+little rumor but for the tragedy which immediately followed. Annabel,
+who had been as gay and well as any one at breakfast that morning, was
+never seen in the college again. She was unconscious, the servants
+said, for a long time, and when she awoke was in high fever. She was
+removed to the hospital, and Maggie had seen the last of her friend.
+Poor Annabel died in two days, and afterward Maggie took the fever.
+Yes, she has been quite changed since then. She always had moods, as
+she called them, but not like now. Sometimes I think she is almost
+flighty."
+
+Rosalind was silent. After a while she said in a prim little voice,
+which she adopted now and then when she wanted to conceal her real
+feelings:
+
+"But I do wonder what the quarrel was about-- I mean, what really
+happened between Annabel and Maggie."
+
+"Look here, Rosalind, have I said anything about a quarrel? Please
+remember that the whole thing is conjecture from beginning to end, and
+don't go all over the place spreading stories and making mischief. I
+have told you this in confidence, so don't forget."
+
+"I won't forget," replied Rosalind. "I don't know why you should
+accuse me of wanting to make mischief, Annie. I can't help being
+curious, of course, and, of course, I'd like to know more."
+
+"Well, for that matter, so would I," replied Annie. "Where there is a
+mystery it's much more satisfactory to get to the bottom of it. Of
+course, something dreadful must have happened to account for the
+change in Miss Oliphant. It would be a comfort to know the truth, and,
+of course, one need never talk of it. By the way, Rosie, you are just
+the person to ferret this little secret out; you are the right sort of
+person for spying and peeping."
+
+"Oh, thank you," replied Rosalind; "if that's your opinion of me I'm
+not inclined to do anything to please you. Spying and peeping, indeed!
+What next?"
+
+Annie Day patted her companion's small white hand.
+
+"And so I've hurt the dear little baby's feelings!" she said. "But I
+didn't mean to-- no, that I didn't. And she such a pretty, sweet
+little pet as she is! Well, Rosie, you know what I mean. If we can
+find out the truth about Miss Maggie we'll just have a quiet little
+crow over her all to ourselves. I don't suppose we shall find out, but
+the opportunities may arise-- who knows? Now I want to speak to you
+about another person, and that is Maggie's new friend."
+
+"What new friend?" Rosalind blushed brightly.
+
+"That ugly Priscilla Peel. She has taken her up. Any one can see
+that."
+
+"Oh, I don't think so."
+
+"But I do-- I am sure of it. Now I have good reason not to like Miss
+Priscilla. You know what a virtuous parade she made of herself a few
+nights ago?"
+
+"Yes, you told me."
+
+"Horrid, set-up minx! Just the sort of girl who ought to be suppressed
+and crushed out of a college like ours. Vaunting her poverty in our
+very faces and refusing to make herself pleasant or one with us in any
+sort of way. Lucy Marsh and I had a long talk over her that night, and
+we put our heads together to concoct a nice little bit of punishment
+for her. You know she's horridly shy, and as gauche as if she lived in
+the backwoods, and we meant to 'send her to Coventry.' We had it all
+arranged, and a whole lot of girls would have joined us, for it's
+contrary to the spirit of a place like this to allow girls of the
+Priscilla Peel type to become popular or liked in any way. But, most
+unluckily, poor, dear, good, but stupid, Nancy Banister was in the
+room when Prissie made her little oration, and Nancy took her up as if
+she were a heroine and spoke of her as if she had done something
+magnificent, and, of course, Nancy told Maggie, and now Maggie is as
+thick as possible with Prissie. So you see, my dear Rosalind, our
+virtuous little scheme is completely knocked on the head."
+
+"I don't see--" began Rosalind.
+
+"You little goose, before a week is out Prissie will be the fashion.
+All the girls will flock around her when Maggie takes her part. Bare,
+ugly rooms will be the rage; poverty will be the height of the
+fashion, and it will be considered wrong even to go in for the
+recognized college recreations. Rosie, my love, we must nip this
+growing mischief in the bud."
+
+"How?" asked Rosalind.
+
+"We must separate Maggie Oliphant and Priscilla Peel."
+
+"How?" asked Rose again. "I'm sure," she added in a vehement voice,
+"I'm willing-- I'm more than willing."
+
+"Good. Well, we're at home now, and I absolutely must have a cup of
+tea. No time for it in my room to-night-- let's come into the hall and
+have some there. Look here, Rosalind, I'll ask Lucy Marsh to have
+cocoa to-night in my room, and you can come too. Now keep a silent
+tongue in your head, Baby."
+
+  CHAPTER XII
+
+ A GOOD THING TO BE YOUNG
+
+IT was long past the tea-hour at Heath Hall when Maggie Oliphant and
+Priscilla started on their walk home. The brightness and gaiety of the
+merry party at the Marshalls' had increased as the moments flew on.
+Even Priscilla had caught something of the charm. The kindly spirit
+which animated every one seemed to get into her. She first became
+interested, then she forgot herself. Prissie was no longer awkward;
+she began to talk, and when she liked she could talk well.
+
+As the two girls were leaving the house Geoffrey Hammond put in a
+sudden appearance.
+
+"I will see you home," he said to Maggie.
+
+"No, no, you mustn't," she answered; her tone was vehement. She forgot
+Prissie's presence and half turned her back on her.
+
+"How unkind you are!" said the young man in a low tone.
+
+"No, Geoffrey, but I am struggling-- you don't know how hard I am
+struggling-- to be true to myself."
+
+"You are altogether mistaken in your idea of truth," said Hammond,
+turning and walking a little way by her side.
+
+"I am not mistaken-- I am right."
+
+"Well, at least allow me to explain my side of the question."
+
+"No, it cannot be; there shall be no explanations, I am resolved. Good
+night, you must not come any further."
+
+She held out her hand. Hammond took it limply between his own.
+
+"You are very cruel," he murmured in the lowest of voices.
+
+He raised his hat, forgot even to bow to Priscilla, and hurried off
+down a side street.
+
+Maggie walked on a little way. Then she turned and looked down the
+street where he had vanished. Suddenly she raised her hand to her
+lips, kissed it and blew the kiss after the figure which had already
+disappeared. She laughed excitedly when she did this, and her whole
+face was glowing with a beautiful color.
+
+Prissie, standing miserable and forgotten by the tall, handsome girl's
+side, could see the light in her eyes and the glow on her cheeks in
+the lamplight.
+
+"I am here," said Priscilla at last in a low, half-frightened voice.
+"I am sorry I am here, but I am. I heard what you said to Mr. Hammond.
+I am sorry I heard."
+
+Maggie turned slowly and looked at her. Prissie returned her gaze.
+Then, as if further words were wrung from her against her will, she
+continued:
+
+"I saw the tears in your eyes in the fern-house at the Marshalls'. I
+am very sorry, but I did see them."
+
+"My dear Prissie!" said Maggie. She went up suddenly to the girl, put
+her arm round her neck and kissed her.
+
+"Come home now," she said, drawing Prissie's hand through her arm. "I
+don't think I greatly mind your knowing," she said after a pause. "You
+are true; I see it in your face. You would never tell again-- you
+would never make mischief."
+
+"Tell again! Of course not." Prissie's words came out with great
+vigor.
+
+"I know you would not, Priscilla; may I call you Priscilla?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Will you be my friend and shall I be your friend?"
+
+"If you would," said Prissie. "But you don't mean it. It is impossible
+that you can mean it. I'm not a bit like you-- and-- and-- you only
+say these things to be kind."
+
+"What do you mean, Priscilla?"
+
+"I must tell you," said Prissie, turning very pale. "I heard what you
+said to Miss Banister the night I came to the college."
+
+"What I said to Miss Banister? What did I say?"
+
+"Oh, can't you remember? The words seemed burnt into me: I shall never
+forget them. I had left my purse in the dining-hall, and I was going
+to fetch it. Your door was a little open. I heard my name, and I
+stopped-- yes, I did stop to listen."
+
+"Oh, what a naughty, mean little Prissie! You stopped to listen. And
+what did you hear? Nothing good, of course? The bad thing was said to
+punish you for listening."
+
+"I heard," said Priscilla, her own cheeks crimson now, "I heard you
+say that it gave you an aesthetic pleasure to be kind, and that was
+why you were good to me."
+
+Maggie felt her own color rising.
+
+"Well, my dear," she said, "it still gives me an aesthetic pleasure to
+be kind. You could not expect me to fall in love with you the moment I
+saw you. I was kind to you then, perhaps, for the reason I stated. It
+is very different now."
+
+"It was wrong of you to be kind to me for that reason."
+
+"Wrong of me? What an extraordinary girl you are, Priscilla-- why was
+it wrong of me?"
+
+"Because I learned to love you. You were gentle to me and spoke
+courteously when others were rude and only laughed; my whole heart
+went out to you when you were so sweet and gentle and kind. I did not
+think-- I could not possibly think-- that you were good just because
+it gave you a sort of selfish pleasure. When I heard your words I felt
+dreadful. I hated St. Benet's; I wished I had never come. Your words
+turned everything to bitterness for me."
+
+"Did they really, Priscilla? Oh, Prissie! what a thoughtless, wild,
+impulsive creature I am. Well, I don't feel now as I did that night.
+If those words were cruel, forgive me. Forget those words, Prissie."
+
+"I will if you will."
+
+"I? I have forgotten them utterly."
+
+"Thank you, thank you."
+
+"Then we'll be friends-- real friends; true friends?"
+
+Yes."
+
+"You must say Yes, Maggie.'"
+
+"Yes, Maggie."
+
+"That is right. Now keep your hand in my arm. Let's walk fast. Is it
+not glorious to walk in this semi-frosty sort of weather? Prissie,
+you'll see a vast lot that you don't approve of in your new friend."
+
+"Oh, I don't care," said Priscilla.
+
+She felt so joyous she could have skipped.
+
+"I've as many sides," continued Maggie, "as a chamelon has colors. I
+am the gayest of the gay, as well as the saddest of the sad. When I am
+gay you may laugh with me, but I warn you when I am sad you must never
+cry with me. Leave me alone when I have my dark moods on, Prissie."
+
+"Very well, Maggie, I'll remember."
+
+"I think you'll make a delightful friend," said Miss Oliphant, just
+glancing at her; "but I pity your side of the bargain."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I'll try you so fearfully."
+
+"Oh, no, you won't. I don't want to have a perfect friend."
+
+"Perfect. No, child-- Heaven forbid. But there are shades of
+perfection. Now, when I get into my dark moods, I feel wicked as well
+as sad. No, we won't talk of them; we'll keep them away. Prissie, I
+feel good to-night-- good-- and glad: it's such a nice feeling."
+
+"I am sure of it," said Priscilla.
+
+"What do you know about it, child? You have not tasted life yet. Wait
+until you do. For instance-- no, though-- I won't enlighten you.
+Prissie, what do you think of Geoffrey Hammond?"
+
+"I think he loves you very much."
+
+"Poor Geoffrey! Now, Prissie, you are to keep that little thought
+quite dark in your mind-- in fact, you are to put it out of your mind.
+You are not to associate my name with Mr. Hammond's-- not even in your
+thoughts. You will very likely hear us spoken of together, and some of
+the stupid girls here will make little quizzing, senseless remarks.
+But there will be no truth in them, Prissie. He is nothing to me nor I
+to him."
+
+"Then why did you blow a kiss after him?" asked Priscilla.
+
+Maggie stood still. It was too dark for Priscilla to see her blush.
+
+"Oh, my many-sided nature!" she suddenly exclaimed. "It was a wicked
+sprite made me blow that kiss. Prissie, my dear, I am cold: race me to
+the house."
+
+The two girls entered the wide hall, flushed and laughing. Other girls
+were lingering about on the stairs. Some were just starting off to
+evening service at Kingsdene; others were standing in groups,
+chatting. Nancy Banister came up and spoke to Maggie. Maggie took her
+arm and walked away with her.
+
+Prissie found herself standing alone in the hall. It was as if the
+delightful friendship cemented between herself and Miss Oliphant in
+the frosty air outside had fallen to pieces like a castle of cards the
+moment they entered the house. Prissie felt a chill. Her high spirits
+went down a very little. Then, resolving to banish the ignoble spirit
+of distrust, she prepared to run upstairs to her own room.
+
+Miss Heath called her name as she was passing an open door.
+
+"Is that you, my dear? Will you come to my room after supper
+to-night?"
+
+"Oh, thank you," said Prissie, her eyes sparkling.
+
+Miss Heath came to the threshold of her pretty room and smiled at the
+young girl.
+
+"You look well and happy," she said. "You are getting at home here.
+You will love us all yet."
+
+"I love you now!" said Prissie with fervor.
+
+Miss Heath, prompted by the look of intense and sincere gladness on
+the young face, bent and kissed Priscilla. A rather disagreeable voice
+said suddenly at her back:
+
+"I beg your pardon," and Lucy Marsh ran down the stairs.
+
+She had knocked against Prissie in passing; she had witnessed Miss
+Heath's kiss. The expression on Lucy's face was unpleasant. Prissie
+did not notice it, however. She went slowly up to her room. The
+electric light was on, the fire was blazing merrily. Priscilla removed
+her hat and jacket, threw herself into the one easy-chair the room
+contained, and gave herself up to pleasant dreams. Many new aspects of
+life were opening before her. She felt that it was a good thing to be
+young, and she was distinctly conscious of a great, soft glow of
+happiness.
+
+  CHAPTER XIII
+
+ CAUGHT IN A TRAP
+
+COLLEGE life is school life over again, but with wide differences. The
+restraints which characterize the existence of a schoolgirl are
+scarcely felt at all by the girl graduates. There are no punishments.
+Up to a certain point she is free to be industrious or not as she
+pleases. Some rules there are for her conduct and guidance, but they
+are neither many nor arbitrary. In short, the young girl graduate is
+no longer thought of as a child. She is a woman, with a woman's
+responsibilities; she is treated accordingly.
+
+Miss Day, Miss Marsh, Miss Merton and one or two other congenial
+spirits entered heartily into the little plot which should deprive
+Priscilla of Maggie Oliphant's friendship. They were anxious to
+succeed in this, because their characters were low, their natures
+jealous and mean. Prissie had set up a higher standard than theirs,
+and they were determined to crush the little aspirant for moral
+courage. If in crushing Prissie they could also bring discredit upon
+Miss Oliphant, their sense of victory would have been intensified; but
+it was one thing for these conspirators to plot and plan and another
+thing for them to perform. It is possible that in school life they
+might have found this easier; opportunities might have arisen for
+them, with mistresses to be obeyed, punishments to be dreaded, rewards
+to be won. At St. Benet's there was no one especially to be obeyed,
+and neither rewards nor punishments entered into the lives of the
+girls.
+
+Maggie Oliphant did not care in the least what girls like Miss Day or
+Miss Marsh said or thought about her, and Priscilla, who was very
+happy and industrious just now, heard many innuendoes and sly little
+speeches without taking in their meaning.
+
+Still, the conspirators did not despair. The term before Christmas was
+in some ways rather a dull one, and they were glad of any excitement
+to break the monotony. As difficulties increased their ardor also
+deepened, and they were resolved not to leave a stone unturned to
+effect their object. Where there is a will there is a way. This is
+true as regards evil and good things alike.
+
+One foggy morning, toward the end of November, Priscilla was standing
+by the door of one of the lecture-rooms, a book of French history, a
+French grammar and exercise-book and thick note-book in her hand. She
+was going to her French lecture and was standing patiently by the
+lecture-room door, which had not yet been opened.
+
+Priscilla's strongest bias was for Greek and Latin, but Mr. Hayes had
+recommended her to take up modern languages as well, and she was
+steadily plodding through the French and German, for which she had not
+so strong a liking as for her beloved classics. Prissie was a very
+eager learner, and she was busy now looking over her notes of the last
+lecture and standing close to the door, so as to be one of the first
+to take her place in the lecture-room.
+
+The rustling of a dress caused her to look round, and Rosalind Merton
+stood by her side. Rosalind was by no means one of the "students" of
+the college. She attended as few lectures as were compatible with her
+remaining there, but French happened to be one of the subjects which
+she thought it well to take up, and she appeared now by Prissie's side
+with the invariable notebook, without which no girl went to lecture,
+in her hand.
+
+"Isn't it cold?" she said, shivering and raising her pretty face to
+Priscilla's.
+
+Prissie glanced at her for a moment, said Yes, she supposed it was
+cold, in an abstracted voice, and bent her head once more over her
+note-book.
+
+Rosalind was looking very pretty in a dress of dark blue velveteen.
+Her golden curly hair lay in little tendrils all over her head and
+curled lovingly against her soft white throat.
+
+"I hate Kingsdene in a fog," she continued, "and I think it's very
+wrong to keep us in this draughty passage until the lecture-room is
+opened. Don't you, Miss Peel?"
+
+"Well, we are before our time, so no one is to blame for that,"
+answered Priscilla.
+
+"Of course, so we are." Rosalind pulled out a small gold watch, which
+she wore at her girdle.
+
+"How stupid of me to have mistaken the hour!" she exclaimed. Then
+looking hard at Prissie, she continued in an anxious tone:
+
+"You are not going to attend any lectures this afternoon, are you,
+Miss Peel?"
+
+"No," answered Priscilla. "Why?"
+
+Rosalind's blue eyes looked almost pathetic in their pleading.
+
+"I wonder"-- she began; "I am so worried, I wonder if you'd do me a
+kindness."
+
+"I can't say until you ask me," said Priscilla; "what do you want me
+to do?"
+
+"There's a girl at Kingsdene, a Miss Forbes. She makes my dresses now
+and then; I had a letter from her last night, and she is going to
+London in a hurry because her mother is ill. She made this dress for
+me. Isn't it pretty?"
+
+"Yes," answered Priscilla, just glancing at it. "But what connection
+has that with my doing anything for you?"
+
+"Oh, a great deal; I'm coming to that part. Miss Forbes wants me to
+pay her for making this dress before she goes to London. I can only do
+this by going to Kingsdene this afternoon."
+
+"Well?" said Priscilla.
+
+"I want to know if you will come with me. Miss Heath does not like our
+going to the town alone, particularly at this time of year, when the
+evenings are so short. Will you come with me, Miss Peel? It will be
+awfully good-natured of you, and I really do want poor Miss Forbes to
+have her money before she goes to London."
+
+"But cannot some of your own friends go with you?" returned Priscilla.
+"I don't wish to refuse, of course, if it is necessary; but I want to
+work up my Greek notes this afternoon. The next lecture is a very
+stiff one, and I sha'n't he ready for it without some hard work."
+
+"Oh, but you can study when you come back. Do come with me. I would
+not ask you, only I know you are so good-natured, and Annie Day and
+Lucy Marsh have both to attend lectures this afternoon. I have no one
+to ask-- no one, really if you refuse. I have not half so many friends
+as you think, and it would be quite too dreadful for poor Miss Forbes
+not to have her money when she wants to spend it on her sick mother."
+
+Priscilla hesitated for a moment. Two or three other girls were
+walking down the corridor to the lecture-room; the door was flung
+open.
+
+"Very well," she said as she entered the room, followed by Rosalind,
+"I will go with you. At what hour do you want to start?"
+
+"At three o'clock. I'm awfully grateful. A thousand thanks, Miss
+Peel."
+
+Prissie nodded, seated herself at the lecture-table and in the
+interest of the work which lay before her soon forgot all about
+Rosalind and her troubles.
+
+The afternoon of that day turned out not only foggy but wet. A
+drizzling rain shrouded the landscape, and very few girls from St.
+Benet's were venturing abroad.
+
+At half-past two Nancy Banister came hastily into Priscilla's room.
+
+"Maggie and I are going down to the library," she said, "to have a
+cozy read by the fire; we want you to come with us. Why, surely you
+are never going out, Miss Peel?"
+
+"Yes, I am," answered Prissie in a resigned voice. "I don't like it a
+bit, but Miss Merton has asked me to go with her to Kingsdene, and I
+promised."
+
+"Well, you sha'n't keep your promise. This is not a fit day for you to
+go out, and you have a cough, too. I heard you coughing last night."
+
+"Yes, but that is nothing. I must go, Miss Banister,", I must keep my
+word. I dare say it won't take Miss Merton and me very long to walk
+into Kingsdene and back again."
+
+"And I never knew that Rosalind Merton was one of your friends,
+Prissie," continued Nancy in a puzzled voice.
+
+"Nor is she-- I scarcely know her; but when she asked me to go out
+with her, I could not very well say no."
+
+"I suppose not; but I am sorry, all the same, for it is not a fit day
+for any one to be abroad, and Rosalind is such a giddy pate. Well,
+come back as soon as you can. Maggie and I are going to have a jolly
+time, and we only wish you were with us."
+
+Nancy nodded brightly and took her leave, and Priscilla, putting on
+her waterproof and her shabbiest hat, went down into the hall to meet
+Rosalind.
+
+Rosalind was also in waterproof, but her hat was extremely pretty and
+becoming, and Priscilla fancied she got a glimpse of a gay silk dress
+under the waterproof cloak.
+
+"Oh, how quite too sweet of you to be ready!" said Rosalind with
+effusion. She took Prissie's hand and squeezed it affectionately, and
+the two girls set off.
+
+The walk was a dreary one, for Kingsdene, one of the most beautiful
+places in England in fine weather, lies so low that in the winter
+months fogs are frequent, and the rain is almost incessant, so that
+then the atmosphere is always damp and chilly. By the time the two
+girls had got into the High Street Prissie's thick, sensible boots
+were covered with mud and Rosalind's thin ones felt very damp to her
+feet.
+
+They soon reached the quarter where the dressmaker, Miss Forbes,
+lived. Prissie was asked to wait downstairs, and Rosalind ran up
+several flights of stairs to fulfil her mission. She came back at the
+end of a few minutes, looking bright and radiant.
+
+"I am sorry to have kept you waiting, Miss Peel," she said, "but my
+boots were so muddy that Miss Forbes insisted on polishing them up for
+me."
+
+"Well, we can go home now, I suppose?" said Prissie.
+
+"Ye-- es; only as we are here, would you greatly mind our going round
+by Bouverie Street? I want to inquire for a friend of mine, Mrs.
+Elliot-Smith. She has not been well."
+
+"Oh, I don't mind," said Priscilla. "Will it take us much out of our
+way?"
+
+"No, only a step or two. Come, we have just to turn this corner, and
+here we are. What a dear-- quite too good-natured girl you are, Miss
+Peel!"
+
+Prissie said nothing. The two started forth again in the drizzling
+mist and fog, and presently found themselves in one of the most
+fashionable streets of Kingsdene and standing before a ponderous
+hall-door, which stood back in a portico.
+
+Rosalind rang the bell, which made a loud peal. The door was opened
+almost immediately; but, instead of a servant appearing in answer to
+the summons, a showily dressed girl, with a tousled head of flaxen
+hair, light blue eyes and a pale face, stood before Rosalind and
+Prissie.
+
+"Oh, you dear Rose!" she said, clasping her arms round Miss Merton and
+dragging her into the house; "I had almost given you up. Do come in--
+do come in, both of you. You are more than welcome. What a miserable,
+horrid, too utterly depressing afternoon it is!"
+
+"How do you do, Meta?" said Rosalind, when she could interrupt this
+eager flow of words. "May I introduce my friend, Miss Peel? Miss Peel,
+this is my very great and special friend and chum, Meta Elliot-Smith."
+
+"Oh, you charming darling!" said Meta, giving Rose a fresh hug and
+glancing in a supercilious but friendly way at Prissie.
+
+"We came to inquire for your mother, dear Meta," said Rose in a demure
+tone. "Is she any better?"
+
+"Yes, my dear darling, she's much better." Meta's eyes flashed
+interrogation into Rose's: Rose's returned back glances which spoke
+whole volumes of meaning.
+
+"Look here," said Meta Elliot-Smith, "now that you two dear, precious
+girls have come, you mustn't go away. Oh, no, I couldn't hear of it. I
+have perfect oceans to say to you, Rose-- and it is absolutely
+centuries since we have met. Off with your waterproof and up you come
+to the drawing-room for a cup of tea. One or two friends are dropping
+in presently, and the Beechers and one or two more are upstairs now.
+You know the Beechers, don't you, Rosalind? Here, Miss Peel, let me
+help you to unburden yourself. Little Rose is so nimble in her ways
+that she doesn't need any assistance."
+
+"Oh, but indeed I can't stay," said Prissie. "It is quite impossible!
+You know, Miss Merton, it is impossible. We are due at St. Benet's
+now. We ought to be going back at once."
+
+Rosalind Merton's only answer was to slip off her waterproof cloak and
+stand arrayed in a fascinating toilet of silk and lace-- a little too
+dressy, perhaps, even for an afternoon party at Kingsdene, but vastly
+becoming to its small wearer.
+
+Priscilla opened her eyes wide as she gazed at her companion. She saw
+at once that she had been entrapped into her present false position,
+and that Rosalind's real object in coming to Kingsdene was not to pay
+her dressmaker but to visit the Elliot-Smiths.
+
+"I can't possible stay," she said in a cold, angry voice. "I must go
+back to St. Benet's at once."
+
+She began to button up her waterproof as fast as Miss Elliot-Smith was
+unbuttoning it.
+
+"Nonsense, you silly old dear!" said Rosalind, who, having gained her
+way, was now in the best of spirits. "You mustn't listen to her, Meta;
+she studies a great deal too hard, and a little relaxation will do her
+all the good in the world. My dear Miss Peel, you can't be so rude as
+to refuse a cup of tea, and I know I shall catch an awful cold if I
+don't have one. Do come upstairs for half an hour; do, there's a dear
+Prissie!"
+
+Priscilla hesitated. She had no knowledge of so-called "society." Her
+instincts told her it was very wrong to humor Rose. She disliked Miss
+Elliot-Smith and felt wild at the trick which had been played on her.
+Nevertheless, on an occasion of this kind, she was no match for Rose,
+who knew perfectly what she was about, and stood smiling and pretty
+before her.
+
+"Just for a few moments," said Rosalind, coming up and whispering to
+her. "I really won't keep you long. You will just oblige me for a few
+minutes."
+
+"Well, but I'm not fit to be seen in this old dress!" whispered back
+poor Prissie.
+
+"Oh, yes, you are; you're not bad at all, and I am sure Meta will find
+you a secluded corner if you want it-- won't you, Meta?"
+
+"Yes, of course, if Miss Peel wants it," answered Meta. "But she looks
+all right, so deliciously quaint-- I simply adore quaint people! Quite
+the sweet girl graduate, I do declare. You don't at all answer to the
+role, you naughty Rosalind!"
+
+So Prissie, in her ill-made brown dress, her shabbiest hat and her
+muddy boots, had to follow in the wake of Rosalind Merton and her
+friend. At first she had been too angry to think much about her
+attire, but she was painfully conscious of it when she entered a
+crowded drawing-room, where every one else was in a suitable afternoon
+toilet. She was glad to shrink away out of sight into the most remote
+corner she could find; her muddy boots were pushed far in under her
+chair and hidden as much as possible by her rather short dress; her
+cheeks burnt unbecomingly; she felt miserable, self-conscious, ill at
+ease and very cross with every one. It was in vain for poor Priscilla
+to whisper to herself that Greek and Latin were glorious and great and
+dress and fashion were things of no moment whatever. At this instant
+she knew all too well that dress and fashion were reigning supreme.
+
+Meta Elliot-Smith was elusive, loud and vulgar, but she was also
+good-natured. She admired Rosalind, but in her heart of hearts she
+thought that her friend had played Prissie a very shabby trick. She
+brought Prissie some tea, therefore, and stood for a moment or two by
+her side, trying to make things a little more comfortable for her.
+Some one soon claimed her attention, however, and poor Prissie found
+herself alone.
+
+  CHAPTER XIV
+
+ IN THE ELLIOT-SMITH'S DRAWING-ROOM
+
+THE fun and talk rose fast and furious. More and more guests arrived;
+the large drawing-rooms were soon almost as full as they could hold.
+Priscilla, from her corner, half-hidden by a sheltering window
+curtain, looked in vain for Rosalind. Where had she hidden herself?
+When were they going away? Surely Rosalind would come to fetch her
+soon? They had to walk home and be ready for dinner.
+
+Dinner at St. Benet's was at half-past six, and Prissie reflected with
+a great sensation of thankfulness that Rosalind and she must go back
+in good time for this meal, as it was one of the rules of the college
+that no girl should absent herself from late dinner without getting
+permission from the principal.
+
+Prissie looked in agony at the clock which stood on a mantel-piece not
+far from where she had ensconced herself. Presently it struck five; no
+one heard its silver note in the babel of sound, but Priscilla watched
+its slowly moving hands in an agony.
+
+Rose must come to fetch her presently. Prissie knew-- she reflected to
+her horror that she had not the moral courage to walk about those
+drawing-rooms hunting for Rose.
+
+Two or three exquisitely dressed but frivolous-looking women stood in
+a group not far from the window where Priscilla sat forlorn. They
+talked about the cut of their mantles and the price they had given for
+their new winter bonnets. Their shrill laughter reached Prissie's
+ears, also their words. They complimented one another, but talked
+scandal of their neighbors. They called somebody-- who Prissie could
+not imagine--" a certain lady," and spoke of how she was angling to
+get a footing in society, and how the good set at Kingsdene would
+certainly never have anything to do with her or hers.
+
+"She's taking up those wretched girl graduates," said one of these
+gossips to her neighbor. Then her eye fell upon Prissie. She said
+"Hush!" in an audible tone, and the little party moved away out of
+earshot.
+
+The minute hand of the clock on the mantel-piece pointed to nearly
+half-past five. Poor Prissie felt her miseries grow almost
+intolerable. Tears of mortification and anguish were forcing
+themselves to her eyes. She felt that, in addition to having lost so
+many hours of study, she would get into a serious scrape at St.
+Benet's for breaking one of the known rules of the college.
+
+At this moment a quiet voice said, "How do you do?"
+
+She raised her tearful eyes. Geoffrey Hammond was standing by her
+side. He gave her a kind glance, shook hands with her and stood by her
+window uttering commonplaces until Priscilla had recovered her
+self-possession. Then, dropping into a chair near, he said abruptly:
+
+"I saw you from the other end of the room. I was surprised. I did not
+suppose you knew our hostess."
+
+"Nor do I really," said Priscilla with sudden vehemence. "Oh, it's a
+shame!" she added, her face reddening up woefully; "I have been
+entrapped!"
+
+"You must not let the people who are near us hear you say words of
+that kind," said Hammond; "they will crowd around to hear your story.
+Now, I want it all to myself. Do you think you can tell it to me in a
+low voice?"
+
+To poor Hammond's horror Prissie began to whisper.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said, interrupting her, "but do you know that
+the buzzing noise caused by a whisper carries sound a long way? That
+is a well authenticated fact. Now, if you will try to speak low."
+
+"Oh, thank you; yes, I will," said Prissie. She began a garbled
+account. Hammond looked at her face and guessed the truth. The
+miseries of her present position were depriving the poor girl of the
+full use of her intellect. At last he ascertained that Priscilla's
+all-absorbing present anxiety was to be in time for the half-past six
+dinner at St. Benet's.
+
+"I know we'll be late," she said, "and I'll have broken the rules, and
+Miss Heath will be so much annoyed with me."
+
+Hammond volunteered to look for Miss Merton.
+
+"Oh, thank you," said Prissie, the tears springing to her eyes. "How
+very, very kind you are."
+
+"Please don't speak of it," said Hammond. "Stay where you are. I'll
+soon bring the young truant to your side."
+
+He began to move about the drawing-rooms, and Prissie from her
+hiding-place watched him with a world of gratitude in her face. "Talk
+of my stirring from this corner," she said to herself, "why, I feel
+glued to the spot! Oh, my awful muddy boots. I daren't even think of
+them. Now I do hope Mr. Hammond will find Miss Merton quickly. How
+kind he is! I wonder Maggie does not care for him as much as he cares
+for her. I do not feel half as shy with him as I do with every one
+else in this dreadful-- dreadful room. Oh, I do trust he'll soon come
+back and bring Miss Merton with him. Then, if we run all the way, we
+may, perhaps, be in time for dinner."
+
+Hammond was absent about ten minutes; they seemed like so many hours
+to anxious Prissie. To her horror she saw him returning alone, and now
+she so far forgot her muddy boots as to run two or three steps to meet
+him. She knocked over a footstool as she did so, and one or two people
+looked round and shrugged their shoulders at the poor gauche girl.
+
+"Where is she?" exclaimed Prissie, again speaking in a loud voice.
+"Oh, haven't you brought her? What shall I do?"
+
+"It's all right, I assure you, Miss Peel. Let me conduct you back to
+that snug seat in the window. I have seen Miss Merton, and she says
+you are to make yourself happy. She asked Miss Heath's permission for
+you both to be absent from dinner to-day."
+
+"She did? I never heard of anything so outrageous. I won't stay. I
+shall go away at once."
+
+"Had you not better just think calmly over it? If you return to St.
+Benet's without Miss Merton, you will get her into a scrape."
+
+"Do you think I care for that? Oh, she has behaved disgracefully! She
+has told Miss Heath a lie. I shall explain matters the very moment I
+go back."
+
+Priscilla was not often in a passion, but she felt in one now. She
+lost her shyness and her voice rose without constraint.
+
+"I am not supposed to know the ways of society," she said, "but I
+don't think I want to know much about this sort of society." And she
+got up, prepared to leave the room.
+
+The ladies, who had been gossiping at her side, turned at the sound of
+her agitation. They saw a plain, badly dressed girl, with a frock
+conveniently short for the muddy streets, but by no means in tone with
+her present elegant surroundings, standing up and contradicting, or at
+least appearing to contradict, Geoffrey Hammond, one of the best known
+men at St. Hilda's, a Senior Wrangler, too. What did this gauche girl
+mean? Most people were deferential to Hammond, but she seemed to be
+scolding him.
+
+Prissie for the time being became more interesting even than the
+winter fashions. The ladies drew a step or two nearer to enjoy the
+little comedy.
+
+Priscilla noticed no one, but Hammond felt these good ladies in the
+air. His cheeks burned and he wished himself well out of his present
+position.
+
+"If you will sit down, Miss Peel," he said in a low, firm voice, "I
+think I can give you good reasons for not rushing away in this
+headlong fashion."
+
+"Well, what are they?" said Prissie. Hammond's voice had a
+sufficiently compelling power to make her sit down once more on her
+window-ledge.
+
+"Don't you think," he said, seating himself in front of her, "that we
+may as well keep this discussion to ourselves?"
+
+"Oh, yes; was I speaking too loud? I wouldn't vex you for anything."
+
+"Pardon me; you are still speaking a little loud."
+
+"Oh!" Poor Prissie fell back, her face crimson. "Please say anything
+you wish," she presently piped in a voice as low as a little mouse
+might have used.
+
+"What I have to say is simply this," said Hammond: "You will gain
+nothing now by rushing off to St. Benet's. However hard you struggle,
+you cannot get there in time for dinner. Would it not be best, then,
+to remain here quietly until Miss Merton asks you to accompany her
+back to the college? Then, of course, it will remain with you to pay
+her out in any way you think well."
+
+"Thank you; perhaps that is best. It is quite hopeless now to think of
+getting back in time for dinner. I only hope Miss Merton won't keep me
+waiting very long, for it is very, very dull sitting here and seeing
+people staring at you."
+
+"I would not look at them if I were you, Miss Peel; and, if you will
+permit me, I shall be only too pleased to keep you company."
+
+"Oh, thank you," said Prissie. "Then I sha'n't mind staying at all."
+
+The next half-hour seemed to pass on the wings of the wind.
+
+Priscilla was engaged in an animated discussion with Hammond on the
+relative attractions of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey;" her opinion
+differed from his, and she was well able to hold her ground. Her face
+was now both eloquent and attractive, her eyes were bright, her words
+terse and epigrammatic. She looked so different a girl from the cowed
+and miserable little Prissie of an hour ago that Rosalind Merton as
+she came up and tapped her on the shoulder, felt a pang of envy.
+
+"I am sorry to interrupt you," she said, "but it is time for us to be
+going home. Have you given Mr. Hammond his message?"
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Priscilla. "I have not any message for Mr.
+Hammond."
+
+"You must have forgotten. Did not Miss Oliphant give you a letter for
+him?"
+
+"Certainly not. What do you mean?"
+
+"I felt sure I saw her," said Rosalind. "I suppose I was mistaken.
+Well, sorry as I am to interrupt a pleasant talk, I fear I must ask
+you to come home with me now."
+
+She raised her pretty baby eyes to Hammond's face as she spoke. He
+absolutely scowled down at her, shook hands warmly with Priscilla and
+turned away.
+
+"Come and bid Mrs. Elliot-Smith good-by," said Rosalind, her eyes
+still dancing. "She is at the other end of the drawing-room; come, you
+can follow me."
+
+"How disgracefully you have behaved, Miss Merton!" began Priscilla at
+once. "You cannot expect me ever to speak to you again, and I shall
+certainly tell Miss Heath."
+
+They were walking across the crowded drawing-room now. Rosalind turned
+and let her laughing eyes look full at Prissie.
+
+"My dear Miss Peel, pray reserve any little scolding you intend to
+bestow upon me until we get out into the street, and please do not
+tread upon my dress!"
+
+  CHAPTER XV
+
+ POLLY SINGLETON
+
+MISS DAY was having quite a large party for cocoa in her room. She had
+invited not only her own chosen friends from Heath Hall, but also two
+or three congenial spirits from Katharine Hall. Five or six
+merry-looking girls were now assembled in her room. Miss Day's room
+was one of the largest in the college; it was showily furnished, with
+an intention to produce a Japanese effect. Several paper lanterns hung
+from the ceiling and were suspended to wire supports, which were
+fastened to different articles of furniture.
+
+In honor of Miss Day's cocoa, the lanterns were all lit now, and the
+effect, on fans and pictures and on brilliant bits of color, were
+grotesque and almost bizarre.
+
+Miss Day thought her room lovely. It was dazzling, but the reverse of
+reposeful.
+
+The girls were lounging about, chatting and laughing; they were having
+a good time and were absolutely at their ease. One, a red-haired girl,
+with frank, open blue eyes and a freckled face, an inmate of Katharine
+Hall, was sending her companions into fits of laughter.
+
+"Yes," she was saying in a high, gay voice, "I'm not a bit ashamed of
+it; there's never the least use in not owning the truth. I'm used up,
+girls: I haven't a pennypiece to bless myself with, and this letter
+came from Spilman to-night. Spilman says he'll see Miss Eccleston if I
+didn't pay up. Madame Clarice wrote two nights ago, declaring her
+intention of visiting Miss Eccleston if I didn't send her some money.
+I shall have no money until next term. There's a state of affairs!"
+
+"What do you mean to do, Polly?" asked Lucy Marsh in a sympathizing
+tone.
+
+"Do? My dear creature, there's only one thing to be done. I must have
+an auction on the quiet. I shall sell my worldly all. I can buy things
+again, you know, after dad sends me his next allowance."
+
+"Oh, Polly, but you cannot really mean it!" Miss Marsh, Miss Day and
+two or three more crowded around Polly Singleton as they spoke.
+
+"You can't mean to have an auction," began Miss Day; "no one ever
+heard of such a thing at St. Benet's. Why, it would be simply
+disgraceful!"
+
+"No, it wouldn't-- don't turn cross, Annie. I'll have an auction first
+and then a great feed in the empty room. I can go on tick for the
+feed; Jones, the confectioner, knows better than not to oblige me.
+He's not like that horrid Spilman and that mean Madame Clarice."
+
+"But, Polly, if you write to your father, he'll be sure to send you
+what you want to clear off those two debts. You have often told us he
+has lots of money."
+
+"My dears, he has more tin than he knows what to do with; but do you
+think I am going to have the poor old dear worried? When I was coming
+here he said, Polly, you shall have thirty pounds every term to spend
+as pocket money; not a penny more, not a penny less. And you must keep
+out of debt on it; mind that, Polly Singleton.' I gave the dear old
+dad a hug. He's the image of me-- only with redder hair and more
+freckles. And I said, I'll do my best, dad, and, anyhow, you sha'n't
+be put out whatever happens.'"
+
+"Then you didn't tell him you'd keep out of debt?"
+
+"No, for I knew I'd break my word. I've always been in debt ever since
+I could remember. I wouldn't know how it felt not to owe a lot of
+money. It's habit, and I don't mind it a bit. But I don't want dad to
+know, and I don't want Miss Eccleston to know, for perhaps she would
+write to him. If those old horrors won't wait for their money till
+next term, why there's nothing for it but an auction. I have some nice
+things and they'll go very cheap, so there's a chance for you all,
+girls."
+
+"But if Miss Eccleston finds out?" said Miss Day.
+
+"What if she does? There's no rule against auctions, and, as I don't
+suppose any of you will have one, it isn't worth making a rule for me
+alone. Anyhow, I'm resolved to risk it. My auction will be on Monday,
+and I shall make out an inventory of my goods tomorrow."
+
+"Will you advertise it on the notice-board in your hall, dear?" asked
+Lucy Marsh.
+
+"Why not? A good idea! The great A. will be held in Miss Singleton's
+room, from eight to ten o'clock on the evening of Monday next. Great
+Bargains! Enormous Sacrifice! Things absolutely given away! Oh, what
+fun! I'll be my own auctioneer."
+
+Polly lay back in her armchair and laughed loudly.
+
+"What is all this noise about?" asked a refined little voice, and
+Rosalind Merton entered the room.
+
+Two or three girls jumped up at once to greet her.
+
+"Come in, Rosie; you're just in time. What do you think Miss Singleton
+is going to do now?"
+
+"I can't tell; what?" asked Rosalind. "Something outre', I feel
+certain."
+
+Polly made a wry face and winked her eyes at her companions.
+
+"I know I'm not refined enough for you, Miss Merton," she drawled.
+"I'm rough, like my dad, rough and ready; but, at any rate, I'm
+honest-- at least, I think I'm honest. When I owe money, I don't leave
+a stone unturned to pay what I owe. Having sinned, I repent. I enter
+the Valley of Humiliation and give up all. Who can do more?"
+
+"Oh, dear, Polly, I don't think I'd call owing a little money
+sinning," said Lucy Marsh, whose ideas were known to be somewhat lax.
+
+"Well, my dear, there's nothing for those in debt but to sell their
+possessions. My auction is on Monday. Will you come, Rosalind?"
+
+"You don't mean it," said Rose, her blue eyes beginning to sparkle.
+
+"Yes, I do, absolutely and truly mean it."
+
+"And you will sell your things-- your lovely things?"
+
+"My things, my lovely, lovely things must be sold."
+
+"But not your clothes? Your new sealskin jacket, for instance?"
+
+Polly made a wry face for a moment. Putting her hand into her pocket,
+she pulled out Spilman's and Madame Clarice's two bills.
+
+"I owe a lot," she said, looking with a rueful countenance at the sum
+total. "Yes, I even fear the sealskin must go. I don't want to part
+with it. Dad gave it me just before I came here."
+
+"It's a lovely seal," said Annie Day, "and it seems a sin to part with
+it; it's cut in the most stylish way too, with those high shoulders."
+
+"Don't praise it, please," said Polly, lying back in her chair and
+covering her eyes with her hand. "It cuts like a knife to part with
+dad's last present. Well, I'm rightly punished. What a fool I was to
+get all those Japanese things from Spilman and that fancy ball-dress
+for the theatricals. Oh, dear! Oh, dear!"
+
+"Perhaps you won't want to part with your seal, dear," said Lucy, who
+was not so greedy as some of the other girls and really pitied Polly.
+"You have so many beautiful things without that, that you will be sure
+to realize a good bit of money."
+
+"No, Lucy, I owe such a lot; the seal must go. Oh, what a worry it
+is!"
+
+"And at auctions of this kind," said Rosalind in her low voice, "even
+beautiful things don't realize much. How can they?"
+
+"Rosalind is after that seal," whispered Lucy to Annie Day.
+
+"The seal would swallow you up, Rosie," said Annie in a loud voice.
+"Don't aspire to it; you'd never come out alive."
+
+"The seal can be brought to know good manners," retorted Rose angrily.
+"His size can be diminished and his strength abated. But I have not
+said that I want him at all. You do so jump to conclusions, Miss Day."
+
+"I know what I want," said a girl called Hetty Jones who had not yet
+spoken. "I'm going in for some of Polly's ornaments. You won't put too
+big a price upon your corals, will you, Poll?"
+
+"I shall bid for your American rocking-chair, Polly," exclaimed Miss
+Day.
+
+"I tell you what you must do, Miss Singleton," shouted another girl,
+"you must get those inventories ready as soon as possible, and send
+them around the college for every one to read, for you have got such
+nice things that there will be sure to be a great rush at your
+auction."
+
+"Don't sell any of the college possessions by mistake, my dear," said
+Lucy Marsh. "You would get into trouble then. Indeed, as it is, I
+don't see how you are to keep out of it."
+
+Polly pushed her hands impatiently through her bright red hair.
+
+"Who's afraid?" she said, and laughed.
+
+"When are we to see your things, Polly?" asked Miss Jones. "If the
+auction is on Monday, there must be a show day, when we can all go
+round and inspect. I know that's always done at auctions, for I've
+been at several in the country. The show day is the best fun of all.
+The farmers' wives come and pinch the feather-beds between their
+thumbs and forefingers and hold the blankets up to the light to see if
+the moths have got in."
+
+"Hetty, how vulgar!" interposed Miss Day. "What has Polly's auction of
+her recherche' things to do with blankets and feather-beds? Now the
+cocoa is ready. Who will help me to carry the cups round?"
+
+"I had some fun to-day?" said Rosalind, when each of the girls,
+provided with their cups of cocoa, sat round and began to sip. "I took
+Miss Propriety to town with me."
+
+"Oh, did you, darling? Do tell us all about it!" said Annie Day,
+running up to Rosalind and taking her hand.
+
+"There isn't much to tell. She behaved as I expected; her manners are
+not graceful, but she's a deep one."
+
+"Anybody can see that who looks at her," remarked Lucy Marsh.
+
+"We went to the Elliot-Smiths'," continued Rosalind.
+
+"Good gracious, Rosie!" interrupted Hetty Jones. "You don't mean to
+say you took Propriety to that house?"
+
+"Yes; why not? It's the jolliest house in Kingsdene."
+
+"But fancy taking poor Propriety there. What did she say?"
+
+"Say? She scolded a good deal."
+
+"Scolded! Poor little proper thing! How I should have liked to have
+seen her. Did she open her purse and exhibit its emptiness to the
+company at large? Did she stand on a chair and lecture the frivolous
+people who assemble in that house on the emptiness of life? Oh, how I
+wish I could have looked on at the fun!"
+
+"You'd have beheld an edifying sight then, my dear," said Rosalind.
+"Prissie's whole behavior was one to be copied. No words can describe
+her tact and grace."
+
+"But what did she do, Rosie? I wish you would speak out and tell us.
+You know you are keeping something back."
+
+"Whenever she saw me she scolded me, and she tripped over my dress
+several times."
+
+"Oh, you dear, good, patient Rosalind, what a bore she must have
+been."
+
+"No, she wasn't, for I scarcely saw anything of her. She amused
+herself capitally without me, I can tell you."
+
+"Amused herself? Propriety amused herself? How diverting! Could she
+stoop to it?"
+
+"She did. She stooped and-- conquered. She secured for herself an
+adorer."
+
+"Rosalind, how absurd you are! Poor, Plain Propriety!"
+
+"As long as I live I shall hate the letter P," suddenly interrupted
+Annie Day, "for since that disagreeable girl has got into the house we
+are always using it."
+
+"Never mind, Rosalind; go on with your story," said Miss Jones. "What
+did Plain Propriety do?"
+
+Rosalind threw up her hands, rolled her eyes skyward and uttered the
+terse remark:
+
+"She flirted!"
+
+"Oh, Rosie! who would flirt with her? I suppose she got hold of some
+old rusty, musty don. But then I do not suppose you'd find that sort
+of man at the Elliot-Smiths'."
+
+This remark came from Lucy Marsh. Rosalind Merton, who was leaning her
+fair head against a dark velvet cushion, looked as if she enjoyed the
+situation immensely.
+
+"What do you say to a Senior Wrangler?" she asked in a gentle voice.
+
+"Rosalind, what-- not the Senior Wrangler?"
+
+Rosalind nodded.
+
+"Oh! oh! oh! what could he see-- Geoffrey Hammond, of all people! He's
+so exclusive too."
+
+"Well," said Hetty Jones, standing up reluctantly, for she felt it was
+time to return to her neglected studies, "wonders will never cease! I
+could not have supposed that Mr. Hammond would condescend to go near
+the Elliot-Smiths', and most certainly I should never have guessed
+that he would look at a girl like Priscilla Peel."
+
+"Well, he flirted with her," said Rosalind, "and she with him. They
+were so delighted with one another that I could scarcely get Prissie
+away when it was time to leave. They looked quite engrossed-- you know
+the kind of air-- there was no mistaking it!"
+
+"Miss Peel must have thanked you for taking her."
+
+"Thanked me? That's not Miss Prissie's style. I could see she was
+awfully vexed at being disturbed."
+
+"Well, it's rather shabby," said Polly Singleton, speaking for the
+first time. "Every one at St. Benet's know whom Mr. Hammond belongs."
+
+"Yes, yes, of course, of course," cried several voices.
+
+"And Maggie has been so kind to Miss Peel," continued Polly.
+
+"Yes-- shame!-- how mean of little Propriety!" the voices echoed
+again.
+
+Rosalind gave a meaning glance at Annie Day. Annie raised her
+eyebrows, looked interrogative, then her face subsided into a
+satisfied expression. She asked no further questions, but she gave
+Rosalind an affectionate pat on the shoulder.
+
+Soon the other girls came up one by one to say good night. Rosalind,
+Annie and Lucy were alone. They drew their chairs together and began
+to talk.
+
+  CHAPTER XVI
+
+ PRETTY LITTLE ROSALIND
+
+"I HAVE done it now," said Rosalind; "the estrangement will come about
+naturally. Propriety won't head a party at this college, for she will
+not have Miss Oliphant's support. My dear girls, we need do nothing
+further. The friendship we regretted is at an end."
+
+"Did you take Priscilla Peel to the Elliot-Smiths' on purpose, then?"
+asked Miss Day.
+
+"I took her there for my own purposes," replied Rosalind. "I wanted to
+go. I could not go alone, as it is against our precious rules. It was
+not convenient for any of my own special friends to come with me, so I
+thought I'd play Prissie a nice little trick. Oh, wasn't she angry! My
+dear girls, it was as good as a play to watch her face."
+
+Rosalind lay back in her chair and laughed heartily. Her laughter was
+as melodious as the sound of silver bells.
+
+"Well," said Miss Marsh after a pause, "I wish you would stop laughing
+and go on with your story, Rose."
+
+Rosalind resumed her grave deportment.
+
+"That's all," she said; "there's nothing more to tell."
+
+"Did you know, then, that Mr. Hammond would be there?"
+
+"No, I had not the least idea that piece of luck would fall in my way.
+Meta managed that for me most delightfully. You know, girls, how
+earnestly the poor dear Elliot-Smiths aspire, and how vain are their
+efforts, to get into what we are pleased to call the 'good set' here.
+It isn't their fault, poor things, for, though they really have no
+talent nor the smallest literary desires, they would give their eyes
+to be 'hail-fellows-well-met' with some of our intellectual giants.
+Well, Meta got to know Mr. Hammond at a tennis party in the summer,
+and when she met him last week she asked him to come to her house
+to-day. She told me she was dying to have him, of course, but when she
+asked him she could see by his face and manner that he was searching
+his brains for an excuse to get out of it. All of a sudden it flashed
+into her head to say, 'Some of our friends from St. Benet's will be
+present.' The moment she said this he changed and got very polite and
+said he would certainly look in for a little while. Poor Meta was so
+delighted! You can fancy her chagrin when he devoted himself all the
+time to Prissie."
+
+"He thought he'd meet Maggie Oliphant," said Annie Day; "it was a
+shame to lure him on with a falsehood. I don't wonder at people not
+respecting the Elliot-Smiths."
+
+"My dear," responded Rosalind, "Meta did not tell a lie. I never could
+have guessed that you were straight-laced, Annie."
+
+"Nor am I," responded Annie with a sigh, which she quickly suppressed.
+
+"The whole thing fitted in admirably with our wishes," continued Rose,
+"and now we need not do anything further in the matter. Rumor, in the
+shape of Hetty Jones' tongue and Polly Singleton's hints, will do the
+rest for us."
+
+"Do you really think that Maggie Oliphant cares for Mr. Hammond?"
+asked Lucy Marsh.
+
+"Cares for him!" said Rosalind. "Does a duck swim? Does a baby like
+sweet things? Maggie is so much in love with Mr. Hammond that she's
+almost ill about it-- there!"
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed the other two girls.
+
+"She is, I know she is. She treats him shamefully, because of some
+whim of hers. I only wish she may never get him."
+
+"He'd do nicely for you, wouldn't he, Rose?" said Annie Day.
+
+A delicate pink came into Rosalind's cheeks. She rose to leave the
+room.
+
+"Mr. Hammond is not in my style," she said. "Much too severe and too
+learned. Good night, girls. I must look over the notes of that
+wretched French lecture before I go to bed."
+
+Rosalind sought her own room, which was in another corridor. It was
+late now-- past eleven o'clock. The electric light had been put out.
+She was well supplied with candles, however, and lighting two on the
+mantel-piece and two on her bureau, she proceeded to stir up her fire
+and to make her room warm and cozy.
+
+Rosalind still wore the pretty light silk which had given her such an
+elegant appearance at the Elliot-Smiths' that afternoon. Securing the
+bolt of her door, she pushed aside a heavy curtain, which concealed
+the part of her room devoted to her wardrobe, washing apparatus, etc.
+Rosalind's wardrobe had a glass door, and she could see her petite
+figure in it from head to foot. It was a very small figure, but
+exquisitely proportioned. Its owner admired it much. She turned
+herself round, took up a hand-glass and surveyed herself in profile
+and many other positions. Then, taking off her pretty dress, she
+arrayed herself in a long white muslin dressing-robe, and letting down
+her golden hair, combed out the glittering masses. They fell in
+showers below her waist. Her face looked more babyish and innocent
+than ever as it smiled to its own fair image in the glass.
+
+"How he did scowl at me!" said Rosalind, suddenly speaking aloud. "But
+I had to say it. I was determined to find out for myself how much or
+how little he cares for Maggie Oliphant, and, alas! there's nothing of
+the 'little' in his affection. Well, well! I did not do badly to-day.
+I enjoyed myself and I took a nice rise out of that disagreeable Miss
+Peel. Now must I look through those horrid French notes? Need I?" She
+pirouetted on one toe in front of the glass. The motion exhilarated
+her, and, raising her white wrapper so as to get a peep at her small,
+pretty feet, she waltzed slowly and gracefully in front of the mirror.
+
+"I can't and won't study to-night," she said again.
+
+"I hate study, and I will not spoil my looks by burning the midnight
+oil."
+
+Suddenly she clasped her hands and the color rushed into her cheeks.
+
+"How fortunate that I remembered! I must write to mother this very
+night. This is Thursday. The auction is on Monday. I have not a post
+to lose."
+
+Hastily seating herself in front of her bureau, Rosalind scribbled a
+few lines:
+
+  DEAREST, PRECIOUS MAMSIE: Whatever happens, please send me a postal
+  order for £10 by return. One of the richest girls in the place is
+  going to have an auction, and I shall pick up some treasures. If
+  you could spare £15, or even £20, the money would be well spent,
+  but ten at least I must have. There is a sealskin jacket, which
+  cost at least eighty pounds, and such coral ornaments-- you know,
+  that lovely pink shade. Send me all you can, precious mamsie, and
+  make your Baby happy.
+
+  "Your own little ROSE.
+
+  "P. S.-- Oh, mamsie, such a sealskin! and such coral!"
+
+This artless epistle was quickly enclosed in an envelope, addressed
+and deposited in the post-box. Afterward pretty little Rosalind spent
+a night of dreamless slumber and awoke in the morning as fresh and
+innocent-looking as the fairest of the babies she compared herself to.
+
+  CHAPTER XVII
+
+ SEALSKIN AND PINK CORAL
+
+MONDAY arrived. It wanted now less than three weeks to the end of the
+term. A good many of the girls were talking about home and Christmas,
+and already the hard-worked, the studious, the industrious were owning
+to the first symptoms of that pleasant fatigue which would entitle
+them to the full enjoyment of their merited holiday.
+
+Priscilla was now a happy girl. She had found her niche in the
+college; her work was delightful. Under Maggie's advice she became a
+member of the Debating Society and rather reluctantly allowed her name
+to be entered in the Dramatic Club. She felt very shy about this, but
+that was because she did not know her own power. To her astonishment,
+Priscilla found that she could act. If the part suited her she could
+throw herself into it so that she ceased to be awkward, ungainly
+Priscilla Peel. Out of herself she was no longer awkward, no longer
+ungainly. She could only personate certain characters; light and airy
+parts she could not attempt, but where much depended on passion and
+emotion Priscilla could do splendidly. Every day her friends found
+fresh points of interest in this queer girl. Nancy Banister was really
+attached to her, Maggie was most faithful in her declared friendship
+and Miss Heath took more notice of Priscilla than of any other girl in
+the hall. The different lecturers spoke highly of Miss Peel's
+comprehension, knowledge and ability. In short, things were going well
+with her, and she owned to her own heart that she had never felt
+happier in her life.
+
+Prissie, too, was looking forward to the Christmas holidays. She was
+to return home then, and her letters to her three little sisters, to
+Aunt Raby and to Mr. Hayes were full of the delights of her college
+life.
+
+No one could have been more angry than poor Prissie during that
+miserable time at the Elliot-Smiths'. Many complaints did she resolve
+to make, and dire was the vengeance which she hoped would fall on
+Rose's devoted head. But, during her talk with Mr. Hammond, some of
+her anger had cooled down. He had touched on great subjects, and
+Prissie's soul had responded like a musical instrument to the light
+and skilled finger of the musician. All her intellectual powers were
+aroused to their utmost, keenest life during this brief little talk.
+She found that Hammond could say better and more comprehensive things
+than even her dear old tutor, Mr. Hayes. Hammond was abreast of the
+present-day aspect of those things in which Prissie delighted. Her
+short talk with him made up for all the tedium of the rest of that
+wretched afternoon.
+
+On her walk home Priscilla made up her mind to have nothing further to
+say to Rose, but also not to make a complaint about her. She would
+pass the matter over in silence. If questioned, she would tell her own
+friends where she had been; if not questioned, she would volunteer no
+information.
+
+Maggie and Nancy did ask her casually what had kept her out so long.
+
+"I was at the Elliot-Smiths' with Miss Merton," replied Priscilla.
+
+They both started when she said this and looked at her hard. They were
+too well-bred, however, to give utterance to the many comments which
+crowded to their lips. Prissie read their thoughts like a book.
+
+"I did not like it at all," she said; "but I'd rather say nothing
+about it, please. After Mr. Hammond came I was happy."
+
+"Mr. Hammond was there?" said Nancy in an eager voice. "Geoffrey
+Hammond was at the Elliot-Smiths'? Impossible!"
+
+"He was there," repeated Prissie. She glanced nervously at Maggie, who
+had taken up a book and was pretending to read. "He came and he spoke
+to me. He was very, very kind, and he made me so happy."
+
+"Dear Prissie," said Maggie suddenly. She got up, went over to the
+young girl, tapped her affectionately on the shoulder and left the
+room.
+
+Prissie sat, looking thoughtfully before her. After a time she bade
+Nancy Banister "good night" and went off to her own room to study the
+notes she had taken that morning at the French lecture.
+
+The next few days passed without anything special occurring. If a
+little rumor were already beginning to swell in the air, it scarcely
+reached the ears of those principally concerned. Maggie Oliphant
+continued to make a special favorite of Miss Peel. She sat near her at
+breakfast and at the meetings of the Dramatic Society was particularly
+anxious to secure a good part for Prissie. The members of the society
+intended to act The Princess before the end of the term, and as there
+was a great deal to work up and many rehearsals were necessary, they
+met in the little theater on most evenings.
+
+Maggie Oliphant had been unanimously selected to take the part of the
+Princess. She electrified every one by drawing Miss Peel toward her
+and saying in an emphatic voice:
+
+"You must be the Prince, Priscilla."
+
+A look of dismay crept over several faces. One or two made different
+proposals.
+
+"Would not Nancy Banister take the part better, Maggie?" said Miss
+Claydon, a tall, graceful girl, who was to be Psyche.
+
+"No; Nancy is to be Cyril. She sings well and can do the part
+admirably. Miss Peel must be the Prince: I will have no other lover.
+What do you say, Miss Peel?"
+
+"I cannot; it is impossible," almost whispered Prissie.
+
+"'Cannot' is a word which must not be listened to in our Dramatic
+Society," responded Maggie. "I promise to turn you out a most
+accomplished Prince, my friend; no one shall be disappointed in you.
+Girls, do you leave this matter in my hands? Do you leave the Prince
+to me?"
+
+"We cannot refuse you the privilege of choosing your own Prince,
+Princess," said Miss Claydon with a graceful curtsy.
+
+The others assented, but unwillingly. Miss Oliphant was known to be
+more full of whims than any one else in the college. Her extraordinary
+and sudden friendship for Prissie was regarded as her latest caprice.
+
+Rosalind Merton was not a particularly good actress, but her face was
+too pretty not to be called into requisition. She was to take the part
+of Melissa.
+
+The society had a grand meeting on the day of Polly Singleton's
+auction. Matters were still very much in a state of chaos, but the
+rehearsal of some of the parts was got through with credit under the
+directions of the clever stage-manager, one of the nicest and best
+girls in the college, Constance Field. She had a knack of putting each
+girl at her ease-- of discovering the faintest sparks of genius and
+fanning them into flame.
+
+Priscilla had learned her speeches accurately: her turn came; she
+stood up trembling and began. Gradually the stony (or was it
+yearning?) look in Maggie's face moved her. She fancied herself
+Hammond, not the Prince. When she spoke to Maggie she felt no longer
+like a feeble schoolgirl acting a part. She thought she was pleading
+for Hammond, and enthusiasm got into her voice, and a light filled her
+eyes. There was a little cheer when Priscilla got through her first
+rehearsal. Nancy Banister came up to Rosalind.
+
+"I do believe Maggie is right," she said, "and that Miss Peel will
+take the part capitally."
+
+"Miss Oliphant is well known for her magnanimity," retorted Rosalind,
+an ugly look spoiling the expression of her face.
+
+"Her magnanimity? What do you mean, Rose?"
+
+"To choose that girl for her Prince!" retorted Rosalind. "Ask Mr.
+Hammond what I mean. Ask the Elliot-Smiths."
+
+"I don't know the Elliot-Smiths," said Nancy in a cold voice. She
+turned away; she felt displeased and annoyed.
+
+Rose glanced after her. Then she ran up to Maggie Oliphant, who was
+preparing to leave the little theater.
+
+"Don't you want to see the auction?" she said in a gay voice. "It's
+going to be the best fun we have had for many a long day."
+
+Maggie turned and looked at her.
+
+"The auction? What auction do you mean?" she asked.
+
+"Why, Polly Singleton's, of course. You've not heard of it? It's the
+event of the term!"
+
+Maggie laughed.
+
+"You must be talking nonsense, Rose," she said. "An auction at St.
+Benet's! A real auction? Impossible!"
+
+"No, it's not impossible. It's true. Polly owes for a lot of things,
+and she's going to pay for them in that way. Did you not get a notice?
+Polly declared she would send one without fail to every girl in the
+college."
+
+"Now I remember," said Miss Oliphant, laughing. "I got an
+extraordinary type-written production. I regarded it as a hoax and
+consigned it to the wastepaper basket."
+
+"But it wasn't a hoax; it was true. Come away, Miss Oliphant, do.
+Polly has got some lovely things."
+
+"I don't think I even know who Polly is," said Maggie. "She surely is
+not an inmate of Heath Hall?"
+
+"No, no-- of Katharine Hall. You must know her by sight, at least. A
+great big, fat girl, with red hair and freckles."
+
+"Yes, now I remember. I think she has rather a pleasant face."
+
+"Oh, do you really? Isn't she awfully common and vulgar-looking?"
+
+"Common and vulgar-looking people are often pleasant, nevertheless,"
+retorted Maggie.
+
+"You'll come to her auction?" insisted Rose.
+
+"I don't know. She has no right to have an auction. Such a proceeding
+would give great displeasure to our principals."
+
+"How can you tell that? There never was an auction at the college
+before."
+
+"How can I tell, Rose? Instinct is my guide in a matter of this sort."
+
+Maggie stepped back and looked haughty.
+
+"Well," said Rose, "the principals won't ever know; we are taking good
+care of that."
+
+"Oh! I hope you may be successful. Good night."
+
+Maggie turned to walk away. She saw Priscilla standing not far off.
+
+"Come, Prissie," she said affectionately, "you did admirably to-night,
+but you must have another lesson. You missed two of the best points in
+that last speech. Come back with me into the theater at once."
+
+Rose bit her lips with vexation. She was wildly anxious to be at the
+auction. The sealskin might be put up for sale, and she not present.
+The corals might go to some other happy girl; but she had made a
+resolve to bring some of the very best girls in the college to this
+scene of rioting. Her reckless companions had dared her to do this,
+and she felt what she called "her honor" at stake. Nancy Banister had
+declined her invitation with decision; Constance Field had withered
+her with a look. Now she must secure Maggie.
+
+"I wish you'd come," she said, following Maggie and Prissie to the
+door of the theater. "It will be an awful disappointment if you don't!
+We all reckoned on having you."
+
+"What do you mean, Rose?"
+
+"We thought you wouldn't be above a bit of fun. You never used to be,
+you know. You never used to be strict and proper and over-righteous,
+used you?"
+
+Priscilla was startled to see the queer change these few words made on
+Maggie. Her cheeks lost their roses; her eyes grew big, pathetic,
+miserable. Then a defiant expression filled them.
+
+"If you put it in that way," she said, "I'll go and peep at the thing.
+It isn't my taste nor my style, but goodness knows I'm no better than
+the rest of you. Come, Prissie."
+
+Maggie seized Priscilla's hand; her clasp was so tight as to be almost
+painful. She hurried Prissie along so fast that Rose could scarcely
+keep up with them.
+
+They entered the hall. Maggie seized a hat for herself and another for
+Prissie from the hat-stand; then the three girls crossed the garden to
+Katharine Hall. A moment or two later they had reached the scene of
+the evening's amusement
+
+Loud voices and laughter greeted them; they entered a large room
+crowded to overflowing. The atmosphere here was hot and stifling and
+chaos reigned supreme. Pictures, ornaments of all kinds had been
+removed roughly and hastily from the walls; clothes and even jewels
+were piled on the tables, and a tall girl, standing on a chair, was
+declaiming volubly for the benefit of her companions.
+
+When Maggie, Rose and Priscilla entered the room Polly was exhibiting
+the charms of a yellow silk dress somewhat the worse for wear.
+Laughter choked her voice; her bright blue eyes shone with excitement
+and amusement.
+
+"Who'll try this?" she began. "It has a double charm. Not only has it
+reposed round this fair and lovely form, but the silk of which it is
+made was given to me by my mother's aunt, who had it from her mother
+before her. When I part with this, I part with a relic. Those who
+purchase it secure for themselves a piece of history. Who will buy,
+who will buy, who will buy? An historical dress going-- such a
+bargain! Who, who will buy?"
+
+"I'll give you five shillings, Polly," screamed a darkeyed girl who
+stood near.
+
+"Five shillings! This lovely dress going for five shillings!"
+proceeded Polly.
+
+"And sixpence," added another voice.
+
+"This beautiful, historical robe going for five-and-sixpence," said
+Miss Singleton in her gay voice. "Oh, it's a bargain-- it's dirt
+cheap! Who will buy? who will buy?"
+
+The bids went up, and finally the yellow dress was knocked down to a
+rosy-faced country girl for the sum of thirteen shillings and
+ninepence.
+
+Polly's various other possessions were one by one brought to the
+hammer, some of them fetching fairly large sums, for they were most of
+them good and worth having, and there were wealthy girls at the
+college who were not above securing a bargain when it came in their
+way.
+
+At last the prize on which all Rose's hopes were set was put up for
+sale. Polly's magnificent sealskin jacket was held aloft and displayed
+to the admiring and coveteous gaze of many. Rose's face brightened; an
+eager, greedy look filled her eyes. She actually trembled in her
+anxiety to secure this prize of prizes.
+
+Maggie Oliphant, who was standing in a listless, indifferent attitude
+near the door, not taking the smallest part in the active proceedings
+which were going forward, was for the first time aroused to interest
+by the expression on Rosalind's face. She moved a step or two into the
+crowd, and when one or two timid bids were heard for the coveted
+treasure, she raised her own voice and for the first time appeared
+eager to secure something for herself.
+
+Rose bid against her, an angry flush filling her blue eyes as she did
+so. Maggie nonchalantly made her next bid a little higher-- Rose
+raised hers. Soon they were the only two in the field; other girls had
+come to the limit of their purses and withdrew vanquished.
+
+Rosalind's face grew very white. Could she have knock Maggie Oliphant
+down with a blow she would have done so at that moment. Maggie calmly
+and quietly continued her bids, raising them gradually higher and
+higher. Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten pounds: Rose had come to
+the end of her resources. She stepped away with a bitter smile on her
+face. The sealskin jacket was Maggie Oliphant's property for ten
+guineas.
+
+Maggie laid it carelessly on a table near, and returning once more to
+her position near the door, watched the sale proceed. One by one Polly
+Singleton parted with her dresses, her pictures, her furniture. At
+last, opening a case, she proceeded to dispose of some trinkets, none
+of which, with the exception of the pink coral set, was of very high
+value. This, which consisted of necklace, bracelets, and earrings, and
+some pretty pins for the hair, was most eagerly coveted by many.
+Several girls bid for the coral, and Maggie, who had not raised her
+voice since she secured the sealskin jacket, once more noticed the
+greedy glitter in Rosalind's eyes.
+
+"I can't help it," she said, turning and speaking in a low voice to
+Priscilla, who stood by her side-- "I can't help it, Prissie; I don't
+want that coral a bit-- coral doesn't suit me: I dislike it as an
+ornament. But something inside of me says Rose Merton shall not wear
+it. Stay here, Prissie, I'll be back in a minute."
+
+Miss Oliphant moved forward; she was so tall that her head could be
+seen above those of most of the other girls.
+
+The bids for the coral had now risen to three pounds ten. Maggie at
+one bound raised them ten shillings. Rose bid against her, and for a
+short time one or two other girls raised their previous offers. The
+price for the coral rose and rose. Soon a large sum was offered for
+it, and still the bids kept rising. Rosalind and Maggie were once more
+alone in the field, and now any onlooker could perceive that it was
+not the desire to obtain the pretty ornaments, but the wish for
+victory which animated both girls.
+
+When the bids rose above ten guineas Rosalind's face assumed a ghastly
+hue, but she was now far too angry with Maggie to pause or consider
+the fact that she was offering more money for the pink coral than she
+possessed in the world. The bids still went higher and higher. There
+was intense excitement in the room; all the noisy babel ceased. No
+sound was heard but the eager voices of the two who were cruelly
+fighting each other and the astonished tones of the young auctioneer.
+Twelve, thirteen, fourteen pounds were reached. Maggie's bid was
+fourteen pounds.
+
+"Guineas!" screamed Rose with a weak sort of gasp.
+
+Maggie turned and looked at her, then walked slowly back to her place
+by Priscilla's side.
+
+The coral belonged to Rose Merton, and she had four guineas too little
+to pay for it.
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII
+
+ A BLACK SELF AND A WHITE SELF
+
+"IT is quite true, Maggie," said Nancy Banister. "It is about the
+auction. Yes, there is no doubt about that. What possessed you to go?"
+
+Maggie Oliphant was standing in the center of her own room with an
+open letter in her hand. Nancy was reading it over her shoulder:
+
+  KATHARINE HALL,
+
+  "Dec. 2.
+
+  "Miss Eccleston and Miss Heath request Miss Oliphant and Miss Peel
+  to present themselves in Miss Eccleston's private sitting-room this
+  evening at seven o'clock."
+
+"That is all," said Maggie. "It sounds as solemn and unfriendly as if
+one were about to be tried for some capital offense."
+
+"It's the auction, of course," repeated Nancy. "Those girls thought
+they had kept it so quiet, but some one must have 'peached,' I
+suppose, to curry favor. Whatever made you go, Maggie? You know you
+have never mixed yourself up with that Day, and Merton, and Marsh set.
+As to that poor Polly Singleton, there's no harm in her, but she's a
+perfect madcap. What could have possessed you to go?"
+
+"My evil genius," repeated Maggie in a gloomy tone. "You don't suppose
+I wished to be there, Nancy; but that horrid little Merton girl said
+something taunting, and then I forgot myself. Oh, dear, Nancy! what
+shall I ever do with that other self of mine? It will ruin me in the
+end. It gets stronger every day."
+
+Maggie sat down on the sofa. Nancy suddenly knelt by her side.
+
+"Dear Meg," she said caressingly, "you're the noblest, and the
+sweetest, and the most beautiful girl at St. Benet's! Why can't you
+live up to your true self?"
+
+"There are two selfs in me," replied Maggie. "And if one even
+approaches the faintest semblance of angel-hood, the other is black as
+pitch. There, it only wastes time to talk the thing over. I'm in for
+the sort of scrape I hate most. See, Nancy, I bought this at the
+auction."
+
+She opened her wardrobe, and taking out Polly Singleton's magnificent
+eighty-guinea sealskin jacket, slipped it on.
+
+"Don't I look superb?" said Maggie. She shut the wardrobe-door and
+surveyed herself in its long glass. Brown was Maggie Oliphant's color.
+It harmonized with the soft tints of her delicately rounded face, with
+the rich color in her hair, with the light in her eyes. It added to
+all these charms, softening them, giving to them a more perfect
+luster.
+
+"Oh, Maggie!" said Nancy, clasping her hands, "you ought always to be
+dressed as you are now."
+
+Maggie dropped her arms suddenly to her sides. The jacket, a little
+too large for her, slid off her shoulders and lay in a heap on the
+floor.
+
+"What?" she said suddenly. "Am I never to show my true and real self?
+Am I always to be disguised in sham beauty and sham goodness? Oh,
+Nancy, Nancy! if there is a creature I hate-- I hate-- her name is
+Maggie Oliphant!"
+
+Nancy picked up the sealskin jacket and put it back into the wardrobe.
+
+"I am sorry you went to the auction, Maggie," she repeated, "and I'm
+sorry still to find you bought poor Polly Singleton's sealskin. Well,
+it's done now, and we have to consider how to get you out of this
+scrape.
+
+There's no time for you to indulge in that morbid talk of yours
+to-day, Maggie, darling. Let us consider what's best to be done."
+
+"Nothing," retorted Maggie. "I shall simply go to Miss Heath and Miss
+Eccleston and tell them the truth. There's nothing else to be done. No
+hope whatever of getting out of the affair. I went to Polly
+Singleton's auction because Rosalind Merton raised the demon in me. I
+tried to become the possessor of the sealskin jacket because her heart
+was set on it. I won an eighty-guinea jacket for ten guineas. You see
+how ignoble my motives were, also how unworthy the results. I did
+worse even than that-- for I will out with the truth to you, Nancy-- I
+revenged myself still further upon that spiteful little gnat,
+Rosalind, and raised the price of her coveted coral to such an extent
+that I know by her face she is pounds in debt for it. Now, my dear,
+what have you to say to me? Nothing good, I know that. Let me read
+Aristotle for the next hour just to calm my mind."
+
+Maggie turned away, seated herself by her writing bureau and tried to
+lose both the past and the present in her beloved Greek.
+
+"She will do it, too," whispered Nancy as she left the room. "No one
+ever was made quite like Maggie. She can feel tortures and yet the
+next moment she can be in ecstasy. She is so tantalizing that at times
+you are almost brought to believe her own stories about herself. You
+are almost sure that she has got the black self as well as the white
+self. But through it all, yes, through it all, you love her. Dear
+Maggie! Whatever happens, I must always-- always love her."
+
+Nancy was walking slowly down the corridor when a room-door was gently
+opened and the sweet, childish, innocent face of Rosalind peeped out.
+
+"Nancy, is that you? Do, for Heaven's sake, come in and speak to me
+for a moment."
+
+"What about, Rosalind? I have only a minute or two to spare. My German
+lecture is to begin immediately."
+
+"Oh, what does that signify? You don't know the awful trouble we've
+got into."
+
+"You mean about the auction?"
+
+"Yes-- yes; so you have heard?"
+
+"Of course I've heard. If that is all, Rosalind, I cannot wait to
+discuss the matter now. I am very sorry for you, of course, but as I
+said to Maggie, why did you do it?"
+
+"Oh, you've been talking to Miss Oliphant? Thank goodness she'll have
+to answer for her sins as well as the rest of us."
+
+"Maggie is my friend, so you need not abuse her, Rosalind."
+
+"Lucky for her that she has got one true friend!" retorted Rosalind.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean what I say. Maggie is making such a fool of herself that we
+are all laughing at her behind her back."
+
+"Indeed? I fail to understand you."
+
+"You are being made a fool of, too, Nancy. Oh, I did think you'd have
+had more sense."
+
+"How? Speak. Say at once what you want to say, Rosalind, and stop
+talking riddles, for I must fly to my work."
+
+"Fly then," retorted Rosalind, "only think twice before you give your
+confidence to a certain person. A person who makes a fine parade of
+poverty and so-called honesty of purpose, but who can, and who does,
+betray her kindest and best friend behind her back. It is my private
+belief we have to thank this virtuous being for getting us into the
+pleasant scrape we are in. I am convinced she has tried to curry favor
+by telling Miss Heath all about poor Polly's auction."
+
+"You mean Priscilla Peel?" said Nancy in a firm voice. She forgot her
+German lecture now. "You have no right to say words of that kind. You
+have taken a dislike to Prissie, no one knows why. She is not as
+interesting nor as beautiful as Maggie, but she is good, and you
+should respect her."
+
+Rosalind laughed bitterly.
+
+"Good? Is she? Ask Mr. Hammond. You say she is not beautiful nor
+interesting. Perhaps he finds her both. Ask him."
+
+"Rosalind, I shall tell Maggie what you say. This is not the first
+time you have hinted unkind things about Priscilla. It is better to
+sift a matter of this kind to the bottom than to hint it all over the
+college as you are doing. Maggie shall take it in hand."
+
+"Let her! I shall only be too delighted! What a jolly time the saintly
+Priscilla will have."
+
+"I can't stay any longer, Rosalind."
+
+"But, Nancy, just one moment. I want to put accounts right with Polly
+before to-night. Mother sent me ten pounds to buy something at the
+auction. The coral cost fourteen guineas. I have written to mother for
+the balance, and it may come by any post. Do lend it to me until it
+comes! Do, kind Nancy!"
+
+"I have not got so much in the world, I have not really, Rosalind.
+Good-by; my lecture will have begun."
+
+Nancy ran out of the room and Miss Merton turned to survey ruefully
+her empty purse and to read again a letter which had already arrived
+from her mother:
+
+  MY DEAR ROSALIND: I have not the additional money to spare you, my
+  poor child. The ten pounds which I weakly yielded at your first
+  earnest request was, in reality, taken from the money which is to
+  buy your sisters their winter dresses. I dare not encroach any
+  further on it, or your father would certainly ask me why the girls
+  were dressed so shabbily. Fourteen guineas for coral! You know, my
+  dear child, we cannot afford this extravagance. My advice is to
+  return it to your friend and to ask her to let you have the ten
+  guineas back. You might return it to me in a postal order, for I
+  want it badly. It was one thing to struggle to let you have it in
+  the hopes that you would secure a really valuable garment like a
+  sealskin jacket and another to give it to you for some rather
+  useless ornaments. Your affectionate mother,
+
+  "ALICE MERTON."
+
+  CHAPTER XIX
+
+ IN MISS ECCLESTON'S SITTING-ROOM
+
+MISS ECCLESTON was a dark, heavy-looking person; she was not as
+attractive either in appearance or manner as Miss Heath. She was
+estimable, and the college authorities thought most highly of her, but
+her character possessed more hardness than softness, and she was not
+as popular with the girls and young lecturers who lived in Katharine
+Hall as was Miss Heath with her girls.
+
+When Maggie entered Miss Eccleston's sitting-room that evening she
+found the room about half-full of eager, excited-looking girls. Miss
+Eccleston was standing up and speaking; Miss Heath was leaning against
+the wall; a velvet curtain made a background which brought out her
+massive and grand figure in full relief.
+
+Miss Eccleston looked excited and angry; Miss Heath's expression was a
+little perplexed, and a kind of sorrowful mirth brought smiles to her
+lips now and then, which she was most careful to suppress instantly.
+
+As Maggie made her way to the front of the room she recognized several
+of the girls. Rosalind Merton, Annie Day, Lucy Marsh were all present.
+She saw them, although they were standing hidden behind many other
+girls. Prissie, too, was there-- she had squeezed herself into a
+corner. She looked awkward, plain and wretched. She was clasping and
+unclasping her hands and trying to subdue the nervous tremors which
+she could not conceal.
+
+Maggie, as she walked across the room, singled Prissie out. She gave
+her a swift glance, a brilliant and affectionate smile and then stood
+in such a position that neither Miss Eccleston nor Miss Heath could
+catch a glimpse of her.
+
+Miss Eccleston, who had been speaking when Maggie entered the room,
+was now silent. She had a note-book in her hand and was rapidly
+writing something in it with a pencil. Some one gave Maggie a rather
+severe prod on her elbow. Polly Singleton, tall, flushed and heavy,
+stood close to her side.
+
+"You'll stand up for me, won't you, Miss Oliphant?" whispered Polly.
+
+Maggie raised her eyes, looked at the girl, who was even taller than
+herself, and began to reply in her usual voice.
+
+"Silence," said Miss Eccleston. She put down her note-book. "I wish
+for no conversation between you at the present moment, young ladies.
+Good evening, Miss Oliphant; I am pleased to see you here. I shall
+have a few questions to ask you in a minute. Now, Miss Singleton, if
+you please, we will resume our conversation. You have confessed to the
+fact of the auction. I wish now to ascertain what your motive was."
+
+Poor Polly stammered and reddened, twisted her hands as badly as
+Prissie herself could have done and looked to right and left of her in
+the most bewildered and unhappy manner.
+
+"Don't you hear me, Miss Singleton? I wish to know what your motive
+was in having an auction in Katharine Hall," repeated Miss Eccleston.
+
+"Tell her the truth," whispered Maggie.
+
+Polly, who was in a condition to catch even at a straw for support,
+said falteringly:
+
+"I had the auction in my room because of dad."
+
+Miss Eccleston raised her brows. The amused smile of sorrow round Miss
+Heath's mouth became more marked. She came forward a few steps and
+stood near Miss Eccleston.
+
+"You must explain yourself, Miss Singleton," repeated the latter lady.
+
+"Do tell everything," said Maggie again.
+
+"Dad is about the only person I hate vexing," began Polly once more.
+"He is awfully rich, but he hates me to get into debt, and-- and--
+there was no other way to raise money. I couldn't tell dad-- I--
+couldn't keep out of debt, so I had to sell my things."
+
+"You have made a very lame excuse, Miss Singleton," said Miss
+Eccleston after a pause. "You did something which was extremely
+irregular and improper. Your reason for doing it was even worse than
+the thing itself. You were in debt. The students of St. Benet's are
+not expected to be in debt."
+
+"But there's no rule against it," suddenly interrupted Maggie.
+
+"Hush! your turn to speak will come presently. You know, Miss
+Singleton-- all the right-minded girls in this college know-- that we
+deal in principles, not rules. Now, please go on with your story."
+
+Polly's broken and confused narrative continued for the next five
+minutes. There were some titters from the girls behind her-- even Miss
+Heath smiled faintly. Miss Eccleston alone remained grave and
+displeased.
+
+"That will do," she said at last. "You are a silly and rash girl, and
+your only possible defense is your desire to keep the knowledge of
+your extravagance from your father. Your love for him, however, has
+never taught you true nobility. Had you that even in the most shadowy
+degree, you would abstain from the things which he detests. He gives
+you an ample allowance. Were you a schoolgirl and I your mistress, I
+should punish you severely for your conduct."
+
+Miss Eccleston paused. Polly put her handkerchief up to her eyes and
+began to sob loudly.
+
+"Miss Oliphant," said Miss Eccleston, "will you please account for the
+fact that you, who are looked up to in this college, you who are one
+of our senior students, and for whom Miss Heath has a high regard,
+took part in the disgraceful scenes which occurred in Miss Singleton's
+room on Monday evening?"
+
+"I shall certainly tell you the truth," retorted Maggie. She paused
+for a moment. Then, the color flooding her cheeks, and her eyes
+looking straight before her, she began:
+
+"I went to Miss Singleton's room knowing that I was doing wrong. I
+hated to go and did not take the smallest interest in the proceedings
+which were being enacted there." She paused again. Her voice, which
+had been slightly faltering, grew a little firmer. Her eyes met Miss
+Heath's, which were gazing at her in sorrowful and amazed surprise.
+Then she continued: "I did not go alone. I took another and perfectly
+innocent girl with me. She is a newcomer, and this is her first term.
+She would naturally be led by me, and I wish therefore to exonerate
+her completely. Her name is Priscilla Peel. She did not buy anything,
+and she hated being there even more than I did, but I took her hand
+and absolutely forced her to come with me."
+
+"Did you buy anything at the auction, Miss Oliphant?"
+
+"Yes, a sealskin jacket."
+
+"Do you mind telling me what you paid for it?"
+
+"Ten guineas."
+
+"Was that, in your opinion, a fair price for the jacket?"
+
+"The jacket was worth a great deal more. The price I paid for it was
+much below its value."
+
+Miss Eccleston made some further notes in her book. Then she looked
+up.
+
+"Have you anything more to say, Miss Oliphant?"
+
+"I could say more. I could make you think even worse of me than you
+now think, but as any further disclosures of mine would bring another
+girl into trouble I would rather not speak."
+
+"You are certainly not forced to speak. I am obliged to you for the
+candor with which you have treated me."
+
+Miss Eccleston then turned to Miss Heath and said a few words to her
+in a low voice. Her words were not heard by the anxiously listening
+girls, but they seemed to displease Miss Heath, who shook her head;
+but Miss Eccleston held very firmly to her own opinion. After a pause
+of a few minutes, Miss Heath came forward and addressed the young
+girls who were assembled before her.
+
+"The leading spirit of this college," she said, "is almost perfect
+immunity from the bondage of rules. The principals of these halls have
+fully trusted the students who reside in them and relied on their
+honor, their rectitude, their sense of sound principle. Hitherto we
+have had no reason to complain that the spirit of absolute trust which
+we have shown has been abused; but the circumstance which has just
+occurred has given Miss Eccleston and myself some pain."
+
+"It has surprised us; it has given us a blow," interrupted Miss
+Eccleston.
+
+"And Miss Eccleston feels," proceeded Miss Heath, "and perhaps she is
+right, that the matter ought to be laid before the college
+authorities, who will decide what are the best steps to be taken."
+
+"You do not agree with that view, do you, Miss Heath?" asked Maggie
+Oliphant suddenly.
+
+"At first I did not. I leaned to the side of mercy. I thought you
+might all have learned a lesson in the distress which you have caused
+us, and that such an occurrence could not happen again."
+
+"Won't Miss Eccleston adopt your views?" questioned Maggie. She
+glanced round at her fellow-students as she spoke.
+
+"No-- no," interrupted Miss Eccleston. "I cannot accept the
+responsibility. The college authorities must decide the matter."
+
+"Remember," said Maggie, stepping forward a pace or two, "that we are
+no children. If we were at school you ought to punish us, and, of
+course, you would. I hate what I have done, and I own it frankly. But
+you cannot forget, Miss Eccleston, that no girl here has broken a rule
+when she attended the auction and bought Miss Singleton's things; and
+that even Miss Singleton has broken no rule when she went in debt."
+
+There was a buzz of applause and even a cheer from the girls in the
+background. Miss Eccleston looked angry, but perplexed. Miss Heath
+again turned and spoke to her. She replied in a low tone. Miss Heath
+said something further. At last Miss Eccleston sat down and Miss Heath
+came forward and addressed Maggie Oliphant.
+
+"Your words have been scarcely respectful, Miss Oliphant," she said,
+"but there is a certain justice in them which my friend, Miss
+Eccleston, is the first to admit. She has consented, therefore, to
+defer her final decision for twenty-four hours; at the end of that
+time the students of Katharine Hall and Heath Hall will know what we
+finally decide to do."
+
+After the meeting in Miss Eccleston's drawing-room the affair of the
+auction assumed enormous proportions. There was no other topic of
+conversation. The students took sides vigorously in the matter: the
+gay, giddy and careless ones voting the auction a rare bit of fun and
+upholding those who had taken part in it with all their might and
+main. The more sober and high-minded girls, on the other hand, took
+Miss Heath's and Miss Eccleston's views of the matter. The principles
+of the college had been disregarded, the spirit of order had been
+broken; debt, which was disgraceful, was made light of. These girls
+felt that the tone of St. Benet's was lowered. Even Maggie Oliphant
+sank in their estimation. A few went to the length of saying that they
+could no longer include her in their set.
+
+Katharine Hall, the scene of the auction itself, was, of course, now
+the place of special interest. Heath Hall was also implicated in it,
+but Seymour Hall, which stood a little apart from its sister halls,
+had sent no student to the scene of dissipation. Seymour Hall was the
+smallest of the three. It was completely isolated from the others,
+standing in its own lovely grounds on the other side of the road. It
+now held its head high, and the girls who belonged to the other halls,
+but had taken no part in the auction, felt that their own beloved
+halls were lowered, and their resentment was all the keener because
+the Seymour Hall girls gave themselves airs.
+
+"I shall never live through it," said Ida Mason, a Heath Hall girl to
+her favorite chum, Constance Field. "Nothing can ever be the same
+again. If my mother knew, Constance, I feel almost sure she would
+remove me. The whole thing is so small and shabby and horrid, and then
+to think of Maggie taking part in it! Aren't you awfully shocked,
+Constance? What is your true opinion?"
+
+"My true opinion," said Constance, "is this: it is our duty to uphold
+our own hall and our own chums. As to the best of us, if we are the
+best, going away because a thing of this sort has occurred, it is not
+to be thought of for a moment. Why, Ida," Constance laughed as she
+spoke, "you might as well expect one of the leading officers to desert
+his regiment when going into battle. You know what Maggie Oliphant is,
+Ida. As to deserting her because she has had one of her bad half
+hours, which she frankly confessed to, like the brave girl she is, I
+would as soon cut off my right hand. Now, Ida, my dear, don't be a
+little goose. Your part, instead of grumbling and growling and hinting
+at the place not being fit for you, is to go round to every friend you
+have in Heath Hall and get them to rally round Maggie and Miss Heath."
+
+"There's that poor Miss Peel, too," said Ida, "Maggie's new friend--
+that queer, plain girl; she's sure to be frightfully bullied. I
+suppose I'd better stick up for her as well?"
+
+"Of course, dear, you certainly ought. But as to Miss Peel being
+plain, Ida, I don't think I quite agree with you. Her face is too
+clever for that. Have you watched her when she acts?"
+
+"No, I don't think I have. She seems to be very uninteresting."
+
+"Look at her next time, and tell me if you think her uninteresting
+afterward. Now I'm off to find Maggie. She is sure to be having one of
+her bad times, poor darling."
+
+Constance Field was a girl whose opinion was always received with
+respect. Ida went off obediently to fulfil her behests; and Constance,
+after searching in Maggie's room and wandering in different parts of
+the grounds, found the truant at last, comfortably established with a
+pile of new books and magazines in the library. The library was the
+most comfortable room in the house, and Maggie was leaning back
+luxuriously in an easy-chair, reading some notes from a lecture on
+Aristotle aloud to Prissie, who sat at her feet and took down notes of
+her own from Maggie's lips.
+
+The two looked up anything but gratefully when Constance approached.
+Miss Field, however, was not a person to be dismissed with a light and
+airy word, and Maggie sighed and closed her book when Constance sat
+down in an armchair, which she pulled close to her. There were no
+other girls in the library, and Prissie, seeing that Miss Field
+intended to be confidential, looked at Maggie with a disconsolate air.
+
+"Perhaps I had better go up to my own room," she said timidly.
+
+Maggie raised her brows and spoke in an impatient voice.
+
+"You are in no one's way, Priscilla," she said. "Here are my notes
+from the lecture. I read to the end of this page; you can make out the
+rest for yourself. Well, Constance, have you anything to say?"
+
+"Not unless you want to hear me," said Miss Field in her dignified
+manner.
+
+Maggie tried to stifle a yawn.
+
+"Oh, my dear Connie, I'm always charmed, you know that."
+
+"Well, I thought I'd like to tell you that I admired the way you spoke
+last night."
+
+"Were you present?"
+
+"No, but some friends of mine were. They repeated the whole thing
+verbatim."
+
+"Oh, you heard it second-hand. Highly colored, no doubt, and not the
+least like its poor original."
+
+Maggie spoke with a kind of bitter, defiant sarcasm, and a delicate
+color came into Miss Field's cheeks.
+
+"At least, I heard enough to assure me that you spoke the truth and
+concealed nothing," she said.
+
+"It is the case that I spoke the truth, as far as it went; but it is
+not the case that I concealed nothing."
+
+"Well, Maggie, I have come to offer you my sincere sympathy."
+
+"Thank you," said Maggie. She leaned back in her chair, folded her
+hands and a tired look came over her expressive face. "The fact is,"
+she said suddenly, "I am sick of the whole thing. I am sorry I went; I
+made a public confession of my sorrow last night; now I wish to forget
+it."
+
+"How can you possibly forget it until you know Miss Heath's and Miss
+Eccleston's decision?"
+
+"Frankly, Constance, I don't care what decision they come to."
+
+"You don't care? You don't mind the college authorities knowing?"
+
+"I don't care if every college authority in England knows. I have been
+humbled in the eyes of Miss Heath, whom I love; nothing else matters."
+
+When Maggie said these words Prissie rose to her feet, looked at her
+with a queer, earnest glance, suddenly bent forward, kissed her
+frantically and rushed out of the room.
+
+"And I love that dear, true-hearted child, too," said Maggie. "Now,
+Constance, do let us talk of something else."
+
+"We'll talk about Miss Peel. I don't know her as you do, but I'm
+interested in her."
+
+"Oh, pray don't; I want to keep her to myself."
+
+"Why? Is she such a rara avis?"
+
+"I don't care what she is. She suits me because she loves me without
+question. She is absolutely sincere; she could not say an untrue
+thing; she is so clever that I could not talk frivolities when I am
+with her; and so good, so really, simply good that she keeps at bay my
+bad half-hours and my reckless moods."
+
+Constance smiled. She believed part of Maggie's speech; not the whole
+of it, for she knew the enthusiasm of the speaker.
+
+"I am going to Kingsdene," said Maggie suddenly. "Prissie is coming
+with me. Will you come, too, Constance? I wish you would."
+
+"Thank you," said Constance. She hesitated for a moment. "It is the
+best thing in the world for Heath Hall," she thought, "that the girls
+should see me walking with Maggie to-day." Aloud she said, "All right,
+Maggie, I'll go upstairs and put on my hat and jacket and meet you and
+Miss Peel in the porch."
+
+"We are going to tea at the Marshalls'," said Maggie. "You don't mind
+that, do you? You know them, too?"
+
+"Know them? I should think so. Isn't old Mrs. Marshall a picture? And
+Helen is one of my best friends."
+
+"You shall make Helen happy this afternoon, dear Constance."
+
+Maggie ran gaily out of the room as she spoke, and a few minutes later
+the three girls, in excellent spirits, started for Kingsdene.
+
+As they entered the town they saw Rosalind Merton coming to meet them.
+There was nothing in this, for Rosalind was a gay young person and had
+many friends in Kingsdene. Few days passed that did not see her in the
+old town on her way to visit this friend or that, or to perpetrate
+some little piece of extravagance at Spilman's or at her dressmaker's.
+
+On this occasion, however, Rosalind was neither at Spilman's or the
+dressmaker's. She was walking demurely down the High Street, daintily
+dressed and charming to look at, in Hammond's company. Rosalind was
+talking eagerly and earnestly, and Hammond, who was very tall, was
+bending down to catch her words, when the other three girls came
+briskly round a corner and in full view of the pair.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Priscilla aloud in her abrupt, startled way. Her face
+became suffused with a flood of the deepest crimson, and Maggie, who
+felt a little annoyed at seeing Hammond in Rosalind's company, could
+not help noticing Priscilla's almost uncontrollable agitation.
+
+Rosalind, too, blushed, but prettily, when she saw the other three
+girls come up.
+
+"I will say good-by now, Mr. Hammond," she said, "for I must get back
+to St. Benet's in good time tonight."
+
+She held out her hand, which the young man took and shook cordially.
+
+"I am extremely obliged to you," he said.
+
+Maggie was near enough to hear his words. Rosalind tripped past her
+three fellow-students with an airy little nod and the faint beginning
+of a mocking curtsy.
+
+Hammond came up to the three girls and joined them at once.
+
+"Are you going to the Marshalls'?" he said to Maggie.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"So am I. What a lucky rencontre."
+
+He said another word or two and then the four turned to walk down the
+High Street. Maggie walked on in front with Constance. Hammond fell to
+Priscilla's share.
+
+"I am delighted to see you again," she said in her eager, agitated,
+abrupt way.
+
+"Are you?" he replied in some astonishment. Then he hastened to say
+something polite. "I forgot, we had not ended our discussion. You
+almost convinced me with regard to the superior merits of the Odyssey,
+but not quite. Shall we renew the subject now?"
+
+"No, please don't. That's not why I'm glad to see you. It's for
+something quite, quite different. I want to say something to you, and
+it's most important. Can't we just keep back a little from the others?
+I don't want Maggie to hear."
+
+Now why were Miss Oliphant's ears so sharp that afternoon? Why, even
+in the midst of her gay chatter to Constance, did she hear every word
+of Priscilla's queer, garbled speech? And why did astonishment and
+even anger steal into her heart?
+
+What she did, however, was to gratify Prissie immensely by hurrying on
+with her companion, so that she and Hammond were left comfortably in
+the background.
+
+"I don't quite know what you mean," he said stiffly. "What can you
+possibly have of importance to say to me?"
+
+"I don't want Maggie to hear," repeated Prissie in her earnest voice.
+She knew far too little of the world to be in the least alarmed at
+Hammond's stately tones.
+
+"What I want to say is about Maggie, and yet it isn't."
+
+"About Miss Oliphant?"
+
+"Oh, yes, but she's Maggie to me. She's the dearest, the best--
+there's no one like her, no one. I didn't understand her at first, but
+now I know how noble she is. I had no idea until I knew Maggie that a
+person could have faults and yet be noble. It's a new sort of
+experience to me."
+
+Prissie's eyes, in which even in her worst moments there always sat
+the soul of a far-reaching sort of intelligence, were shining now
+through tears. Hammond saw the tears, and the lovely expression in the
+eyes, and said to himself:
+
+"Good heavens, could I ever have regarded that dear child as plain?"
+Aloud he said in a softened voice, "I'm awfully obliged to you for
+saying these sorts of things of Miss-- Miss Oliphant, but you must
+know, at least you must guess, that I-- I have thought them for myself
+long, long ago."
+
+"Yes, of course, I know that. But have you much faith? Do you keep to
+what you believe?"
+
+"This is a most extraordinary girl!" murmured Hammond. Then he said
+aloud, "I fail to understand you."
+
+They had now nearly reached the Marshalls' door. The other two were
+waiting for them.
+
+"It's this," said Prissie, clasping her hands hard and speaking in her
+most emphatic and distressful way. "There are unkind things being said
+of Maggie, and there's one girl who is horrid to her-- horrid! I want
+you not to believe a word that girl says."
+
+"What girl do you mean?"
+
+"You were walking with her just now."
+
+"Really, Miss Peel, you are the most extraordinary--"
+
+But Maggie Oliphant's clear, sweet voice interrupted them.
+
+"Had we not better come into the house?" she said. "The door has been
+open for quite half a minute."
+
+Poor Prissie rushed in first, covered with shame; Miss Field hastened
+after, to bear her company; and Hammond and Maggie brought up the
+rear.
+
+  CHAPTER XX
+
+ A PAINTER
+
+THE Marshalls were always at home to their friend on Friday
+afternoons, and there were already several guests in the beautiful,
+quaint old drawing-room when the quartet entered. Mrs. Marshall, her
+white hair looking lovely under her soft lace cap, came forward to
+meet her visitors. Her kind eyes looked with appreciation and welcome
+at one and all. Blushing and shame-faced Prissie received a pleasant
+word of greeting, which seemed in some wonderful way to steady her
+nerves. Hammond and Maggie were received as special and very dear
+friends, and Helen Marshall, the old lady's pretty grand-daughter,
+rushed forward to embrace her particular friend, Constance Field.
+
+Maggie felt sore; she scarcely knew why. Her voice was bright, her
+eyes shining, her cheeks radiant in their rich and lovely bloom. But
+there was a quality in her voice which Hammond recognized-- a certain
+ring which meant defiance and which prophesied to those who knew her
+well that one of her bad half-hours was not very far off.
+
+Maggie seated herself near a girl who was a comparative stranger and
+began to talk. Hammond drew near and made a third in the conversation.
+Maggie talked in the brilliant, somewhat reckless fashion which she
+occasionally adopted. Hammond listened, now and then uttered a short
+sentence, now and then was silent, with disapproval in his eyes.
+
+Maggie read their expression like a book.
+
+"He shall be angry with me," she said to herself. Her words became a
+little wilder. The sentiments she uttered were the reverse of those
+Hammond held.
+
+Soon a few old friends came up. They were jolly, merry, good-humored
+girls, who were all prepared to look up to Maggie Oliphant and to
+worship her beauty and cleverness if she would allow them. Maggie
+welcomed the girls with effusion, let them metaphorically sit at her
+feet and proceeded to disenchant them as hard as she could.
+
+Some garbled accounts of the auction at St. Benet's had reached them,
+and they were anxious to get a full report from Miss Oliphant. Did she
+not think it a scandalous sort of thing to have occurred?
+
+"Not at all," answered Maggie in her sweetest tones; "it was capital
+fun, I assure you."
+
+"Were you really there?" asked Miss Duncan, the eldest of the girls.
+"We heard it, of course, bur could scarcely believe it possible."
+
+"Of course I was there," replied Maggie. "Whenever there is something
+really amusing going on, I am always in the thick of it."
+
+"Well!" Emily Duncan looked at her sister Susan. Susan raised her
+brows. Hammond took a photograph from a table which stood near and
+pretended to examine it.
+
+"Shall I tell you about the auction?" asked Maggie.
+
+"Oh, please, if you would be so kind. I suppose, as you were present,
+such a thing could not really lower the standard of the college?"
+These words came from Susan Duncan, who looked at Hammond as she
+spoke. She was his cousin and very fond of him.
+
+"Please tell us about the auction," he said, looking full at Maggie.
+
+"I will," she replied, answering his gaze with a flash of repressed
+irritation. "The auction was splendid fun! One of our girls was in
+debt, and she had to sell her things. Oh, it was capital! I wish you
+could have seen her acting as her own auctioneer. Some of us were
+greedy and wanted her best things. I was one of those. She sold a
+sealskin jacket, an expensive one, quite new. There is a legend in the
+college that eighty guineas were expended on it. Well, I bid for the
+sealskin and it was knocked down to me for ten. It is a little too big
+for me, of course, but when it is cut to my figure, it will make a
+superb winter garment."
+
+Maggie was clothed now in velvet and sable; nothing could be richer
+than her attire; nothing more mocking than her words.
+
+"You were fortunate," said Susan Duncan. "You got your sealskin at a
+great bargain. Didn't she, Geoffrey?"
+
+"I don't think so," replied Hammond.
+
+"Why not? Oh, do tell us why not," cried the sisters eagerly.
+
+He bowed to them, laughed as lightly as Maggie would have done and
+said in a careless tone: "My reasons are complex and too many to
+mention. I will only say now that what is objectionable to possess can
+never be a bargain to obtain. In my opinion, sealskin jackets are
+detestable."
+
+With these words he strode across the room and seated himself with a
+sigh of relief by Priscilla's side.
+
+"What are you doing all by yourself?" he said cheerfully. "Is no one
+attending to you? Are you always to be left like a poor little
+forsaken mouse in the background?"
+
+"I am not at all lonely," said Prissie.
+
+"I thought you hated to be alone."
+
+"I did, the other day, in that drawing-room; but not in this. People
+are all kind in this."
+
+"You are right. Our hostess is most genial and sympathetic."
+
+"And the guests are nice, too," said Prissie; "at least, they look
+nice."
+
+"Ay, but you must not be taken in by appearances. Some of them only
+look nice."
+
+"Do you mean--" began Prissie in her abrupt, anxious voice.
+
+Hammond took alarm. He remembered her peculiar outspokenness.
+
+"I don't mean anything," he said hastily. "By the way, are you fond of
+pictures?"
+
+"I have scarcely ever seen any."
+
+"That does not matter. I know by your face that you can appreciate
+some pictures."
+
+"But, really, I know nothing of art."
+
+"Never mind. If the painter who paints knows you----"
+
+"The painter knows me? I have never seen an artist in my life."
+
+"Nevertheless, there are some artists in the world who have conceived
+of characters like yours. There are some good pictures in this house.
+Shall I show you one or two?"
+
+Prissie sprang to her feet.
+
+"You are most kind," she said elusively. "I really don't know how to
+thank you."
+
+"You need not thank me at all; or, at any rate, not in such a loud
+voice, not so impressively. Our neighbors will think I have bestowed
+half a kingdom upon you."
+
+Prissie blushed and looked down.
+
+"Don't be shocked, with me," said Hammond. "I can read your grateful
+heart. Come this way"
+
+They passed Maggie Oliphant and her two or three remaining satellites.
+Prissie looked at her with longing and tripped awkwardly against her
+chair. Hammond walked past Maggie as if she did not exist to him.
+Maggie nodded affectionately to Priscilla and followed the back of
+Hammond's head and shoulders with a supercilious, amused smile.
+
+Hammond opened the outer drawing-room door.
+
+"Where are we going?" asked Priscilla. "Are not the pictures here?"
+
+"Some are here, but the best are in the picture gallery-- here to the
+left and down these steps. Now, I'm going to introduce you to a new
+world."
+
+He pushed aside a heavy curtain, and Prissie found herself in a rather
+small room, lighted from the roof. It contained in all about six or
+eight pictures, each the work of a master.
+
+Hammond walked straight across the gallery to a picture which occupied
+a wall by itself at the further end. It represented a summer scene of
+deep repose. There was water in the foreground, in the back tall
+forest trees in the fresh, rich foliage of June. Overhead was a sunset
+sky, its saffron and rosy tints reflected in the water below. The
+master who painted the picture was Corot.
+
+Hammond motioned Priscilla to sit down opposite to it.
+
+"There is summer." he said; "peace, absolute repose. You have not to
+go to it; it comes to you."
+
+He did not say any more, but walked away to look at another picture in
+a different part of the gallery.
+
+Prissie clasped her hands; all the agitation and eagerness went out of
+her face. She leaned back in her chair. Her attitude partook of the
+quality of the picture and became restful. Hammond did not disturb her
+for several moments.
+
+"I am going to show you something different now," he said, coming up
+to her almost with reluctance. "There is one sort of rest; I will now
+show you a higher. Here stand so. The light falls well from this
+angle. Now, what do you see?"
+
+"I don't understand it," said Prissie after a long, deep gaze.
+
+"Never mind, you see something. Tell me what you see."
+
+Priscilla looked again at the picture.
+
+"I see a woman," she said at last in a slow, pained kind of voice. "I
+can't see her face very well, but I know by the way she lies back in
+that chair that she is old and dreadfully tired. Oh, yes, I know well
+that she is tired-- see her hand stretched out there-- her hand and
+her arm-- how thin they are-- how worn-- and----"
+
+"Hard worked," interrupted Hammond. "Any one can see by the attitude
+of that hand, by the starting veins and the wrinkles that the woman
+has gone through a life of labor. Well, she does not occupy the whole
+of the picture. You see before you a tired-out worker. Don't be so
+unhappy about her. Look up a little higher in the picture. Observe for
+yourself that her toils are ended."
+
+"Who is that other figure?" said Priscilla. "A woman too, but young
+and strong. How glad she looks and how kind. She is carrying a little
+child in her arms. Who is she? What does she mean?"
+
+"That woman, so grand and strong, represents Death, but not under the
+old metaphor. She comes with renewed life-- the child is the type of
+that-- she comes as a deliverer. See, she is touching that poor
+worn-out creature, who is so tired that she can scarcely hold her head
+up again. Death, with a new aspect and a new, grand strength in her
+face is saying to this woman, 'Come with me now to your rest. It is
+all over,' Death says: all the trouble and perplexity and strife. Come
+away with me and rest. The name of that picture is 'The Deliverer.' It
+is the work of a painter who can preach a sermon, write a book,
+deliver an oration and sing a song all through the medium of his
+brush. I won't trouble you with his name just now. You will hear
+plenty of him and his wonderful, great pictures by and by, if you love
+art as I do."
+
+"Thank you," said Prissie simply. Some tears stole down her cheeks.
+She did not know she was crying; she did not attempt to wipe them
+away.
+
+  CHAPTER XXI
+
+ "I DETEST IT"
+
+SHORTLY after the girls got home that evening they received letters in
+their rooms to inform them that Miss Heath and Miss Eccleston had come
+to the resolution not to report the affair of the auction to the
+college authorities. They would trust to the honor of the students at
+St. Benet's not to allow such a proceeding to occur again and would
+say nothing further on the matter. Prissie's eyes again filled with
+tears as she read the carefully worded note. Holding it open in her
+hand she rushed to Maggie's room and knocked. To her surprise, instead
+of the usual cheerful "Come in," with which Miss Oliphant always
+assured her young friend of a welcome, Maggie said from the other side
+of the locked door:
+
+"I am very busy just now-- I cannot see any one."
+
+Priscilla felt a curious sense of being chilled; her whole afternoon
+had been one of elation, and Maggie's words came as a kind of cold
+douche. She went back to her room, tried not to mind and occupied
+herself looking over her beloved Greek until the dinner-gong sounded.
+
+After dinner Priscilla again looked with anxious, loving eyes at
+Maggie. Maggie did not stop, as was her custom, to say a kind word or
+two as she passed. She was talking to another girl and laughing gaily.
+Her dress was as picturesque as her face and figure were beautiful.
+But was Priscilla mistaken, or was her anxious observation too close?
+She felt sure as Miss Oliphant brushed past her that her eyelids were
+slightly reddened, as if she had been weeping.
+
+Prissie put out a timid hand and touched Maggie on the arm. She turned
+abruptly.
+
+"I forgot," she said to her companion. "Please wait for me outside,
+Hester; I'll join you in a moment. I have just a word to say to Miss
+Peel. What is it, Prissie" said Maggie then, when the other girl had
+walked out of hearing. "Why did you touch me?"
+
+"Oh, for nothing much," replied Prissie, half frightened at her
+manner, which was sweet enough but had an intangible hardness about
+it, which Priscilla felt, but could not fathom. "I thought you'd be so
+glad about the decision Miss Heath and Miss Eccleston have come to."
+
+"No, I am not particularly glad. I can't stay now to talk it over,
+however; Hester Stuart wants me to practise a duet with her."
+
+"May I come to your room later on, Maggie?"
+
+"Not to-night, I think; I shall be very busy."
+
+Miss Oliphant nodded brightly and disappeared out of the dining-hall.
+
+Two girls were standing not far off. They had watched this little
+scene, and they now observed that Prissie clasped her hands and that a
+woe-begone expression crossed her face.
+
+"The spell is beginning to work," whispered one to the other. "When
+the knight proves unfaithful the most gracious lady must suffer
+resentment."
+
+Priscilla did not hear these words. She went slowly upstairs and back
+to her own room, where she wrote letters home, and made copious notes
+from her last lectures, and tried not to think of the little cloud
+which seemed to have come between her and Maggie.
+
+Late, on that same evening, Polly Singleton, who had just been
+entertaining a chosen bevy of friends in her own room, after the last
+had bidden her an affectionate "good night," was startled at hearing a
+low knock at her door. She opened it at once. Miss Oliphant stood
+without.
+
+"May I come in?" she asked.
+
+"Why, of course. I'm delighted to see you. How kind of you to come.
+Where will you sit? I'm afraid you won't find things very comfortable,
+for most of my furniture is gone. But there's the bed; do you mind
+sitting on the bed?"
+
+"If I want to sit at all the bed is as snug a place as any," replied
+Maggie. "But I'm not going to stay a moment, for it is very late. See,
+I have brought you this back."
+
+Polly looked, and for the first time observed that her own sealskin
+jacket hung on Maggie's arm.
+
+"What do you mean?" she said. "My sealskin jacket! Oh, my beauty! But
+it isn't mine, it's yours now. Why do you worry me-- showing it to me
+again?"
+
+"I don't want to worry you, Miss Singleton. I mean what I say. I have
+brought your jacket back."
+
+"But it is yours-- you bought it."
+
+"I gave a nominal price for it, but that doesn't make it mine. Anyhow,
+I have no use for it. Please take it back again."
+
+Poor Polly blushed very red all over her face.
+
+"I wish I could," she said. "If there has been anything I regretted in
+the auction, besides getting all you girls into a mess, it has been my
+sealskin jacket. Dad is almost certain to ask me about it, for he
+never made me such a handsome present before. Poor dad! he was so
+proud the night he brought it home. He said, 'Look here, Poll, I paid
+a whole sheaf of fivers for this, and although it cost me a good round
+eighty guineas, I'm told it's cheap at the price. Put it on and let me
+see how you look in it,' he said. And when I had it on he twisted me
+round, and chucked me under the chin, and said I was a 'bouncer.' Poor
+old dad! He was as proud as Punch of me in that jacket. I never saw
+anything like it."
+
+"Well, he can be as proud as Punch of you again. Here is the jacket
+for your very own once more. Good night."
+
+She walked to the door, but Miss Singleton ran after her.
+
+"I can't take it back," she said. "I'm not as mean as all that comes
+to. It's yours now; you got it as fair as possible."
+
+"Listen, Miss Singleton," said Maggie. "If I keep that jacket I shall
+never wear it. I detest sealskin jackets. It won't be the least scrap
+of use to me."
+
+"You detest sealskin jackets? How can you? Oh, the lovely things they
+are. Let me stroke the beauty down."
+
+"Stroke your beauty and pet it as much as you like, only let me say
+'Good night' now."
+
+"But, please, Miss Oliphant, please, I'd do anything in the world to
+get the jacket back, of course. But I've ten guineas of yours, and
+honestly I can't pay them back."
+
+"Allow me to lend them to you until next term. You can return me the
+money then, can you not?"
+
+Polly's face became on the instant a show of shining eyes, gleaming
+white teeth and glowing cheeks.
+
+"Of course I could pay you back, you-- darling," she said with
+enthusiasm. "Oh, what a relief this is to me; I'd have done anything
+in all the world to have my jacket back again."
+
+"It's a bargain, then. Good night, Miss Singleton."
+
+Maggie tossed the jacket on Polly's bed, touched her hand lightly with
+one of her own and left the room. She went quickly back to her own
+pretty sitting-room, locked her door, threw herself on her knees by
+her bureau and sobbed long and passionately.
+
+During the few days which now remained before the end of the term no
+one quite knew what was wrong with Miss Oliphant. She worked hard in
+preparation for her lectures and when seen in public was always very
+merry. But there was a certain hardness about her mirth which her best
+friends detected and which caused Nancy Banister a good deal of
+puzzled pain.
+
+Priscilla was treated very kindly by Maggie; she still helped her
+willingly with her Greek and even invited her into her room once or
+twice. But all the little half-beginnings of confidence which, now and
+then, used to burst from Maggie's lips, the allusions to old times,
+the sentences which revealed deep thoughts and high aspirations, all
+these, which made the essence of true friendship, vanished out of her
+conversation.
+
+Priscilla said to herself over and over that there was really no
+difference-- that Miss Oliphant was still as kind to her, as valued a
+friend as ever-- but in her heart she knew that this was not the case.
+
+Maggie startled all her friends by making one request. Might they
+postpone the acting of The Princess until the middle of the following
+term?"
+
+"I cannot do it justice now," she said. "I cannot throw my heart and
+soul into my part. If you act the play now you must allow me to
+withdraw."
+
+The other girls, Constance Field in particular, were astonished. They
+even felt resentful. All arrangements had been made for this special
+play. Maggie was to be the Princess herself; no one could possibly
+take her place. It was most unreasonable of her to withdraw now.
+
+But it was one of the facts well known at St. Benet's that,
+fascinating as Miss Oliphant was, she was also unreasonable. On
+certain occasions she could even be disobliging. In short, when Maggie
+"took the bit between her teeth," to employ an old metaphor, she could
+neither be led nor driven. After a great deal of heated discussion and
+indignant words, she had her will. The play was deferred till the
+following term, and one or two slight comedies, which had been acted
+before, were revived in a hurry to take its place.
+
+  CHAPTER XXII
+
+ A BLACK SATIN JACKET
+
+VERY active preparations were being made in a certain rather humble
+little cottage in the country for the heroine's return. Three small
+girls were making themselves busy with holly and ivy, with badly cut
+paper flowers, with enormous texts coarsely illustrated, to render the
+home gay and festive in its greeting. A little worn old woman lay on a
+sofa and superintended these active measures.
+
+"How soon will she be here now?" said Hattie the vigorous.
+
+"Do stay still, Hattie, and don't fidget. Don't you see how tired Aunt
+Raby looks?" exclaimed Rose. "Prissie can't be here yet, and you are
+such a worry when you jump up and down like that, Hattie."
+
+Rose's words were quite severe, and Hattie planted herself on the edge
+of a chair, folded her plump hands, managed to get a demure look into
+her laughing eyes and dimpled mouth and sat motionless for about half
+a minute. At the end of that time she tumbled on the floor with a loud
+crash and Aunt Raby sprang to her feet with some alarm.
+
+"Good gracious, child! are you hurt? What's the matter?"
+
+Hattie was sitting on the floor in convulsions of mirth.
+
+"I'm not hurt," she exclaimed. "I slipped off the chair. I didn't mean
+to; I couldn't help it, really. I'm sorry I woke you, Aunt Raby."
+
+"I wasn't asleep, child." Miss Peel walked across the room and
+vanished into the kitchen, from which very savory smells issued.
+
+Hattie and Rose began to quarrel and argue, and Katie, who was more or
+less of a little peacemaker, suggested that they should draw up the
+blind and all three get into the window to watch for Prissie.
+
+"I wonder how she will look?" said Rose when they were all comfortably
+established.
+
+"I hope she won't talk in Latin," exclaimed Hattie.
+
+"Oh, it is nice to think of seeing Prissie so soon," murmured Katie in
+an ecstasy.
+
+"I wonder," began Rose in her practical voice, "how soon Prissie will
+begin to earn money. We want money even more than when she went away.
+Aunt Raby isn't as well as she was then, and since the cows were
+sold----"
+
+"Hush!" said Hattie. "You know we promised we wouldn't tell Prissie
+about the cows."
+
+Just then a distant sound of wheels was heard. The little girls began
+to jump and shout; a moment later and Priscilla stood in the midst of
+her family. A great excitement followed her arrival. There were kisses
+and hugs and wild, rapturous words from the affectionate little
+sisters. Aunt Raby put her arms round Priscilla and gave her a solemn
+sort of kiss, and then the whole party adjourned into the supper-room.
+
+The feast which was spread was so dainty and abundant that Katie asked
+in a puzzled sort of way if Aunt Raby considered Prissie like the
+Prodigal Son.
+
+"What fancies you have, child!" said Aunt Raby. "The Prodigal Son,
+indeed! Thank Heaven, I've never had to do with that sort! As to
+Priscilla here, she's as steady as Old Time. Well, child, and are you
+getting up your learning very fast?"
+
+"Pretty well, Aunt Raby."
+
+"And you like your grand college and all those fine young-lady friends
+of yours?"
+
+"I haven't any fine young-lady friends."
+
+"H'm! I dare say they are like other girls; a little bit of learning
+and a great deal of dress, eh?"
+
+Priscilla colored.
+
+"There are all sorts of girls at St. Benet's," she said after a pause.
+"Some are real students, earnest, devoted to their work."
+
+"Have you earned any money yet, Prissie?" exclaimed Hattie. "For if
+you have, I do want-- look----" She thrust a small foot, encased in a
+broken shoe, prominently into view.
+
+"Hattie, go to bed this minute!" exclaimed Aunt Raby. "Go up to your
+room all three of you little girls. No more words-- off at once, all
+of you. Prissie, you and I will go into the drawing-room, and I'll lie
+on the sofa while you tell me a little of your college life."
+
+"Aunt Raby always lies on the sofa in the evenings now," burst from
+Hattie the irrepressible.
+
+Miss Peel rushed after the plump little girl and pushed her out of the
+room.
+
+"To bed, all of you!" she exclaimed. "To bed and to sleep! Now,
+Prissie, you are not to mind a word that child says. Come into the
+drawing-room and let us have a few words quietly. Oh, yes, I'll lie on
+the sofa, my dear, if you wish it. But Hattie is wrong; I don't do it
+every night. I suffer no pain either, Prissie. Many a woman of my age
+is racked with rheumatics."
+
+The last words were said with a little gasp. The elder woman lay back
+on the sofa with a sigh of relief. She turned her face so that the
+light from the lamp should not reveal the deathly tired lines round
+it.
+
+Aunt Raby was dressed in a rough homespun garment. Her feet were clad
+in unbleached cotton stockings, also made at home; her little,
+iron-gray curls lay flat at each side of her hollow cheeks. She wore
+list slippers, very coarse and common in texture. Her whole appearance
+was the essence of the homely, the old-fashioned, even the ungainly.
+
+Priscilla had seen elegance and beauty since she went away; she had
+entered into the life of the cultivated, the intellectually great. In
+spite of her deep affection for Aunt Raby, she came back to the
+ugliness and the sordid surroundings of home with a pang which she
+hated herself for feeling. She forgot Aunt Raby's sufferings for a
+moment in her uncouthness. She longed to shower riches, refinement,
+beauty upon her.
+
+"How has your dress worn, Prissie?" said the elder woman after a
+pause. "My sakes, child, you have got your best brown cashmere on! A
+beautiful fine bit of cashmere it was, too. I bought it out of the
+money I got for the lambs' wool."
+
+Aunt Raby stretched out her hand, and, taking up a fold of the
+cashmere, she rubbed it softly between her finger and thumb.
+
+"It's as fine as velvet," she said, "and I put strong work into it,
+too. It isn't a bit worn, is it, Prissie?"
+
+"No, Aunt Raby, except just round the tail. I got it very wet one day
+and the color went a trifle, but nothing to signify."
+
+A vivid picture rose up before Priscilla's eyes as she spoke of Mrs.
+Elliot-Smith's drawing-room, and the dainty, disdainful ladies in
+their gay attire, and her own poor, little forlorn figure in her muddy
+cashmere dress-- the same dress Aunt Raby considered soft and
+beautiful as velvet.
+
+"Oh, Aunt Raby," she said with sudden impulse, "a great many things
+have happened to me since I went away. On the whole I have had a very
+good time."
+
+Aunt Raby opened her mouth to emit a prodigious yawn.
+
+"I don't know how it is," she said, "but I'm a bit drowsy to-night. I
+suppose it's the weather. The day was quite a muggy one. I'll hear
+your news another time, Priscilla; but don't you be turned with the
+vanities of the world, Priscilla. Life's but a passing day: you mind
+that when you're young, and it won't come on you as a shock when you
+are old. I'm glad the cashmere has worn well-- aye, that I am,
+Prissie. But don't put it on in the morning, my love, for it's a sin
+to wear through beautiful fine stuff like that. And, even if the color
+is gone a bit round the hem, the stuff itself isn't worn, and looks
+don't signify. You'll have to make up your mind to wear the cashmere
+for best again next term, Prissie, for, though I'm not pinched in any
+way, I'm not overflush either, my love."
+
+Priscilla, who had been sitting in a low chair near her aunt, now rose
+to her feet.
+
+"Ought we not to come to bed?" she said. "If you don't feel tired, you
+look it, Aunt Raby. Come upstairs, do, and let me help you to take
+your things off and put you into bed. Come, Aunt Raby, it will be like
+old times to help you, you know."
+
+The girl knelt by the old woman, took one of her withered hands,
+raised it suddenly to her lips and kissed it. Aunt Raby's face was
+still turned from the light.
+
+"Don't you keep kneeling on your cashmere," she said. "You'll crease
+it awfully, and I don't see my way to another best dress this term."
+
+"You needn't, Aunt Raby," said Priscilla in a steady voice. "The
+cashmere is quite neat still. I can manage well with it."
+
+Aunt Raby rose slowly and feebly from the sofa.
+
+"You may help me to get into bed if you like," she said. "The muggy
+day has made me wonderfully drowsy, and I'll be glad to lie down. It's
+only that. I'll be as pert as a cricket in the morning."
+
+The old woman leaned on the girl's strong, young arm and stumbled a
+bit as she went up the narrow stairs.
+
+When they entered the tiny bedroom Aunt Raby spoke again:
+
+"Your dress will do, but I have been fretting about your winter
+jacket, Prissie. There's my best one, though-- you know, the quilted
+satin which my mother left me; it's loose and full, and you shall have
+it."
+
+"But you want it to go to church in yourself, Aunt Raby."
+
+"I don't often go to church lately, child. I take a power of comfort
+lying on the sofa, reading my Bible, and Mr. Hayes doesn't see
+anything contrary to Scripture in it, for I asked him. Yes, you shall
+have my quilted satin jacket to take back to college with you,
+Prissie, and then you'll be set up fine."
+
+Priscilla bent forward and kissed Aunt Raby. She made no other
+response, but that night before she went to sleep she saw distinctly a
+vision of herself. Prissie was as little vain as a girl could be, but
+the vision of her own figure in Aunt Raby's black satin quilted jacket
+was not a particularly inspiriting one. The jacket, full in the
+skirts, long in the shoulders, wide in the sleeves and enormous round
+the neck, would scarcely bear comparison with the neat, tight-fitting
+garments which the other girl graduates of St. Benet's were wont to
+patronize. Prissie felt glad she was not attired in it that
+unfortunate day when she sat in Mrs. Elliot-Smith's drawing-room; and
+yet-- and yet-- she knew that the poor, quaint, old-world jacket meant
+love and self-renunciation.
+
+"Dear Aunt Raby!" whispered the girl.
+
+Tears lay heavily on her eyelashes as she dropped asleep, with one arm
+thrown protectingly round her little sister Katie.
+
+  CHAPTER XXIII
+
+ THE FASHION OF THE DAY
+
+A THICK mist lay over everything. Christmas had come and gone, and
+Priscilla's trunk was packed once more-- Aunt Raby's old-world jacket
+between folds of tissue-paper, lying on the top of other homely
+garments.
+
+The little sisters were in bed and asleep and Aunt Raby lay on the
+sofa. Prissie was accustomed to her face now, so she did not turn it
+away from the light. The white lips, the chalky gray tint under the
+eyes, the deep furrows round the sunken temples were all familiar to
+the younger "Miss Peel." She had fitted once more into the old sordid
+life. She saw Hattie in her slipshod feet and Katie and Rose in their
+thin winter jackets, which did not half keep out the cold. She saw and
+partook of the scanty meals and tried to keep warm by the wretched
+fires. Once more she was part and parcel of the household. The
+children were so accustomed to her that they forgot she was going away
+again.
+
+To-night, however, the fact was brought back to her. Katie cried when
+she saw the packed trunk. Hattie pouted and flopped herself about and
+became unmanageable. Rose put on her most discontented manner and
+voice, and finding that Prissie had earned no money during the past
+term, gave utterance to skeptical thoughts.
+
+"Prissie just went away to have a good time, and she never meant to
+earn money, and she forgot all about them," grumbled the naughty
+little girl.
+
+Hattie came up and pummeled Rose for her bad words. Katie cried
+afresh, and altogether the scene was most dismal.
+
+Now, however, it was over. The children were in the land of happy
+dreams. They were eating their Christmas dinner over again and looking
+with ecstasy at their tiny, tiny Christmas gifts and listening once
+more to Prissie, who had a low, sweet voice and who was singing to
+them the old and beloved words:
+
+                     "Peace and goodwill to men."
+
+ The children were happy in their dreams, and Prissie was standing by
+                          Aunt Raby's side.
+
+  "Why don't you sit down, child? You have done nothing but fidget,
+                   fidget for the last half-hour."
+
+                    "I want to go out, Aunt Raby."
+
+       "To go out? Sakes! what for? And on such a night, too!"
+
+                      "I want to see Mr. Hayes."
+
+"Prissie, I think you have got a bee in your bonnet. You'll be lost in
+                             this mist."
+
+"No, I won't. I missed Mr. Hayes to-day when he called, and I must see
+ him before I go back to St. Benet's. I have a question or two to ask
+him, and I know every step of the way. Let me go, auntie, please, do!"
+
+ "You always were a wilful girl, Priscilla, and I think that college
+has made you more obstinate than ever. I suppose the half-mannish ways
+ of all those girls tell upon you. There, if you must go-- do. I'm in
+no mood for arguing. I'll have a bit of a sleep while you are out: the
+              muggy weather always makes me so drowsy."
+
+   Aunt Raby uttered a very weary yawn and turned her face from the
+  light. Priscilla stepped into the hall, put on her waterproof and
+oldest hat and went out. She knew her way well to the little vicarage,
+   built of gray stone and lying something like a small, daring fly
+against the brow of the hill. The little house looked as if any storm
+must detach it from its resting-place, but to-night there was no wind,
+              only clinging mist and damp and thick fog.
+
+Priscilla mounted the rough road which led to the vicarage, opened the
+ white gate, walked up the gravel path and entered the little porch.
+  Her knock was answered by the vicar himself. He drew her into the
+ house with an affectionate word of welcome, and soon she was sitting
+           by his study fire, with hat and jacket removed.
+
+ In the vicar's eyes Priscilla was not at all a plain girl. He liked
+  the rugged power which her face displayed; he admired the sensible
+lines of her mouth, and he prophesied great things from that brow, so
+  calm, so broad, so full. Mr. Hayes had but a small respect for the
+  roses and lilies of mere beauty. Mind was always more to him than
+ matter. Some of the girls at St. Benet's, who thought very little of
+ poor Priscilla, would have felt no small surprise had they known the
+     high regard and even admiration this good man felt for her.
+
+"I am glad you have called, Prissie," he said. "I was disappointed in
+not seeing you to-day. Well, my dear, do as well in the coming term as
+            you did in the past. You have my best wishes."
+
+                      "Thank you," said Prissie.
+
+    "You are happy in your new life, are you not, my dear child?"
+
+ "I am interested," said Priscilla in a low voice. Her eyes rested on
+ her shabby dress as she spoke. She laid one hand over the other. She
+  seemed to be weighing her words. "I am interested; sometimes I am
+absorbed. My new life fills my heart; it crowds into all my thoughts.
+    I have no room for Aunt Raby-- no room for my little sisters.
+ Everything is new to me-- everything fresh and broad. There are some
+ trials, of course, and some unpleasantness; but, oh, the difference
+ between here and there! Here it is so narrow, there one cannot help
+              getting enlightenment, daily and hourly."
+
+ "Yes," said Mr. Hayes when Priscilla paused, "I expected you to say
+something of this kind. I knew you could not but feel the immense, the
+ immeasurable change. But why do you speak in that complaining voice,
+                             Priscilla?"
+
+                  Prissies' eyes were raised to his.
+
+"Because Aunt Raby is ill, and it is wicked of me to forget her. It is
+              mean and cowardly. I hate myself for it."
+
+    Mr. Hayes looked puzzled for a moment. Then his face cleared.
+
+   "My dear Prissie," he said, "I always knew there were depths of
+morbidness in you, but I did not suppose that you would sound them so
+  quickly. If you are to grow up to be a wise and useful and helpful
+ woman by and by, you must check this intense self-examination. Your
+  feelings are the natural feelings of a girl who has entered upon a
+ very charming life. You are meant to lead that life for the present;
+you are meant to do your duty in it. Don't worry, my dear. Go back to
+  St. Benet's, and study well, and learn much, and gather plenty of
+ experience for the future. If you fret about what cannot be helped,
+    you will weaken your intellect and tire your heart. After all,
+ Prissie, though you give much thought to St. Benet's, and though its
+ ways are delightful to you, your love is still with the old friends,
+                             is it not?"
+
+"Even there I have failed," said Priscilla sadly. "There is a girl at
+St. Benet's who has a strange power over me. I love her. I have a very
+  great love for her. She is not a happy girl, she is not a perfect
+ girl, but I would do anything-- anything in the wide world for her."
+
+               "And you would do anything for us, too?"
+
+                           "Oh, yes, yes."
+
+  "And, though you don't think it, your love for us is stronger than
+   your love for her. There is a freshness about the new love which
+fascinates you, but the old is the stronger. Keep both loves, my dear:
+both are of value. Now I must go out to visit poor Peters, who is ill,
+so I can see you home. Is there anything more you want to say to me?"
+
+             "Oh, yes, Mr. Hayes, Aunt Raby is very ill."
+
+                          "She is, Prissie."
+
+                         "Does she know it?"
+
+                                "Yes."
+
+           "Ought I to be away from her now-- is it right"
+
+ "My dear, do you want to break her heart? She worked so hard to get
+ this time at college for you. No, Prissie, don't get that idea into
+   your head. Aunt Raby is most anxious that you should have every
+advantage. She knows-- she and I both know-- that she cannot live more
+ than a year or two longer, and her greatest hope is that you may be
+  able to support your little sisters when she is gone. No, Prissie,
+  whatever happens, you must on no account give up your life at St.
+                              Benet's."
+
+   "Then please let me say something else. I must not go on with my
+                              classics."
+
+"My dear child, you are managing to crush me with all kinds of queer,
+                   disappointing sayings to-night."
+
+ "Am I? But I mean what I say now. I love Greek better than anything
+  almost in the world. But I know enough of it already for the mere
+purposes of rudimentary teaching. My German is faulty-- my French not
+                          what it might he."
+
+ "Come, come, my dear; Peters is waiting to settle for the night. Can
+             we not talk on our way down to the cottage?"
+
+    Aunt Raby was fast asleep when Priscilla re-entered the little
+  sitting-room. The girl knelt down by the slight, old figure, and,
+  stooping, pressed a light kiss on the forehead. Light as it was it
+                          awoke the sleeper.
+
+   "You are there still, child?" said Aunt Raby. "I dreamt you were
+                                away."
+
+            "Would you like me to stay with you, auntie?"
+
+"No, my dear; you help me upstairs and I'll get into bed. You ought to
+ be in your own bed, too, Prissie. Young creatures ought never to sit
+        up late, and you have a journey before you to-morrow."
+
+"Yes, but would you like me not to take the journey? I am strong, and
+ could do all the work, and you might rest not only at night, but in
+          the day. You might rest always, if I stayed here."
+
+     Aunt Raby was wide awake now, and her eyes were very bright.
+
+          "Do you mean what you say, Priscilla?" she asked.
+
+   "Yes, I do. You have the first right to me. If you want me, I'll
+                                stay."
+
+ "You'll give up that outlandish Greek, and all that babel of foreign
+tongues, and your fine friends, and your grand college, and you hopes
+    of being a famous woman by and by? Do you mean this, Prissie,
+                             seriously?"
+
+                        "Yes, if you want me."
+
+             "And you say I have the first claim on you?"
+
+                               "I do."
+
+   "Then you're wrong; I haven't the first claim on you." Aunt Raby
+ tumbled off the sofa and managed to stand on her trembling old legs.
+
+   "Give me your arm, child," she said; "and-- and give me a kiss,
+ Prissie. You're a good girl and worthy of your poor father. He was a
+ bookworm, and you are another. But he was an excellent man, and you
+ resemble him. I'm glad I took you home and did my best for you. I'll
+  tell him about you when I get to heaven. He'll be right pleased, I
+ know. My sakes, child! I don't want the little bit of earth's rest.
+  I'm going to have a better sort than that. And you think I've the
+first claim on you? A poor old body like me. There, help me up to bed,
+                              my dear."
+
+  Aunt Raby did not say any more as the two scrambled up the narrow
+stairs in silence. When they got into the little bedroom, however, she
+    put her arms round Priscilla's neck and gave her quite a hug.
+
+  "Thank you for offering yourself to me, my love," she said, "but I
+ wouldn't have you on any terms whatever. Go and learn all you can at
+your fine college, Prissie. It's the fashion of the day for the young
+  folk to learn a lot, and there's no going against the times. In my
+young life sewing was the great thing. Now it's Latin and Greek. Don't
+ you forget that I taught you to sew, Prissie, and always put a back
+    stitch when you're running a seam; it keeps the stuff together
+                     wonderfully. Now go to bed."
+
+  CHAPTER XXIV
+
+ TWO EXTREMES
+
+"HAVE you heard the news?" said Rosalind Merton. She skipped into Miss
+Day's room as she spoke.
+
+"No; what?" asked that untidy person, turning round and dropping a lot
+of ribbon which she was converting into bows. "What's your news, Rose?
+Out with it. I expect it's a case of 'great cry and little wool.'
+However, if you want a plain opinion from me----"
+
+"I don't ask for your opinion, Annie. I'm quite accustomed to the
+scornful way in which you have received all my words lately. I need
+not tell you what I have heard at all, unless you wish to hear it."
+
+"But, of course, I wish to hear it, Rosie; you know that as well as I
+do. Now sit down and make yourself at home; there's a dear."
+
+Rose allowed herself to be mollified.
+
+"Well," she said, sinking back into Miss Day's most comfortable chair,
+"the feud between a certain small person and a certain great person
+grows apace."
+
+Miss Day's small eyes began to dance.
+
+"You know I am interested in that subject," she said. She flopped down
+on the floor by Rosalind Merton's side. "Go on, my love," she
+murmured; "describe the development of the enmity."
+
+"Little things show the way the wind is blowing," pursued Rose. "I was
+coming along the corridor just now, and I met the angelic and
+unworldly Priscilla. Her eyelids were red as if she had been crying.
+She passed me without a word."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"That's all."
+
+"Rose, you really are too provoking. I thought you had something very
+fine to tell."
+
+"The feud grows," pursued Rose. "I know it by many signs. Prissie is
+not half so often with Maggie as she used to be. Maggie means to get
+out of this friendship, but she is too proud not to do it gradually.
+There is not a more jealous girl in this college than Maggie, but
+neither is there a prouder. Do you suppose that anything under the sun
+would allow her to show her feelings because that little upstart dared
+to raise her eyes to Maggie's adorable beau, Mr. Hammond? But oh, she
+feels it; she feels it down in her secret soul. She hates Prissie; she
+hates this beautiful, handsome lover of hers for being civil to so
+commonplace a person. She is only waiting for a decent pretext to drop
+Prissie altogether. I wish with all my heart I could give her one."
+
+As she spoke Rosalind shaded her eyes with her hand; her face looked
+full of sweet and thoughtful contemplation.
+
+"Get your charming Prissie to flirt a little bit more," said Miss Day
+with her harsh laugh.
+
+"I don't know that I can. I must not carry that brilliant idea to
+extremities, or I shall be found out."
+
+"Well, what are you going to do?"
+
+"I don't know. Bide my time."
+
+Miss Day gave a listless sort of yawn.
+
+"Let's talk of something else," she said impatiently. "What are you
+going to wear at the Elliot-Smith's party next week, Rose?"
+
+"I have got a new white dress," said Rose in that voice of strong
+animation and interest which the mere mention of dress always arouses
+in certain people.
+
+"Have you? What a lot of dresses you get!"
+
+"Indeed, you are mistaken, Annie. I have the greatest difficulty in
+managing my wardrobe at all."
+
+"Why is that? I thought your people not only belonged to the county,
+but were as rich as Jews."
+
+"We are county people, of course," said Rose in her most affected
+manner, "but county people need not invariably be rich. The fact is my
+father has had some losses lately, and mother says she must be
+careful. I wanted a great many things, and she said she simply could
+not give them. Oh, if only that spiteful Miss Oliphant had not
+prevented my getting the sealskin jacket, and if she had not raised
+the price of Polly's pink coral!"
+
+"Don't begin that old story again, Rose. When all is said and done,
+you have got the lovely coral. By the way, it will come in beautifully
+for the Elliot-Smith's party. You'll wear it, of course?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know."
+
+"What do you mean? Of course you'll wear it."
+
+"I don't know. The fact is I have not paid the whole price for it
+yet."
+
+"Haven't you really? You said you'd bring the money when you returned
+this term."
+
+"Of course I thought I could, but I was absolutely afraid to tell
+mother what a lot the coral cost; and as she was so woefully short of
+funds, I had just to come away without the money. I never for a moment
+supposed I should have such ill luck."
+
+"It is awkward. What are you going to say to Polly Singleton?'
+
+"I don't know. I suppose you could not help me, Annie?"
+
+"I certainly couldn't. I never have a penny to bless myself with. I
+don't know how I scrape along."
+
+Rosalind sighed. Her pretty face looked absolutely careworn.
+
+"Don't fret, Rose," said Miss Day after a pause; "whether you have
+paid for the coral or not, you can wear it at the Elliot-Smith's."
+
+"No, alas! that's just what I can't do. The fact is Polly is turning
+out awfully mean. She has come back this time with apparently an
+unlimited supply of pocket money, and she has been doing her best to
+induce me to sell her the coral back again."
+
+"Well, why don't you? I'm sure I would, rather than be worried about
+it."
+
+Miss Merton's face flushed angrily.
+
+"Nothing will induce me to give up the coral," she said. "I bought my
+new white dress to wear with it. I have looked forward all during the
+holidays to showing it to Meta Elliot-Smith. It's the sort of thing to
+subdue Meta, and I want to subdue her. No, nothing will induce me to
+part with my lovely coral now."
+
+"Well, my dear, keep it, of course, and pay for it how you can. It's
+your own affair. You have not yet explained to me, however, why, when
+it is in your possession, you can't wear it with your new dress at the
+Elliot-Smiths' next week."
+
+"Because that wretched Polly has been invited also; and she is quite
+mean enough and underbred enough to walk up to me before every one and
+ask me to give her back her property."
+
+"What fun if she did!" laughed Miss Day.
+
+"Annie, you are unkind!"
+
+"My dear, of course I don't mean what I say, but I can't help seeing
+the whole picture: you, so fine and so self-conscious and so-- so
+perfect in all your appointments-- and looking-- for all you are a
+little thing, Rose-- a good inch above every one else-- and then our
+poor, good-natured, downright Polly catching sight of her unpaid-for
+ornaments round your sweet baby throat-- all the John Bull in her
+instantly coming to the fore, and she demanding her rights in no
+measured terms. Oh, your face, Rosie! your face! and Meta
+Elliot-Smith's enjoyment-- oh, how delicious the picture is! Dear
+Rosalind, do wear the coral, and please-- please get me an invitation
+to the Elliot-Smiths'. I'll love you all my life if you give me leave
+to witness so lovely a spectacle!"
+
+Miss Merton's face changed color several times while Annie Day was
+speaking. She clenched her small hands and tried hard to keep back
+such a torrent of angry words as would have severed this so-called
+friendship once and for all, but Rose's sense of prudence was greater
+even now than her angry passions. Miss Day was a useful ally-- a
+dangerous foe.
+
+With a forced laugh, which concealed none of her real feelings, she
+stood up and prepared to leave the room.
+
+"You are very witty at my expense, Annie," she said. Her lips
+trembled. She found herself the next moment alone in the brightly
+lighted corridor.
+
+It was over a week now since the beginning of the term. Lectures were
+once more in full swing, and all the inmates of St. Benet's were
+trying, each after her kind, for the several prizes which the life
+they were leading held out to them. Girls of all kinds were living
+under these roofs-- the idle as well as the busy. Both the clever and
+the stupid were here, both the good and the bad. Rosalind Merton was a
+fairly clever girl. She had that smart sort of cleverness which often
+passes for wide knowledge. She was liked by many of her girl friends;
+she had the character of being rather good-natured; her pretty face
+and innocent manner, too, helped to win her golden opinions among the
+lecturers and dons.
+
+Those who knew her well soon detected her want of sincerity, but then
+it was Rose's endeavor to prevent many people becoming intimately
+acquainted with her. She had all the caution which accompanies a
+deceitful character and had little doubt that she could pursue those
+pettinesses in which her soul delighted and yet retain a position as a
+good, innocent and fairly clever girl before the heads of the college.
+
+Rose generally kept her angry passions in check, but, although she had
+managed not to betray herself while in Miss Day's room, now as she
+stood alone in the brilliantly lighted corridor, she simply danced
+with rage. Her small hands were clenched until the nails pierced the
+flesh and her delicately colored face became livid with passion.
+
+At that moment she hated Annie Day-- she hated Polly Singleton-- she
+hated, perhaps, most of all Maggie Oliphant.
+
+She walked down the corridor, her heart beating fast. Her own room was
+on another floor; to reach it she had to pass Miss Peel's and Miss
+Oliphant's rooms. As Rose was walking slowly down the corridor she saw
+a girl come out of Miss Oliphant's room, turn quickly in the opposite
+direction to the one from which she was coming, and, quickening her
+pace to a run, disappear from view. Rose recognized this girl: she was
+Priscilla Peel. Rose hastened her own steps and peeped into Maggie's
+room. To her surprise, it was empty; the door had swung wide open and
+the excited, perturbed girl could see into every corner. Scarcely
+knowing why she did it, she entered the room. Maggie's room was
+acknowledged to be one of the most beautiful in the college, and Rose
+said to herself that she was glad to have an opportunity to examine it
+unobserved.
+
+She went and stood on the hearthrug and gazed around her; then she
+walked over to the bureau. Some Greek books were lying open here--
+also a pile of manuscript, several note-books, a few envelopes and
+sheets of letter-paper. Still, scarcely knowing why, Rose lifted the
+note-paper and looked under it. The heap of paper concealed a purse.
+
+A sealskin purse with gold clasps. Rose snatched her hands away, flung
+down the note-paper as if she had been stung and walked back again to
+the hearthrug. Once more the color rushed into her cheeks, once more
+it retreated, leaving her small, young, pretty face white as marble.
+
+She was assailed by a frightful temptation and she was scarcely the
+girl to resist it long. In cold blood she might have shrunk from the
+siren voice which bade her release herself from all her present
+troubles by theft, but at this moment she was excited, worried,
+scarcely capable of calm thought. Here was her unexpected opportunity.
+It lay in her power now to revenge herself on Miss Oliphant, on
+Prissie, on Polly Singleton and also to get out of her own
+difficulties.
+
+How tempting was Maggie's purse! how rich its contents were likely to
+prove! Maggie was so rich and so careless that it was quite possible
+she might never miss the small sum which Rose meant to take. If she
+did, it would be absolutely impossible for her to trace the theft to
+innocent baby Rose Merton. No; if Maggie missed her money and
+suspected any one, she would be almost forced to lay the crime to the
+door of the girl she no longer, in her heart, cared about-- Priscilla
+Peel.
+
+A very rich flood of crimson covered Rose's cheeks as this consequence
+of her sin flashed before her vision. Less even than before was she
+capable of seeing right from wrong. The opportunity was far too good
+to lose; by one small act she would not only free herself, but
+accomplish the object on which she had set her mean little heart: she
+would effectually destroy the friendship of Maggie and Priscilla.
+
+Stealthily, with her cheeks burning and her eyes bright with
+agitation, she once more approached the bureau, took from under the
+pile of papers the little sealskin purse, opened it, removed a
+five-pound note, clasped the purse again and restored it to its
+hiding-place, then flew on the wings of the wind from the room.
+
+A moment or two later Priscilla came back, sat calmly down in one of
+Maggie's comfortable chairs, and, taking up her Greek edition of
+Euripides, began to read and translate with eagerness.
+
+As Prissie read she made notes with a pencil in a small book which lay
+in her lap. The splendid thoughts appealed to her powerfully; her face
+glowed with pleasure. She lived in the noble past; she was a Greek
+with the old Greeks; she forgot the nineteenth century, with its
+smallness, its money worries-- above all, she forgot her own cares.
+
+At last in her reading she came to a difficult sentence, which, try as
+she would, she could not render into English to her own satisfaction.
+She was a very careful student and always disliked shirking
+difficulties; the pleasure of her reading would be lost if she did not
+do full justice to the lines which puzzled her. She resolved to read
+no further until Maggie appeared. Maggie Oliphant, with her superior
+information, would soon cut the knot for her. She closed the copy of
+Euripides with reluctance, and, putting her hand into her pocket, took
+out a note she had just received, to mark the place.
+
+A moment or two later Maggie came in.
+
+"Still here, Prissie!" she exclaimed in her somewhat indifferent but
+good-natured voice. "What a bookworm you are turning into!"
+
+"I have been waiting for you to help me, if you will, Maggie," said
+Priscilla. "I have lost the right clew to the full sense of this
+passage-- see! Can you give it to me?"
+
+Maggie sat down at once, took up the book, glanced her eyes over the
+difficult words and translated them with ease.
+
+"How lovely!" said Prissie, clasping her hands and giving herself up
+to a feeling of enjoyment. "Don't stop, Maggie, please; do read some
+more!"
+
+Miss Oliphant smiled.
+
+"Enthusiast!" she murmured.
+
+She translated with brilliancy to the end of the page; then, throwing
+the book on her knee, repeated the whole passage aloud in Greek.
+
+The note that Prissie put in as a mark fell on the floor. She was so
+lost in delighted listening that she did not notice it, but, when
+Maggie at last stopped for want of breath, Priscilla saw the little
+note, stooped forward to pick it up, glanced at the handwriting, and a
+shadow swept over her expressive face.
+
+"Oh! thank you, Maggie, thank you," she exclaimed; "it is beautiful,
+entrancing! It made me forget everything for a short time, but I must
+not listen to any more; it is, indeed, most beautiful, but not for
+me."
+
+"What do you mean, you little goose? You will soon read Euripides as
+well as I do. What is more, you will surpass me, Priscilla; your
+talent is greater than mine."
+
+"Don't say that, Maggie; I can scarcely bear it when you do."
+
+"Why do you say you can scarcely bear it? Do you love me so well that
+you hate to excel me? Silly child, as if I cared!"
+
+"Maggie, I know you are really too great to be possessed by petty
+weaknesses. If I ever did excel you, which is most unlikely, I know
+you would be glad both for me and for yourself. No, it is not that; I
+am unhappy because of no fancy."
+
+"What worries you then?"
+
+"Maggie, do you see this note?"
+
+"Yes; it is from Miss Heath, is it not?"
+
+"It is. I am to see her to-night."
+
+"Well, Prissie, you must be quick with your revelation, for I have
+some notes to look over."
+
+"I won't keep you a moment. I am to see Miss Heath to tell her----
+Prissie paused. Her face grew deadly white. "I am to see Miss Heath to
+tell her-- to tell her-- that I-- oh, Maggie! I must give up my
+classics. I must; it's all settled. Don't say anything. Don't tempt me
+to reconsider the question. It can't be reconsidered, and my mind is
+made up. That's it; it's a trouble, but I must go through with it.
+Good night, Maggie."
+
+Prissie held out her long, unformed hand; Miss Oliphant clasped it
+between both her own.
+
+"You are trembling," she said, standing up and drawing the girl toward
+her. "I don't want to argue the point if you so firmly forbid me. I
+think you quite mad, of course. It is absolutely impossible for me to
+sympathize with such wild folly. Still, if your mind is made up, I
+won't interfere. But, seeing that at one time we were very firm
+friends, you might give me your reasons, Priscilla."
+
+Priscilla slowly and stiffly withdrew her hands; her lips moved. She
+was repeating Miss Oliphant's words under her breath:
+
+"At one time we were friends."
+
+"Won't you speak?" said Maggie impatiently.
+
+"Oh, yes, I'll speak, I'll tell you the reason. You won't understand,
+but you had better know--" Prissie paused again; she seemed to swallow
+something; her next words came out slowly with great difficulty: "When
+I went home for the Christmas recess I found Aunt Raby worse. You
+don't know what my home is like, Miss Oliphant; it is small and poor.
+At home we are often cold and often hungry. I have three little
+sisters, and they want clothes and education; they want training, they
+want love, they want care. Aunt Raby is too weak to do much for them
+now; she is very, very ill. You have not an idea-- not an idea-- Miss
+Oliphant, in your wealth and your luxury, what the poverty of Penywern
+Cottage is like. What does such poverty mean? How shall I describe it
+to you? We are sometimes glad of a piece of bread; butter is a luxury;
+meat we scarcely taste." Prissie again broke off to think and consider
+her next words. Maggie, whose sympathies were always keenly aroused by
+any real emotion, tried once again to take her hands; Prissie put them
+behind her. "Aunt Raby is a good woman," continued Priscilla; "she is
+brave, she is a heroine. Although she is just a commonplace old woman,
+no one has ever led a grander life in its way. She wears poor
+clothes-- oh, the poorest; she has an uncouth appearance, worse even
+than I have, but I am quite sure that God-- God respects her-- God
+thinks her worthy. When my father and mother died (I was fourteen when
+my dear mother died) Aunt Raby came and took me home and my three
+little sisters. She gave us bread to eat. Oh, yes, we never quite
+wanted food, but before we came Aunt Raby had enough money to feed
+herself and no more. She took us all in and supported us, because she
+worked so very, very hard. Ever since I was fourteen-- I am eighteen
+now-- Aunt Raby has done this. Well," continued Priscilla, slow tears
+coming to her eyes and making themselves felt in her voice, "this hard
+work is killing her; Aunt Raby is dying because she has worked so hard
+for us. Before my three years have come to an end here, she will be
+far, far away: she will be at rest forever-- God will be making up to
+her for all she has done here. Her hard life which God will have
+thought beautiful will be having its reward. Afterward I have to
+support and educate the three little girls. I spoke to Mr. Hayes-- my
+dear clergyman, about whom I have told you, and who taught me all I
+know-- and he agrees with me that I know enough of Greek and Latin now
+for rudimentary teaching, and that I shall be better qualified to take
+a good paying situation if I devote the whole of my time while at St.
+Benet's to learning and perfecting myself in modern languages. It's
+the end of a lovely dream, of course, but there is no doubt-- no doubt
+whatever-- what is right for me to do."
+
+Prissie stopped speaking. Maggie went up again and tried to take her
+hand; she drew back a step or two, pretending not to see.
+
+"It has been very kind of you to listen," she said; "I am very
+grateful to you, for now, whatever we may be to each other in future,
+you will understand that I don't give up what I love lightly. Thank
+you, you have helped me much. Now I must go and tell Miss Heath what I
+have said to you. I have had a happy reading of Euripides and have
+enjoyed listening to you. I meant to give myself that one last treat--
+now it is over. Good night."
+
+Priscilla left the room-- she did not even kiss Maggie as she
+generally did at parting for the night.
+
+  CHAPTER XXV
+
+ A MYSTERIOUS EPISODE
+
+WHEN she was alone, Maggie Oliphant sat down in her favorite chair and
+covered her face with her hands. "It is horrible to listen to stories
+like that," she murmured under her breath. "Such stories get on the
+nerves. I shall not sleep to-night. Fancy any people calling
+themselves ladies wanting meat, wanting clothes, wanting warmth. Oh,
+my God! this is horrible. Poor Prissie! Poor, brave Prissie!" Maggie
+started from her chair and paced the length of her room once or twice.
+"I must help these people," she said; "I must help this Aunt Raby and
+those three little sisters. Penywern Cottage shall no longer be
+without coal, and food, and warmth. How shall I do this? One thing is
+quite evident-- Prissie must not know. Prissie is as proud as I am.
+How shall I manage this?" She clasped her hands, her brow was
+contracted with the fulness of her thought. After a long while she
+left her room, and, going to the other end of the long corridor,
+knocked at Nancy Banister's door. Nancy was within. It did not take
+Maggie long to tell the tale which she had just heard from Priscilla's
+lips. Prissie had told her simple story with force, but it lost
+nothing in Maggie's hands. She had a fine command of language, and she
+drew a picture of such pathos that Nancy's honest blue eyes filled
+with tears.
+
+"That dear little Prissie!" she exclaimed.
+
+"I don't know that she is dear," said Maggie. "I don't profess quite
+to understand her; however, that is not the point. The poverty at
+Penywern Cottage is an undoubted fact. It is also a fact that Prissie
+is forced to give up her classical education. She shall not! she has a
+genius for the old tongues. Now, Nancy, help me; use your common sense
+on my behalf. How am I to send money to Penywern Cottage?"
+
+Nancy thought for several minutes.
+
+"I have an idea," she exclaimed at last.
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"I believe Mr. Hammond could help us."
+
+Maggie colored.
+
+"How?" she asked. "Why should Geoffrey Hammond be dragged into
+Priscilla's affairs? What can he possibly know about Penywern Cottage
+and the people who live in it?"
+
+"Only this," said Nancy: "I remember his once talking about that part
+of Devonshire where Prissie's home is and saying that his uncle has a
+parish there. Mr. Hammond's uncle is the man to help us."
+
+Miss Oliphant was silent for a moment.
+
+"Very well," she said; "will you write to Mr. Hammond and ask him for
+his uncle's address?"
+
+"Why should I do this, Maggie? Geoffrey Hammond is your friend; he
+would think it strange for me to write."
+
+Maggie's tone grew as cold as her expressive face had suddenly become.
+"I can write if you think it best," she said; "but you are mistaken in
+supposing that Mr. Hammond is any longer a person of special interest
+to me."
+
+"Oh, Maggie, Maggie, if you only would--"
+
+"Good night, Nancy," interrupted Maggie. She kissed her friend and
+went back to her room. There she sat down before her bureau and
+prepared to write a letter. "I must not lose any time," she said to
+herself; "I must help these people substantially; I must do something
+to rescue poor Prissie from a life of drudgery. Fancy Prissie, with
+her genius, living the life of an ordinary underpaid teacher: it is
+not to be thought of for a moment! Something must be done to put the
+whole family on a different footing, but that, of course, is for the
+future. From Priscilla's account they want immediate aid. I have two
+five-pound notes in my purse: Geoffrey shall have them and enclose
+them to the clergyman who is his relation and who lives near
+Priscilla's home."
+
+Maggie wrote her letter rapidly. She thought it cold; she meant it to
+be a purely business note; she did not intend Hammond to see even the
+glimpse of her warm heart under the carefully studied words. "I am
+sick of money," she said to him, "but to some people it is as the
+bread of life. Ask your friend to provide food and warmth without a
+moment's delay for these poor people out of the trifle I enclose. Ask
+him also to write directly to me, for the ten pounds I now send is
+only the beginning of what I mean really to do to help them."
+
+When her letter was finished, Maggie put her hand in her pocket to
+take out her purse. It was not there. She searched on the table,
+looked under piles of books and papers and presently found it. She
+unclasped the purse and opened an inner pocket for the purpose of
+taking out two five-pound notes which she had placed there this
+morning. To her astonishment and perplexity, this portion of the purse
+now contained only one of the notes. Maggie felt her face turning
+crimson. Quick as a flash of lightning a horrible thought assailed
+her-- Priscilla had been alone in her room for nearly an hour--
+Priscilla's people were starving: had Priscilla taken the note?
+
+"Oh, hateful!" said Maggie to herself; "what am I coming to, to
+suspect the brave, the noble-- I won't, I can't. Oh, how shall I look
+her in the face and feel that I ever, even for a second, thought of
+her so dreadfully." Maggie searched through her purse again. "Perhaps
+I dreamt that I put two notes here this morning," she said to herself.
+"But no, it is no dream; I put two notes into this division of my
+purse, I put four sovereigns here; the sovereigns are safe-- one of
+the notes is gone."
+
+She thought deeply for a few moments longer, then added a postscript
+to her letter:
+
+"I am very sorry, but I can only send you one note for five pounds
+to-night. Even this, however, is better than nothing. I will give
+further help as soon as I hear from your friend." Maggie then folded
+her letter, addressed, stamped it and took it downstairs.
+
+Miss Oliphant was an heiress; she was also an orphan; her father and
+mother were mere memories to her; she had neither brothers nor
+sisters; she did not particularly like her guardian, who was old and
+worldly wise, as different as possible from the bright, enthusiastic,
+impulsive girl. Mr. Oliphant thought money the aim and object of life:
+when he spoke to Maggie about it, she professed to hate it. In reality
+she was indifferent to it; money was valueless to her because she had
+never felt its want.
+
+She lay awake for a long time that night, thinking of Penywern
+Cottage, of tired Aunt Raby, of the little girls who wanted food, and
+education, and care, and love. After a time she fell asleep. In her
+sleep she ceased to think of Priscilla's relations: all her thoughts
+were with Priscilla herself. She dreamt that she saw Priscilla move
+stealthily in her room, take up her purse with wary fingers, open it,
+remove a note for five pounds and hide the purse once more under books
+and papers.
+
+When Maggie awoke she professed not to believe in her dream; but,
+nevertheless, she had a headache, and her heart was heavy within her.
+
+At breakfast that morning Miss Oliphant made a rather startling
+announcement. "I wish to say something," she remarked in her full,
+rich voice. "A strange thing happened to me last night. I am not
+accounting for it; I am casting no aspersions on any one; I don't even
+intend to investigate the matter; still, I wish publicly to state a
+fact-- a five-pound note has been taken out of my purse!"
+
+There were no dons or lecturers present when Miss Oliphant made this
+startling announcement, but Nancy Banister, Rosalind Merton, Priscilla
+Peel, Miss Day, Miss Marsh and several other girls were all in the
+room; they, each of them, looked at the speaker with startled and
+anxious inquiry.
+
+Maggie herself did not return the glances; she was lazily helping
+herself to some marmalade.
+
+"How perfectly shameful!" burst at last from the lips of Miss Day.
+"You have lost five pounds, Miss Oliphant; you are positively certain
+that five pounds have been taken out of your purse. Where was your
+purse?" Maggie was spreading the marmalade on her bread and butter;
+her eyes were still fixed on her plate. "I don't wish a fuss made,"
+she said.
+
+"Oh, that's all very fine!" continued Miss Day, "but if five pounds
+are lost out of your purse, some one has taken them! Some one,
+therefore, whether servant or student, is a thief. I am not
+narrow-minded or prudish, but I confess I draw the line at thieves."
+
+"So do I," said Maggie in an icy tone; "still, I don't mean to make a
+fuss."
+
+"But where was your purse, Maggie, dear?" asked Nancy Banister; "was
+it in your pocket?"
+
+"No. I found it last night in my bureau, under some books and papers."
+Maggie rose from the table as she spoke. With a swift flash her brown
+eyes sought Priscilla's face; she had not meant to look at her, she
+did not want to; but a fascination she could not control obliged her
+to dart this one glance of inquiry.
+
+Prissie's eyes met hers. Their expression was anxious, puzzled, but
+there was not a trace of guilt or confusion in them. "I don't know how
+that money could have been taken, Maggie," she said, "for I was in
+your room. studying my Greek." Prissie sighed when she mentioned her
+Greek. "I was in your room studying Greek all the evening; no one
+could have come to take the money."
+
+"It is gone, however," said Maggie. She spoke with new cheerfulness.
+The look on Prissie's face, the tone in her voice made Maggie blush at
+ever having suspected her. "It is gone," she said in quite a light and
+cheerful way, "but I am really sorry I mentioned it. As I said just
+now, I don't intend to investigate the matter. I may have fallen
+asleep and taken the five-pound note out in a dream and torn it up or
+put it on the fire. Anyhow, it has vanished, and that is all I have to
+say. Come, Prissie, I want to hear what Miss Heath said to you last
+night."
+
+"No," suddenly exclaimed Annie Day, "Miss Peel, you must not leave the
+room just now. You have made a statement, Miss Oliphant, which I for
+one do not intend to pass over without at least asking a few
+questions. You did not tear up that note in a dream. If it is lost,
+some one took it. We are St. Benet's girls, and we don't choose to
+have this kind of thing said to us. The thief must confess and the
+note must be returned."
+
+"All right," said Maggie, "I sha'n't object to recovering my property.
+Priscilla, I shall be walking in the grounds; you can come to me when
+your council of war is over."
+
+The moment Maggie left the room Rosalind Merton made a remark. "Miss
+Peel is the only person who can explain the mystery," she said.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Priscilla.
+
+"Why, you confess yourself that you were in Miss Oliphant's room the
+greater part of the evening."
+
+"I confess it?" remarked Priscilla; "that is a curious phrase to apply
+to a statement. I confess nothing. I was in Maggie's room, but what of
+that? When people confess things," she added with a naivete which
+touched one or two of the girls, "they generally have done something
+wrong. Now, what was there wrong in my sitting in my friend's room?"
+
+"Oh, Miss Oliphant is your friend'?" said Rosalind.
+
+"Of course, of course." But here a memory came over Priscilla; she
+remembered Maggie's words the night before-- "You were my friend." For
+the first time her voice faltered and the crimson flush of distress
+covered her face. Rosalind's cruel eyes were fixed on her.
+
+"Let me speak now," interrupted Miss Day. She gave Rosalind a piercing
+glance which caused her, in her turn, to color violently. "It is just
+this, Miss Peel," said Annie Day: "you will excuse my speaking
+bluntly, but you are placed in a very unpleasant position."
+
+"I? How?" asked Prissie.
+
+"Oh, you great baby!" burst from Rosalind again.
+
+"Please don't speak to me in that tone, Miss Merton," said Priscilla
+with a new dignity which became her well. "Now, Miss Day, what have
+you to say?"
+
+To Prissie's surprise, at this juncture, Nancy Banister suddenly left
+her seat and came and stood at the back of her chair.
+
+"I am on your side whatever happens," she remarked.
+
+"Thank you," said Prissie.
+
+"Now, please, Miss Day."
+
+"You must know who took the note," said Annie Day.
+
+"I assure you I don't; I can't imagine how it has disappeared. Not a
+soul came into the room while I was there. I did go away once for
+about three minutes to fetch my Lexicon; but I don't suppose any one
+came into Miss Oliphant's room during those few minutes-- there was no
+one about to come."
+
+"Oh, you left the room for about three minutes?"
+
+"Perhaps three-- perhaps not so many. I had left my Lexicon in the
+library; I went to fetch it."
+
+"Oh," said Rosalind, suddenly taking the words out of Miss Day's
+mouth, "when did you invent this little fiction?"
+
+Prissie's eyes seemed suddenly to blaze fire. For the first time she
+perceived the drift of the cruel suspicion which her fellow-students
+were seeking to cast upon her. "How wicked you are!" she said to
+Rosalind. "Why do you look at me like that? Miss Day, why do you
+smile? Why do you all smile? Oh, Nancy," added poor Prissie, springing
+to her feet and looking full into Nancy's troubled eyes, "what is the
+matter?-- am I in a dream?"
+
+"It is all very fine to be theatrical," said Miss Day, "but the fact
+is, Miss Peel, you are not at all popular enough at St. Benet's to
+induce any of us to consent to live under a ban for your sake. Miss
+Oliphant has lost her money. You say that you spent some time in her
+room; the purse was on her bureau. Miss Oliphant is rich, she is also
+generous; she says openly that she does not intend to investigate the
+matter. No doubt, if you confess your weakness and return the money,
+she will forgive you and not report this disgraceful proceeding to the
+college authorities."
+
+While Miss Day was speaking some heavy panting breaths came two or
+three times from Priscilla's lips. Her face had turned cold and white,
+but her eyes blazed like living coals.
+
+"Now I understand," she said slowly, "you think-- you think that I-- I
+stole a five-pound note from my friend; you think that I went into her
+room and opened her purse and took away her money; you think that of
+me-- you! I scorn you all, I defy you, I dare you to prove your
+dreadful words! I am going to Miss Heath this moment; she shall
+protect me from this dishonor."
+
+  CHAPTER XXVI
+
+ IN THE ANTE-CHAPEL OF ST. HILDA'S
+
+PRISCILLA ran blindly down the corridor which opened into the wide
+entrance-hall. Groups of girls were standing about. They stared as the
+wild-looking apparition rushed past them: Prissie was blind to their
+puzzled and curious glances. She wanted to see Miss Heath. She had a
+queer kind of instinct, rather than any distinct impression, that in
+Miss Heath's presence she would be protected, that Miss Heath would
+know what to say, would know how to dispel the cloud of disgrace which
+had suddenly been cast over her like a cloak.
+
+"Is there anything wrong, Miss Peel?" said gentle little Ada Hardy,
+coming up and speaking to her affectionately. Miss Hardy stood right
+in Prissie's path, barring her way for a moment and causing her, in
+spite of herself, to stop her headlong rush to the vice-principal's
+room. Priscilla put up her hand to her brow. She looked in a dazed
+sort of way at the kindhearted girl.
+
+"What is the matter-- can I help you?" repeated Ada Hardy.
+
+"You can't help me," said Prissie. "I want to see Miss Heath; let me
+pass." She ran forward again, and some other girls, coming out of the
+dining-hall, now came up to Ada and distracted her attention.
+
+Miss Heath's private sitting-room was on the ground floor. This lovely
+room has been described before. It was open now, and Prissie went in
+without knocking; she thought she would see Miss Heath sitting as she
+usually was at this hour, either reading or answering letters. She was
+not in the room. Priscilla felt too wild and impetuous to consider any
+action carefully just then. She ran up at once to the electric bell
+and pressed the button for quite a quarter of a minute. A maid servant
+came quickly to answer the summons. She thought Miss Heath had sent
+for her and stared at the excited girl.
+
+"I want to see Miss Heath," said Priscilla. "Please ask her to come to
+me here. Say Miss Peel wants to see her-- Priscilla Peel wants to see
+her, very, very badly, in her own sitting-room at once. Ask her to
+come to me at once."
+
+The presence of real tragedy always inspires respect. There was no
+question with regard to the genuineness of Priscilla's sorrow just
+then.
+
+"I will try and find Miss Heath, miss, and ask her to come to you
+without delay," answered the maid. She softly withdrew, closing the
+door after her. Priscilla went and stood on the hearthrug. Raising her
+eyes for a moment, they rested on a large and beautiful platinotype of
+G. F. Watts' picture of "Hope." The last time she had visited Miss
+Heath in that room Prissie had been taken by the kind vice-principal
+to look at the picture, and some of its symbolism was explained to
+her. "That globe on which the figure of Hope sits," Miss Heath had
+said, "is meant to represent the world. Hope is blindfolded in order
+more effectually to shut out the sights which might distract her. See
+the harp in her hand, observe her rapt attitude-- she is listening to
+melody-- she hears, she rejoices, and yet the harp out of which she
+makes music only possesses one string-- all the rest are broken." Miss
+Heath said nothing further, and Prissie scarcely took in the full
+meaning of the picture that evening. Now she looked again, and a
+passionate agony swept over her. "Hope has one string still left to
+her harp with which she can play music," murmured the young girl; "but
+oh! there are times when all the strings of the harp are broken. Then
+Hope dies."
+
+The room door was opened and the servant reappeared.
+
+"I am very sorry, miss," she said, "but Miss Heath has gone out for
+the morning. Would you like to see any one else?"
+
+Priscilla gazed at the messenger in a dull sort of way. "I can't see
+Miss Heath?" she murmured.
+
+"No, miss, she is out."
+
+"Very well."
+
+"Can I do anything for you, miss?"
+
+"No, thank you."
+
+The servant went away with a puzzled expression on her face.
+
+"That plain young lady, who is so awful poor-- Miss Peel, I mean--
+seems in a sad taking," she said by and by to her fellow-servants.
+
+Priscilla, left alone in Miss Heath's sitting-room, stood still for a
+moment, then running usptairs to her room, she put on her hat and
+jacket and went out. She was expected to attend two lectures that
+morning and the hour for the first had almost arrived. Maggie Oliphant
+was coming into the house when Prissie ran past her.
+
+"My dear!" she exclaimed, shocked at the look on Priscilla's face,
+"come here; I want to speak to you."
+
+"I can't-- don't stop me."
+
+"But where are you going? Mr. Kenyon has just arrived. I am on my way
+to the lecture-hall now."
+
+"It doesn't matter."
+
+"Aren't you coming?"
+
+"No."
+
+This last word reached Miss Oliphant from a distance. Prissie had
+already almost reached the gates.
+
+Maggie stood still for a moment, half inclined to follow the excited,
+frantic-looking girl, but that queer inertia, which was part of her
+complex character, came over her. She shrugged her shoulders, the
+interest died out of her face; she walked slowly through the
+entrance-hall and down one of the side corridors to the lecture-room.
+
+When the Greek lecture had come to an end Nancy Banister came up and
+slipped her hand through Maggie's arm.
+
+"What is the matter, Maggie?" she asked, "you look very white and
+tired."
+
+"I have a headache," answered Maggie. "If it does not get better, I
+shall send for a carriage and take a drive."
+
+"May I come with you?"
+
+"No, dear Nancy, when I have these bad headaches it is almost
+necessary to me to be alone."
+
+"Would it not be better for you to go and lie down in your room?"
+
+"I to lie down in my room with a headache like this? No, thank you."
+Maggie shuddered as she spoke. Nancy felt her friend's arm shiver as
+she leaned on it.
+
+"You are really ill, darling!" she said in a tone of sympathy and
+fondness.
+
+"I have not felt right for a week and am worse today, but I dare say a
+drive in this nice frosty air will set me up."
+
+"I am going to Kingsdene. Shall I order a carriage for you?"
+
+"I wish you would."
+
+"Maggie, did you notice that Priscilla was not at her lecture?"
+
+"She was not. I met her rushing away, I think, to Kingsdene; she
+seemed put out about something."
+
+"Poor little thing. No wonder-- those horrid girls!"
+
+"Oh, Nancy, if there's anything unpleasant, don't tell me just now; my
+head aches so dreadfully, I could scarcely hear bad news."
+
+"You are working too hard, Maggie."
+
+"I am not; it is the only thing left to me."
+
+"Do you know that we are to have a rehearsal of The Princess to-night?
+If you are as ill as you look now, you can't be present."
+
+"I will be present. Do you think I can't force myself to do what is
+necessary?"
+
+"Oh, I am well acquainted with the owner of your will," answered Nancy
+with a laugh. "Well, good-by, dear, I am off. You may expect the
+carriage to arrive in half an hour."
+
+Meanwhile Priscilla, still blind, deaf and dumb with misery, ran,
+rather than walked, along the road which leads to Kingsdene. The day
+was lovely, with little faint wafts of spring in the air; the sky was
+pale blue and cloudless; there was a slight hoar frost on the grass.
+Priscilla chose to walk on it, rather than on the dusty road; it felt
+crisp under her tread.
+
+She had not the least idea why she was going to Kingsdene. Her wish
+was to walk, and walk, and walk until sheer fatigue, caused by
+long-continued motion, brought to her temporary ease and
+forgetfulness.
+
+Prissie was a very strong girl, and she knew she must walk for a long
+time; her feet must traverse many miles before she effected her
+object. Just as she was passing St. Hilda's College she came face to
+face with Hammond. He was in his college cap and gown and was on his
+way to morning prayers in the chapel. Hammond had received Maggie's
+letter that morning, and this fact caused him to look at Priscilla
+with new interest. On another occasion he would have passed her with a
+hurried bow. Now he stopped to speak. The moment he caught sight of
+her face, he forgot everything else in his distress at the expression
+of misery which it wore.
+
+"Where are you going, Miss Peel?" he asked; "you appear to be flying
+from something, or, perhaps, it is to something. Must you run? See,
+you have almost knocked me down." He chose light words on purpose,
+hoping to make Prissie smile.
+
+"I am going for a walk," she said. "Please let me pass."
+
+"I am afraid you are in trouble," he replied then, seeing that
+Priscilla's mood must be taken seriously.
+
+His sympathy gave the poor girl a momentary thrill of comfort. She
+raised her eyes to his face and spoke huskily.
+
+"A dreadful thing has happened to me," she said.
+
+The chapel bell stopped as she spoke. Groups of men, all in their caps
+and gowns, hurried by. Several of them looked from Hammond to
+Priscilla and smiled.
+
+"I must go to chapel now," he said; "but I should like to speak to
+you. Can I not see you after morning prayers? Would you not come to
+the service. You might sit in the ante-chapel, if you did not want to
+come into the chapel itself. You had much better do that. Whatever
+your trouble is, the service at St. Hilda's ought to sustain you.
+Please wait for me in the ante-chapel. I shall look for you there
+after prayers."
+
+He ran off just in time to take his own place in the chapel before the
+doors were shut and curtains drawn.
+
+Without a moment's hesitation, Priscilla followed him. She entered the
+ante-chapel, sat down on a bench not far from the entrance door, and
+when the service began she dropped on her knees and covered her face
+with her hands.
+
+The music came to her in soft waves of far-off harmony. The doors
+which divided the inner chapel from the outer gave it a faint sound,
+as if it were miles away; each note, however, was distinct; no sound
+was lost. The boys' voices rose high in the air; they were angelic in
+their sweetness. Prissie was incapable, at that moment, of taking in
+the meaning of the words she heard, but the lovely sounds comforted
+her. The dreadful weight was lifted, or, at least, partially lifted,
+from her brain; she felt as if a hand had been laid on her hot, angry
+heart; as if a gentle, a very gentle, touch was soothing the sorrow
+there.
+
+"I am ready now," said Hammond when the service was over. "Will you
+come?"
+
+She rose without a word and went out with him into the quadrangle.
+They walked down the High Street.
+
+"Are you going back to St. Benet's?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, no-- oh, no!"
+
+"'Yes,' you mean. I will walk with you as far as the gates."
+
+"I am not going back."
+
+"Pardon me," said Hammond, "you must go back. So young a girl cannot
+take long walks alone. If one of your fellow-students were with you,
+it would be different."
+
+"I would not walk with one of them now for the world."
+
+"Not with Miss Oliphant?"
+
+"With her least of all."
+
+"That is a pity," said Hammond gravely, "for no one can feel more
+kindly toward you."
+
+Prissie made no response.
+
+They walked to the end of the High Street.
+
+"This is your way," said Hammond, "down this quiet lane. We shall get
+to St. Benet's in ten minutes."
+
+"I am not going there. Good-by, Mr. Hammond."
+
+"Miss Peel, you must forgive my appearing to interfere with you, but
+it is absolutely wrong for a young girl, such as you are, to wander
+about alone in the vicinity of a large university town. Let me treat
+you as my sister for once and insist on accompanying you to the gates
+of the college."
+
+Prissie looked up at him. "It is very good of you to take any notice
+of me," she said after a pause. "You won't ever again after-- after
+you know what I have been accused of. If you wish me to go back to St.
+Benet's, I will; after all, it does not matter, for I can go out by
+and by somewhere else."
+
+Hammond smiled to himself at Prissie's very qualified submission. Just
+then a carriage came up and drove slowly past them. Miss Oliphant, in
+her velvet and sables, was seated in it. Hammond sprang forward with
+heightened color and an eager exclamation on his lips. She did not
+motion to the coachman to stop, however, but gave the young man a
+careless, cold bow. She did not notice Priscilla at all. The carriage
+quickly drove out of sight, and Hammond, after a pause, said gravely;
+
+"You must tell me your troubles, Miss Peel."
+
+"I will," said Prissie. "Some one has stolen a five pound note out of
+Maggie Oliphant's purse. She missed it late at night and spoke about
+it at breakfast this morning. I said that I did not know how it could
+have been taken, for I had been studying my Greek in her room during
+the whole afternoon. Maggie spoke about her loss in the dining-hall,
+and after she left the room Miss Day and Miss Merton accused me of
+having stolen the money." Priscilla stopped speaking abruptly; she
+turned her head away; a dull red suffused her face and neck.
+
+"Well?" said Hammond.
+
+"That is all. The girls at St. Benet's think I am a thief. They think
+I took my kindest friend's money. I have nothing more to say: nothing
+possibly could be more dreadful to me. I shall speak to Miss Heath and
+ask leave to go away from the college at once."
+
+"You certainly ought not to do that."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"If you went from St. Benet's now, people might be induced to think
+that you really were guilty."
+
+"But they think that now."
+
+"I am quite certain that those students whose friendship is worth
+retaining think nothing of the sort."
+
+"Why are you certain?" asked Prissie, turning swiftly round and a
+sudden ray of sunshine illuminating her whole face. "Do you think that
+I am not a thief?"
+
+"I am as certain of that fact as I am of my own identity."
+
+"Oh!" said the girl with a gasp. She made a sudden dart forward, and
+seizing Hammond's hand, squeezed it passionately between both her own.
+
+"And Miss Oliphant does not think of you as a thief," continued
+Hammond.
+
+"I don't know-- I can't say."
+
+"You have no right to be so unjust to her," he replied with fervor.
+
+"I don't care so much for the opinion of the others now," said
+Prissie; "you believe in me." She walked erect again; her footsteps
+were light as if she trod on air. "You are a very good man," she said.
+"I would do anything for you-- anything."
+
+Hammond smiled. Her innocence, her enthusiasm, her childishness were
+too apparent for him to take her words for more than they were worth.
+
+"Do you know," he said after a pause, "that I am in a certain measure
+entitled to help you? In the first place, Miss Oliphant takes a great
+interest in you."
+
+"You are mistaken, she does not-- not now."
+
+"I am not mistaken; she takes a great interest in you. Priscilla, you
+must have guessed-- you have guessed-- what Maggie Oliphant is to me;
+I should like, therefore, to help her friend. That is one tie between
+us, but there is another-- Mr. Hayes, your parish clergyman----"
+
+"Oh!" said Prissie, "do you know Mr. Hayes?"
+
+"I not only know him," replied Hammond, smiling, "but he is my uncle.
+I am going to see him this evening."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Of course, I shall tell him nothing of this, but I shall probably
+talk of you. Have you a message for him?"
+
+"I can send him no message to-day."
+
+They had now reached the college gates. Hammond took Priscilla's hand.
+"Good-by," he said; "I believe in you and so does Miss Oliphant. If
+her money was stolen, the thief was certainly not the most upright,
+the most sincere girl in the college. My advice to you, Miss Peel, is
+to hold your head up bravely, to confront this charge by that sense of
+absolute innocence which you possess. In the meanwhile I have not the
+least doubt that the real thief will be found. Don't make a fuss;
+don't go about in wild despair-- have faith in God." He pressed her
+hand and turned away.
+
+Priscilla took her usual place that day at the luncheon table. The
+girls who had witnessed her wild behavior in the morning watched her
+in perplexity and astonishment. She ate her food with appetite; her
+face looked serene-- all the passion and agony had left it.
+
+Rosalind Merton ventured on a sly allusion to the scene of the
+morning. Priscilla did not make the smallest comment. Her face
+remained pale, her eyes untroubled. There was a new dignity about her.
+
+"What's up now?" said Rosalind to her friend, Miss Day. "Is the little
+Puritan going to defy us all?"
+
+"Oh, don't worry any more about her," said Annie, who, for some
+reason, was in a particularly bad humor. "I only wish, for my part,
+Miss Peel had never come to St. Benet's; I don't like anything about
+her, Her heroics are as unpleasant to me as her stoicisms. But I may
+as well say frankly, Rosalind, before I drop this detestable subject,
+that I am quite sure she never stole that five-pound note: she was as
+little likely to do it as you, so there!"
+
+There came a knock at the door. Rosalind flew to open it. By so doing
+she hoped that Miss Day would not notice the sudden color which filled
+her cheeks.
+
+  CHAPTER XXVII
+
+ BEAUTIFUL ANNABEL LEE
+
+CIRCUMSTANCES seem to combine to spoil some people. Maggie Oliphant
+was one of the victims of fortune, which, while appearing to favor
+her, gave her in reality the worst training which was possible for a
+nature such as hers. She was impulsive, generous, affectionate, but
+she was also perverse, and, so to speak, uncertain. She was a creature
+of moods and she was almost absolutely without self-control; and yet
+nature had been kind to Maggie, giving her great beauty of form and
+face and a character which a right training would have rendered noble.
+
+Up to the present, however, this training had scarcely come to Miss
+Oliphant. She was almost without relations and she was possessed of
+more money than she knew what to do with. She had great abilities and
+loved learning for the sake of learning, but till she came to St.
+Benet's, her education had been as desultory as her life. She had
+never been to school; her governess only taught her what she chose to
+learn. As a child she was very fickle in this respect, working hard
+from morning till night one day but idling the whole of the next. When
+she was fifteen her guardian took her to Rome. The next two years were
+spent in traveling, and Maggie, who knew nothing properly, picked up
+that kind of superficial miscellaneous knowledge which made her
+conversation brilliant and added to her many charms.
+
+"You shall be brought out early," her guardian had said to her. "You
+are not educated in the stereotyped fashion, but you know enough.
+After you are seventeen I will get you a suitable chaperon and you
+shall live in London."
+
+This scheme, however, was not carried out. For, shortly after her
+seventeenth birthday, Maggie Oliphant met a girl whose beauty and
+brilliance were equal to her own, whose nature was stronger and who
+had been carefully trained in heart and mind while Maggie had been
+neglected. Miss Lee was going through a course of training at St.
+Benet's College for Women at Kingsdene. She was an uncommon girl in
+every sense of the word. The expression of her lovely face was as
+piquant as its features were beautiful; her eyes were dark as night;
+they also possessed the depth of the tenderest, sweetest summer night,
+subjugating all those who came in contact with her. Annabel Lee won
+Maggie's warmest affections at once; she determined to join her friend
+at St. Benet's. She spoke with ineffable scorn of her London season
+and resolved, with that enthusiasm which was the strongest part of her
+nature, to become a student in reality. Under Annabel's guidance she
+took up the course of study which was necessary to enable her to pass
+her entrance examination. She acquitted herself well, for her
+abilities were of the highest order, and entered the college with
+eclat. Miss Lee was a student in Heath Hall, and Maggie thought
+herself supremely happy when she was given a room next to her friend.
+
+Those were brilliant days at the hall. Some girls resided there at
+this time whose names were destined to be known in the world by and
+by. The workers were earnest; the tone which pervaded the life at
+Heath Hall was distinctly high. Shallow girls there must always be
+where any number are to be found together, but, during Maggie
+Oliphant's first year, these girls had little chance of coming to the
+front. Maggie, who was as easily influenced as a wave is tossed by the
+wind, rose quickly to the heights with her companions. Her splendid
+intellect developed each day. She was merry with the merry, glad with
+the glad, studious with the studious. She was also generous, kind and
+unselfish in company with those girls who observed the precepts of the
+higher life. Next to Miss Lee, Maggie was one of the most popular
+girls in the college. Annabel Lee had the kindest of hearts, as well
+as the most fascinating of ways. She was an extraordinary girl; there
+was a great deal of the exotic about her; in many ways she was old for
+her years. No one ever thought or spoke of her as a prig, but all her
+influence was brought to bear in the right direction. The girl who
+could do or think meanly avoided the expression of Annabel's beautiful
+eyes. It was impossible for her to think badly of her
+fellow-creatures, but meanness and sin made her sorrowful. There was
+not a girl in Heath Hall who would willingly give Annabel Lee sorrow.
+
+In the days that followed people knew that she was one of those rare
+and brilliant creatures who, like a lovely but too ethereal flower,
+must quickly bloom into perfection and then pass away. Annabel was
+destined to a short life, and after her death the high tone of Heath
+Hall deteriorated considerably.
+
+This girl was a born leader. When she died no other girl in the
+college could take her place, and for many a long day those who had
+loved her were conscious of a sense which meant a loss of headship. In
+short, they were without their leader.
+
+If Annabel in her gaiety and brightness could influence girls who were
+scarcely more than acquaintances, the effect of her strong personality
+on Maggie was supreme. Maggie often said that she never knew what love
+meant until she met Annabel. The two girls were inseparable; their
+love for each other was compared to that of Jonathan and David of
+Bible story and of Orestes and Pylades of Greek legend. The society of
+each gave the other the warmest pleasure.
+
+Annabel and Maggie were both so beautiful in appearance, so far above
+the average girl in their pose, their walk, their manner that people
+noticed these friends wherever they went. A young and rising artist,
+who saw them once at St. Hilda's, begged permission to make a picture
+of the pair. It was done during the summer recess before Annabel died
+and made a sensation in the next year's Academy. Many of the visitors
+who went there stopped and looked at the two faces, both in the
+perfection of their youthful bloom and beauty. Few guessed that one
+even now had gone to the Home best fitted for so ardent and high a
+spirit.
+
+Annabel Lee died a year before Priscilla came to the college. Whatever
+Maggie inwardly felt, she had got over her first grief; her smile was
+again as brilliant as when Annabel Lee was by her side, her laugh was
+as merry; but the very few who could look a little way into Maggie's
+perverse and passionate heart knew well that something had died in her
+which could never live again, that her laugh was often hollow and her
+brilliant smile had only a foundation in bitterness.
+
+Maggie did not only grieve for her friend when she mourned for
+Annabel. She had loved her most deeply, and love alone would have
+caused her agony in such a loss; but Maggie's keenest and most
+terrible feelings were caused by an unavailing regret.
+
+This regret was connected with Geoffrey Hammond.
+
+He had known Annabel from her childhood. He was an old friend of some
+of her friends, and during those last, long summer holidays, which the
+two girls spent together under the roof of Maggie's guardian, Hammond,
+who was staying with relations not far away, came to see them almost
+daily. He was the kind of man who could win both respect and
+admiration; he was grave in his nature and his aspirations, aims and
+ambitions were high. In their conversations during this lovely summer
+weather these young people dreamt happy dreams together and planned a
+future which meant good to all mankind. Maggie, to all appearance, was
+heart and soul with Annabel and Geoffrey in what they thought and
+said.
+
+Nothing could have been simpler or more unconventional than the
+intercourse between these young people. Miss Lee had known Hammond all
+her life; Maggie always spoke and thought of herself as second to
+Annabel in Geoffrey Hammond's regard. One brilliant autumn day,
+however, he surprised Maggie by asking her to take a long walk alone
+with him. No words were said during this ramble to open Maggie
+Oliphant's eyes to the true state of Hammond's feelings for her, but
+when she returned from her walk she could not help noticing Annabel
+Lee's unaccountable depression. It was not until later, however, that
+Maggie attributed a certain pathetic, almost heart-broken, look in her
+friend's lovely eyes to its true cause.
+
+Hammond was a graduate of St. Hilda's College at Kingsdene, and the
+three friends often talked of the happy meetings they would have
+during the coming winter. He was a man of large property, and the
+favorite amusement of these young people was in talking over the
+brilliant life which lay before Hammond when he took possession of his
+estates. He would be the ideal landlord of his age; the people who
+lived on his property would, when he attained his majority, enter into
+a millennium of bliss.
+
+Maggie returned to St. Benet's, imagining herself quite heart-whole,
+but happiness shone out of her eyes, and there was a new, tender ring
+in her voice for which she could not account to herself and which
+added a new fascination to her beauty.
+
+Shortly after the commencement of the term Hammond met Miss Oliphant
+by accident just outside Kingsdene.
+
+"I was going to post a letter to you," he said. His face was unusually
+pale, his eyes full of joy and yet of solicitude.
+
+"You can tell me what you have written," replied Maggie in her gayest
+voice.
+
+"No, I would rather you read my letter."
+
+He thrust it into her hand and immediately, to her astonishment, left
+her.
+
+As she walked home through the frosty air she opened Hammond's letter
+and read its contents. It contained an earnest appeal for her love and
+an assurance that all the happiness of the writer's future life
+depended on her consenting to marry him. Would she be his wife when
+her three years' term at St. Benet's came to an end?
+
+No letter could be more manly, more simple. Its contents went straight
+to the depths of a heart easily swayed and full of strong affection.
+
+"Yes, I love him," whispered the girl; "I did not know it until I read
+this letter, but I am sure of myself now. Yes, I love him better than
+any one else in the world."
+
+A joyous light filled Maggie's brown eyes; her heart was gay. She
+rushed to Annabel's room to tell her news and to claim the sympathy
+which had never hitherto been denied her and which was essential to
+the completion of her happiness.
+
+When Maggie entered her friend's room she saw, to her surprise, that
+Annabel was lying on her bed with flushed cheeks. Two hours before she
+had been, to all appearance, in brilliant health; now her face burned
+with fever and her beautiful dark eyes were glazed with pain.
+
+Maggie rushed up and kissed her. "What is it; darling," she asked;
+"what is wrong? You look ill; your eyes have a strange expression."
+
+Annabel's reply was scarcely audible. The pain and torpor of her last
+short illness were already overmastering her. Maggie was alarmed at
+the burning touch of her hand, but she had no experience to guide her
+and her own great joy to make her selfish.
+
+"Annabel, look at me for a moment. I have wonderful news to give you."
+
+Annabel's eyes were closed, She opened them wide at this appeal for
+sympathy, stretched out her hand and pushed back a tangle of bright
+hair from Maggie's brow.
+
+"I love you, Maggie," she said in that voice which had always power to
+thrill its listeners.
+
+Maggie kissed her friend's hand and pressed it to her own beating
+heart. "I met Geoffrey Hammond today," she said. "He gave me a letter;
+I have read it. Oh, Annabel, Annabel! I can be good now. No more bad
+half-hours, no more struggles with myself. I can be very good now."
+
+With some slight difficulty Annabel Lee drew her hot hand away from
+Maggie's fervent clasp; her eyes, slightly distended, were fixed on
+her friend's face; the flush of fever left her cheeks; a hot flood of
+emotion seemed to press against her beating heart; she looked at
+Maggie with passionate longing.
+
+"What is it?" she asked in a husky whisper. "Why are you so glad,
+Maggie? Why can you be good now?"
+
+"Because I love Geoffrey Hammond," answered Maggie; "I love him with
+all my heart, all my life, all my strength, and he loves me. He has
+asked me to be his wife."
+
+Maggie paused. She expected to feel Annabel's arms round her neck; she
+waited impatiently for this last crowning moment of bliss. Her own
+happiness caused her to lower her eyes; her joy was so dazzling that
+for a moment she felt she must shade their brilliance even from
+Annabel's gaze.
+
+Instead of the pressure of loving arms, however, and the warm kiss of
+sympathy, there came a low cry from the lips of the sick girl. She
+made an effort to say something, but words failed her: the next moment
+she was unconscious. Maggie rushed to the bell and gave an alarm,
+which brought Miss Heath and one or two servants to the room.
+
+A doctor was speedily sent for, and Maggie Oliphant was banished from
+the room. She never saw Annabel Lee again. That night the sick girl
+was removed to the hospital, which was in a building apart from the
+halls, and two days afterward she was dead.
+
+Typhus fever was raging at Kingsdene at this time, and Annabel Lee had
+taken it in its most virulent form. The doctors (and two or three were
+summoned) gave up all hope of saving her life from the first. Maggie
+also gave up hope. She accused herself of having caused her friend's
+death. She believed that the shock of her tidings had killed Annabel,
+who, already suffering from fever, had not strength to bear the agony
+of knowing that Hammond's love was given to Maggie.
+
+On the night of Annabel's death Maggie wrote to Hammond refusing his
+offer of marriage, but giving no reason for doing so. After posting
+her letter she lay down on her own sick bed and nearly died of the
+fever which had taken Annabel away.
+
+All these things happened a year ago. The agitation caused by the
+death of one so young, beautiful and beloved had subsided. People
+could talk calmly of Annabel, and although for a long time her room
+had remained vacant, it was now occupied by a girl in all respects her
+opposite.
+
+Nothing would induce Maggie to enter this room, and no words would
+persuade her to speak of Annabel. She was merry and bright once more,
+and few gave her credit for secret hours of misery, which were
+seriously undermining her health and ruining what was best of her
+character.
+
+On this particular day, as she lay back in her carriage, wrapped in
+costly furs, a great wave of misery and bitterness was sweeping over
+her heart. In the first agony caused by Annabel's death Maggie had
+vowed a vow to her own heart never, under any circumstances, to
+consent to be Hammond's wife. In the first misery of regret and
+compunction it had been easy to Maggie Oliphant to make such a vow;
+but she knew well, as the days and months went by, that its weight was
+crushing her life, was destroying her chance of ever becoming a really
+strong and good woman. If she had loved Hammond a year ago her
+sufferings made her love him fifty times better now. With all her
+outward coldness and apparent indifference, his presence gave her the
+keenest pain. Her heart beat fast when she caught sight of his face;
+if he spoke to another, she was conscious of being overcome by a
+spirit of jealousy. The thought of him mingled with her waking and
+sleeping hours; but the sacrifice she owed to the memory of her dead
+friend must be made at all hazards. Maggie consulted no one on this
+subject. Annabel's unhappy story lay buried with her in her early
+grave; Maggie would have died rather than reveal it. Now, as she lay
+back in her carriage, the tears filled her eyes.
+
+"I am too weak for this to go on any longer," she said to herself. "I
+shall leave St. Benet's at the end of the present term. What is the
+winning of a tripos to me? What do I want with honors and
+distinctions? Everything is barren to me. My life has no flavor in it.
+I loved Annabel, and she is gone. Without meaning it, I broke
+Annabel's heart. Without meaning it, I caused my darling's death, and
+now my own heart is broken, for I love Geoffrey-- I love him, and I
+can never, under any circumstances, be his wife. He misunderstands
+me-- he thinks me cold, wicked, heartless-- and I can never, never set
+myself right with him. Soon he will grow tired of me and give his
+heart to some one else, and perhaps marry some one else. When he does,
+I too shall die. Yes, whatever happens, I must go away from St.
+Benet's."
+
+Maggie's tears always came slowly; she put up her handkerchief to wipe
+them away. It was little wonder that when she returned from her drive
+her head was no better.
+
+"We must put off the rehearsal," said Nancy Banister, She came into
+Maggie's room and spoke vehemently. "I saw you at lunch, Maggie: you
+ate nothing-- you spoke with an effort. I know your head is worse. You
+must lie down, and, unless you are better soon, I will ask Miss Heath
+to send for a doctor."
+
+"No doctor will cure me," said Maggie. "Give me a kiss, Nance; let me
+rest my head against yours for a moment. Oh, how earnestly I wish I
+was like you."
+
+"Why so? What have I got? I have no beauty; I am not clever; I am
+neither romantically poor, like Prissie, nor romantically rich, like
+you. In short, the fairies were not invited to my christening."
+
+"One of two fairies came, however," replied Maggie, "and they gave you
+an honest soul, and a warm heart, and-- and happiness, Nancy. My dear,
+I need only look into your eyes to know that you are happy."
+
+Nancy's blue eyes glowed with pleasure. "Yes," she said, "I don't know
+anything about dumps and low spirits."
+
+"And you are unselfish, Nancy; you are never seeking your own
+pleasure."
+
+"I am not obliged to: I have all I want. And now to turn to a more
+important subject. I will see the members of our Dramatic Society and
+put off the rehearsal."
+
+"You must not; the excitement will do me good."
+
+"For the time, perhaps," replied Nancy, shaking her wise head, "but
+you will be worse afterward."
+
+"No. Now, Nancy, don't let us argue the point. If you are truly my
+friend, you will sit by me for an hour and read aloud the dullest book
+you can find, then perhaps I shall go to sleep."
+
+  CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+ "COME AND KILL THE BOGIE"
+
+NOTWITHSTANDING Nancy's dismal prognostications, Maggie Oliphant
+played her part brilliantly that night. Her low spirits were succeeded
+by gay ones; the Princess had never looked more truly regal, nor had
+the Prince ever more passionately wooed her. Girls who did not belong
+to the society always flocked into the theater to see the rehearsals.
+Maggie's mood scarcely puzzled them. She was so erratic that no one
+expected anything from her but the unexpected: if she looked like a
+drooping flower one moment, her head was erect the next, her eyes
+sparkling, her voice gay. The flower no longer drooped, but blossomed
+with renewed vigor. After reading for an hour Nancy had left her
+friend asleep. She went downstairs, and, in reply to several anxious
+inquiries, pronounced it as her opinion that Maggie, with all the good
+will in the world, could scarcely take part in the rehearsals that
+night.
+
+"I know Maggie is going to be ill," said Nancy with tears in her eyes.
+Miss Banister was so sensible and so little given to undue alarms that
+her words had effect, and a little rumor spread in the college that
+Miss Oliphant could not take her part in the important rehearsals
+which were to take place that evening. Her appearance, therefore, in
+more than her usual beauty, with more vigor in her voice, more energy
+and brightness in her eyes, gave at once a pleasing sense of
+satisfaction. She was cheered when she entered the little theater,
+but, if there was a brief surprise, it was quickly succeeded by the
+comment which generally followed all her doings: "This is just like
+Maggie; no one can depend on how she will act for a moment."
+
+At that rehearsal, however, people were taken by surprise. If the
+Princess did well, the young Prince did better. Priscilla had
+completely dropped her role of the awkward and gauche girl. From the
+first there had been vigor and promise in her acting. To-night there
+was not only vigor, but tenderness-- there was a passion in her voice
+which arose now and then to power. She was so completely in sympathy
+with her part that she ceased to be Priscilla: she was the Prince who
+must win this wayward Princess or die.
+
+Maggie came up to her when the rehearsals were over.
+
+"I congratulate you," she said. "Prissie, you might do well on the
+stage."
+
+Priscilla smiled. "No," she said, "for I need inspiration to forget
+myself."
+
+"Well, genius would supply that."
+
+"No, Maggie, no. The motive that seems to turn me into the Prince
+himself cannot come again. Oh, Maggie, if I succeed! If I succeed!"
+
+"What do you mean, you strange child?"
+
+"I cannot tell you with my voice: don't you guess?"
+
+"I cannot say. You move me strangely; you remind me of-- I quite
+forget that you are Priscilla Peel."
+
+Priscilla laughed joyously.
+
+"How gay you look to-night, Prissie, and yet I am told you were
+miserable this morning. Have you forgotten your woes?"
+
+"Completely."
+
+"Why is this?"
+
+"I suppose because I am happy and hopeful."
+
+"Nancy tells me that you were quite in despair to-day. She said that
+some of those cruel girls insulted you."
+
+"Yes, I was very silly; I got a shock."
+
+"And you have got over it?"
+
+"Yes; I know you don't believe badly of me. You know that I am honest
+and-- and true."
+
+"Yes, my dear," said Maggie with fervor, "I believe in you as I
+believe in myself. Now, have you quite disrobed? Shall we go into the
+library for a little?"
+
+The moment they entered this cheerful room, which was bright with two
+blazing fires and numerous electric lights, Miss Day and Miss Marsh
+came up eagerly to Maggie.
+
+"Well," they said, "have you made up your mind?"
+
+"About what?" she asked, raising her eyes in a puzzled way.
+
+"You will come with us to the Elliot-Smiths'? You know how anxious
+Meta is to have you."
+
+"Thank you, but am I anxious to go to Meta?"
+
+"Oh! you are, you must be; you cannot be so cruel as to refuse."
+
+After the emotion she had gone through in the morning, Maggie's heart
+was in that softened, half-tired state when it could be most easily
+influenced. She was in no mood for arguing or for defiance of any
+sort. "Peace at all hazards" was her motto just now. She was also in
+so reckless a mood as to be indifferent to what any one thought of
+her. The Elliot-Smiths were not in her "set." She disliked them and
+their ways, but she had met Meta at a friend's house a week ago. Meta
+had been introduced to Miss Oliphant and had pressed her invitation
+vigorously. It would be a triumph of triumphs to Meta Elliot-Smith to
+introduce the beautiful heiress to her own set. Maggie's refusal was
+not listened to. She was begged to reconsider the question; implored
+to be merciful, to be kind; assured of undying gratitude if she would
+consent to come even for one short hour.
+
+Miss Day and Miss Marsh were commissioned by Meta to secure Maggie at
+all costs.
+
+"You will come?" said Miss Day; "you must come." Then coming up close
+to Maggie, she whispered in an eager voice: "Would not you like to
+find out who has taken your five-pound note? Miss Peel is your friend.
+Would it not gratify you to clear her?"
+
+"Why should I clear one who can never possibly be suspected?" replied
+Miss Oliphant in a voice of anger. Her words were spoken aloud and so
+vehemently that Annie Day drew back a step or two in alarm.
+
+"Well, but you would like to know who really took your money?" she
+reiterated, again speaking in a whisper.
+
+Maggie was standing by one of the bookcases; she stretched up her hand
+to take down a volume. As she did so her eyes rested for a moment on
+Priscilla.
+
+"I would as soon suspect myself as her," she thought, "and yet last
+night, for a moment, even I was guilty of an unworthy thought of you,
+Prissie, and if I could doubt, why should I blame others? If going to
+the Elliot-Smiths' will establish your innocence, I will go."
+
+"Well," said Miss Day, who was watching her face, "I am to see Meta
+to-morrow morning; am I to tell her to expect you?"
+
+"Yes," replied Maggie, "but I wish to say at once, with regard to that
+five-pound note, that I am not interested in it. I am so careless
+about my money matters, that it is quite possible l may have been
+mistaken when I thought I put it into my purse."
+
+"Oh! oh! but you spoke so confidently this morning."
+
+"One of my impulses. I wish I had not done it."
+
+"Having done it, however," retorted Miss Day, "it is your duty to take
+any steps which may be necessary to clear the college of so unpleasant
+and disgraceful a charge."
+
+"You think I can do this by going to the Elliot-Smiths'?"
+
+"Hush! you will spoil all by speaking so loud. Yes, I fully believe we
+shall make a discovery on Friday night."
+
+"You don't suppose I would go to act the spy?"
+
+"No, no, nothing of the sort; only come-- only come!"
+
+Maggie opened her book and glanced at some of its contents before
+replying.
+
+"Only come," repeated Annie in an imploring voice.
+
+"I said I would come," answered Maggie. "Must I reiterate my
+assurance? Tell Miss Elliot-Smith to expect me."
+
+Maggie read for a little in the library; then, feeling tired, she rose
+from her seat and crossed the large room, intending to go up at once
+to her own chamber. In the hall, however, she was attracted by seeing
+Miss Heath's door slightly open. Her heart was full of compunction for
+having, even for a moment, suspected Priscilla of theft. She thought
+she would go and speak to Miss Heath about her.
+
+She knocked at the vice-principal's door.
+
+"Come in," answered the kind voice, and Maggie found herself a moment
+later seated by the fire: the door of Miss Heath's room shut, and Miss
+Heath herself standing over her, using words of commiseration.
+
+"My dear," she said, "you look very ill."
+
+Maggie raised her eyes. Miss Heath had seen many moods on that
+charming face; now the expression in the wide-open, brown eyes caused
+her own to fill with sudden tears.
+
+"I would do anything to help you, my love," she said tenderly, and,
+stooping down, she kissed Maggie on her forehead.
+
+"Perhaps, another time," answered Miss Oliphant.
+
+"You are all that is good, Miss Heath, and I may as well own frankly
+that I am neither well nor happy, but I have not come to speak of
+myself just now. I want to say something about Priscilla Peel."
+
+"Yes, what about her?"
+
+"She came to you last night. I know what she came about."
+
+"She told me she had confided in you," answered the vice-principal
+gravely.
+
+"Yes. Well, I have come to say that she must not be allowed to give up
+her Greek and Latin."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Miss Heath, how can you say, why not'? Prissie is a genius; her
+inclination lies in that direction. It is in her power to become one
+of the most brilliant classical scholars of her day."
+
+Miss Heath smiled. "Well, Maggie," she said slowly, "even suppose that
+is the case-- and you must own that, clever as Priscilla is, you make
+an extreme statement when you say such words-- she may do well, very
+well, and yet turn her attention to other subjects for the present."
+
+"It is cruel!" said Maggie, rising and stamping her foot impatiently.
+"Priscilla has it in her to shed honor on our college. She will take a
+first-class when she goes for her tripos, if her present studies are
+not interfered with."
+
+Miss Heath smiled at Maggie in a pitying sort of way. "I admit," she
+said, "that first-class honors would be a very graceful crown of bay
+to encircle that young head; and yet, Maggie, yet-- surely Priscilla
+can do better?"
+
+"What do you mean? How can she possibly do better?"
+
+"She can wear a nobler crown. You know, Maggie, there are crowns to be
+worn which cannot fade."
+
+"Oh!" Maggie's lips trembled. She looked down.
+
+After a pause, she said, "Priscilla told me something of her home and
+her family. I suppose she has also confided in you, Miss Heath?"
+
+"Yes, my dear."
+
+"Well, I have come to-night to say that it is in my power to use some
+of that money which I detest in helping Prissie-- in helping her
+family. I mean to help them; I mean to put them all in such a position
+that Priscilla shall not need to spend her youth in uncongenial
+drudgery. I have come to say this to you, Miss Heath, and I beg of
+you-- yes, I beg of you-- to induce my dear Prissie to go on with her
+classical studies. It will now be in your power to assure her that the
+necessity which made her obliged to give them up no longer exists."
+
+"In short," said Miss Heath, "you will give Miss Peel of your charity
+and take her independence away?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Put yourself in her place, Maggie. Would you take money for yourself
+and those dear to you from a comparative stranger?"
+
+Maggie's face grew very red. "I think I would oblige my friend, my
+dear friend," she said.
+
+"Is Prissie really your dear friend?"
+
+"Why do you doubt me? I love her very much. Since-- since Annabel
+died, no one has come so close to me."
+
+"I am glad of that," replied Miss Heath. She went up to Maggie and
+kissed her.
+
+"You will do what I wish?" asked the girl eagerly.
+
+"No, my dear: that matter lies in your hands alone. It is a case in
+which it is absolutely impossible for me to interfere. If you can
+induce Priscilla to accept money from you, I shall not say a word;
+and, for the sake of our college, I shall, perhaps, be glad, for there
+is not the least doubt that Prissie has it in her to win distinction
+for St. Benet's. But, on the other hand, if she comes to me for
+advice, it will be impossible for me not to say to her: 'My dear,
+character ranks higher than intellect. You may win the greatest prizes
+and yet keep a poor and servile soul. You may never get this great
+earthly distinction, and yet you may be crowned with honor-- the honor
+which comes of uprightness, of independence, of integrity.' Prissie
+may never consult me, of course, Maggie; but, if she does, I must say
+words something like these. To tell the truth, my dear, I never
+admired Priscilla more than I did last night. I encouraged her to give
+up her classics for the present and to devote herself to modern
+languages and to those accomplishments which are considered more
+essentially feminine. As I did so I had a picture before me, in which
+I saw Priscilla crowned with love, the support and blessing of her
+three little sisters. The picture was a very bright one, Maggie, and
+your crown of bay looks quite tawdry beside the other crown which I
+hope to see on Prissie's brow."
+
+Maggie rose from her chair. "Good night," she said.
+
+"I am sorry to disappoint you, my love."
+
+"I have no doubt you are right," said Maggie, "but," she added, "I
+have not made up my mind, and I still long for Priscilla to wear the
+crown of bay."
+
+"You will win that crown yourself, my dear."
+
+"Oh, no, it is not for me."
+
+"I am very anxious about you, Maggie. Why do you speak in that
+reckless tone? Your position and Prissie's are not the least alike: it
+is your duty to do your very utmost with those talents which have been
+bestowed upon you."
+
+"Perhaps," answered Maggie, shrugging her shoulders, "but I am tired
+of stretching out my hand like a baby to catch soap-bubbles. I cannot
+speak of myself at all to-night, Miss Heath. Thank you for what you
+have said, and again good night."
+
+Maggie had scarcely left the room before Priscilla appeared.
+
+"Are you too tired to see me to-night, Miss Heath?"
+
+"No, my love; come in and sit down. I was sorry to miss you this
+morning."
+
+"But I am glad as it turned out," replied Priscilla.
+
+"You were in great trouble, Prissie. The servant told me how terribly
+upset you were."
+
+"I was. I felt nearly mad."
+
+"But you look very happy now."
+
+"I am; my trouble has all vanished away. It was a great bogie. As soon
+as I came boldly up to it, it vanished into smoke."
+
+"Am I to hear the name of the bogie?"
+
+"I think I would rather not tell you-- at least not now. If Maggie
+thinks it right, she will speak to you about it; but, as far as I am
+concerned, it cannot touch me again."
+
+"Why have you come to see me then to-night, Priscilla?"
+
+"I want to speak about Maggie."
+
+"What about her? She has just been here to speak of you."
+
+"Has she?"
+
+"It is possible that she may make you a proposition which will affect
+your whole future, but I am not at liberty to say any more. Have you a
+proposition to make about her?"
+
+"I have, and it will affect all Maggie's life. It will make her so
+good-- so very, very happy. Oh, Miss Heath! you ought to do it: you
+ought to make her marry Mr. Hammond at once."
+
+"My dear Priscilla!" Miss Heath's face turned crimson. "Are you
+alluding to Geoffrey Hammond? I know great friends of his; he is one
+of the cleverest men at St. Hilda's."
+
+"Yes, and one of the best," pursued Prissie, clasping her hands and
+speaking in that excited way which she always did when quite carried
+out of herself. "You don't know how good he is, Miss Heath. I think he
+is one of the best of men. I would do anything in the world for him--
+anything."
+
+"Where have you met him, Priscilla?"
+
+"At the Marshalls', and once at the Elliot-Smiths', and to-day, when I
+was so miserable, when the bogie ran after me, you know, at St.
+Hilda's, just outside the chapel. Mr. Hammond asked me to come to the
+service, and I went, and afterward he chased the bogie away. Oh, he is
+good, he is kind and he loves Maggie with all his heart. He has loved
+her for a long time, I am sure, but she is never nice to him."
+
+"Then, of course," said Miss Heath, "if Miss Oliphant does not care
+for Mr. Hammond, there is an end of the matter. You are a very
+innocent and very young girl, Priscilla; but this is a subject in
+which you have no right to interfere. Far from me to say that I
+disapprove of marriage for our students, but, while at St. Benet's, it
+is certainly best for them to give their attention to other matters."
+
+"For most of us," replied Prissie, "but not for Maggie. No one in the
+college thinks Maggie happy."
+
+"That is true," replied Miss Heath thoughtfully.
+
+"And every one knows," pursued Prissie, "that Mr. Hammond loves her."
+
+"Do they? I was not aware that such reports had got abroad."
+
+"Oh, yes: all Maggie's friends know that, but they are so dreadfully
+stupid they cannot guess the other thing."
+
+"What other thing?"
+
+"That dear Maggie is breaking her heart on account of Mr. Hammond."
+
+"Then you think she loves him?"
+
+"I do-- I know it. Oh, won't you do something to get them to marry
+each other?"
+
+"My dear child, these are subjects in which neither you nor I can
+interefere."
+
+"Oh!" Prissie's eyes filled with sudden tears. "If you won't do
+anything, I must."
+
+"I don't see what you can do, Priscilla; I don't know what you have a
+right to do. We do not care that our students should think of love and
+courtship while here, but we have never limited their freedom in the
+matter. If Miss Oliphant cares for Mr. Hammond, and he cares for her,
+they know perfectly that they can become engaged. Miss Oliphant will
+be leaving St. Benet's at the end of the summer term. She is
+completely, in every sense of the word, her own mistress."
+
+"Oh, no, she is not her own mistress, she is oppressed by a bogie. I
+don't know the name of the bogie, or anything about it; but it is
+shadowing all Maggie's life; it is taking the sunshine away from her,
+and it is making it impossible for her to marry Mr. Hammond. They are
+both so fond of each other; they have both noble hearts, but the
+dreadful bogie spoils everything-- it keeps them apart. Dear Miss
+Heath, I want you to come and kill the bogie."
+
+"I must find out its name first," said Miss Heath.
+
+  CHAPTER XXIX
+
+ AT THE ELLIOT-SMITHS PARTY
+
+ROSALIND MERTON had been in the wildest spirits all day; she had
+laughed with the gayest, joined in all the games, thrown herself heart
+and soul into every project which promised fun, which gave a
+possibility for enjoyment. Rosalind's mood might have been described
+as reckless. This was not her invariable condition. She was a girl
+who, with all her gay spirits, took life with coolness. She was not
+given to over-excitement; her nerves were too well balanced for
+anything of this kind.
+
+To-day, however, something seemed wrong with these equable nerves of
+hers: she could not keep still; her voice was never quiet; her laugh
+was constant. Once or twice she saw Annie Day's eyes fixed upon her;
+she turned from their glance; a more brilliant red than usual dyed her
+cheeks; her laugh grew louder and more insolent.
+
+On this evening the Elliot-Smiths would give their long-promised
+party. The wish of Annie Day's heart was gratified; she had angled for
+an invitation to this merry-making and obtained it. Lucy Marsh was
+also going, and several other St. Benet's girls would be present.
+
+Early in the evening Rosalind retired to her own room, locked her
+door, and, taking out her new white dress, laid it across the bed. It
+was a very pretty dress, made of soft silk, which did not rustle, but
+lay in graceful puffs and folds on body and skirt. It was just the
+dress to make this young, slight figure of Rosalind's look absolutely
+charming. She stood over it now and regarded it lovingly. The dress
+had been obtained, like most of Rosalind's possessions, by manoeuvres.
+She had made up a piteous story, and her adoring mother had listened
+and contrived to deny herself and some of Rosalind's younger sisters
+to purchase the white robe on which the young girl's heart was set.
+
+Deliberately and slowly Rosalind made her toilet, her golden, curling
+hair was brushed out and then carefully coiled round her head.
+Rosalind had no trouble with her hair: a touch or two, a pin stuck
+here, a curl arranged there, and the arrangement became perfect-- the
+glistening mass lay in natural waves over the small, graceful head.
+
+Rosalind's hair arranged to her satisfaction, she put on her lovely
+white dress. She stood before her long glass, a white-robed little
+figure, smiles round her lips, a sweet, bright color in her cheeks, a
+dewy look in her baby-blue eyes. Rosalind's toilet was all but
+finished; she stood before her glass now and hesitated. Should she go
+to the Elliot-Smiths' as she was or should she give the last finishing
+touch to render herself perfect? Should she wear her beautiful coral
+ornaments?
+
+The coral was now her own, paid for to the uttermost farthing; Polly
+Singleton could not come up to Rosalind now and disgrace her in public
+by demanding her coral back again. The coral was no longer Polly's; it
+was Rosalind's. The debt was cleared off; the exquisite ornaments were
+her own. Unlocking a drawer in her bureau, she took out a case, which
+contained her treasures; she touched the spring of the case, opened it
+and looked at them lovingly. The necklace, the bracelets, the earings
+and pins for the hair looked beautiful on their velvet pillow. For the
+sake of the pink coral, Rosalind had manoeuvred for her white dress;
+for its sake she had knowingly stinted her mother and sisters; for its
+sake she had also stolen a five-pound note from Maggie Oliphant. She
+dreamt many times of the triumphs which would be hers when she
+appeared at the Elliot-Smiths' in her white silk dress, just tipped
+with the slight color which the pink coral ornaments would bestow.
+Rosalind had likened herself to all kinds of lovely things in this
+beautiful yet simple toilet-- to a daisy in the field, to a briar
+rose: in short, to every flower which denoted the perfection of baby
+innocence.
+
+Yet, as she held the coral necklace in her hand tonight, she hesitated
+deeply whether it would be wise to appear at the Elliot-Smiths' in her
+treasured ornaments.
+
+Rose had not felt comfortable all day. She had banished thought with
+the usual device of extra hilarity: she had crushed the little voice
+in her heart which would persistently cry, "Shame! shame!" which would
+go on telling her, "You are the meanest, the most wicked girl in St.
+Benet's; you have done something for which you could be put in
+prison." The voice had little opportunity of making itself heard that
+day, and, as Maggie Oliphant evidently did not intend to investigate
+the matter, Rosalind had every hope that her sin would never be found
+out. Nevertheless, she could not help feeling uneasy; for why did
+Annie Day, her own chosen and particular friend, so persistently avoid
+her? Why had Lucy Marsh refused to walk with her yesterday? and why
+did Annie so often look at her with meaning and inquiry in her eyes?
+These glances of Annie's caused Rosalind's heart to beat too quickly;
+they gave her an undefined sense of uneasiness.
+
+She felt as she stood now before her glass that, after all, she was
+doing a rash thing in wearing her coral. Annie Day knew of her money
+difficulties; Annie knew how badly Rosalind had wanted four guineas to
+pay the debt she still owed for the ornaments. If Rosalind wore them
+to-night, Annie would ask numerous questions. Oh, yes, there was a
+risk-- there was a decided risk-- but Rosalind's vanity was greater
+than her fears.
+
+There came a knock at her room door. To Rosalind's surprise, Annie
+Day's voice, with an extremely friendly tone in it, was heard outside.
+
+"Are you ready, Rosie?" she cried; "for, if you are, there is just
+room for you in the fly with Lucy Marsh and Miss Singleton and
+myself."
+
+"Oh, thank you!" cried Rosalind from the other side of the door; "just
+wait one moment, Annie, and I will be with you."
+
+Both fear and hesitation vanished at the friendly tones of Annie's
+voice. She hastily fastened on her necklace and earrings, slipped on
+her bracelets and stuck the coral pins in her hair. She saw a dazzling
+little image in the glass and turned away with a glad, proud smile.
+
+"We can't be kept waiting. Are you ready?" called Miss Day's voice in
+the passage.
+
+"Yes, yes; in one moment, Annie, dear," replied Rosalind. She wrapped
+herself from head to foot in a long white opera cloak, pulled the hood
+over her head, seized her gloves and fan and opened the door. The
+coral could not be seen now, and Annie, who was also in white, took
+her hand and ran with her down the corridor.
+
+A few moments later the four girls arrived at the Elliot-Smiths' and
+were shown into a dressing-room on the ground floor to divest
+themselves of their wraps. They were among the earliest of the
+arrivals, and Annie Day had both space and opportunity to rush up to
+Rosalind and exclaim at the perfect combination of white silk and pink
+coral.
+
+"Lucy, Lucy!" she said, "do come and look at Rosalind's coral! Oh,
+poor Polly! you must miss your ornaments; but I am obliged frankly to
+confess, my dear, that they are more becoming to this little cherub
+than they ever were to you."
+
+Polly was loudly dressed in blue silk. She came up and turned Rosalind
+round, and, putting her hand on her neck, lifted the necklace and
+looked at it affectionately.
+
+"I did love those ornaments," she said; "but, of course, I can't
+grudge them to you, Rose. You paid a good sum for them-- didn't you,
+dear?-- although nothing like what they were worth, so, of course,
+they are yours by every right."
+
+"You have paid off the debt? I congratulate you, Rose," said Annie
+Day.
+
+"Yes," said Rosalind, blushing.
+
+"I am glad you were able to get the money, my dear."
+
+"And I wish she hadn't got it," retorted Polly. "Money is of no moment
+to me now. Dad is just rolling in wealth, and I have, in consequence,
+more money than I know what to do with. I confess I never felt crosser
+in my life than when you brought me that five-pounds note last Monday
+night, Miss Merton."
+
+Rosalind colored, then grew very pale; she saw Annie Day's eyes blaze
+and darken. She felt that her friend was putting two and two together
+and drawing a conclusion in her own mind. Annie turned abruptly from
+Rosalind, and, touching Lucy Marsh on the arm, walked with her out of
+the dressing-room. The unsuspecting Polly brought up the rear with
+Rosalind.
+
+The four girls entered the drawing-room, and Rosalind tried to forget
+the sick fear which was creeping round her heart in the excitement of
+the moment.
+
+Nearly an hour later Maggie Oliphant arrived. She was also in white,
+but without any ornament, except a solitary diamond star which blazed
+in the rich coils of her hair. The beautiful Miss Oliphant was
+received with enthusiasm. Until her arrival Rose had been the
+undoubted belle of the evening, but beside Maggie the petite charms
+which Rose possessed sank out of sight. Maggie herself never felt less
+conscious of beauty; the heaviness of her heart made her cheeks look
+pale and gave her brown eyes a languid expression; she was indifferent
+to the admiration which greeted her. The admiration which greeted her
+gave her a momentary feeling of surprise-- almost of displeasure.
+
+Meta Elliot-Smith and her mother buzzed round Maggie and expressed
+their gratitude to her for coming.
+
+"We expect a friend of yours to arrive presently," said Meta-- "Mr.
+Hammond. You know Mr. Hammond, don't you? I have had a note from him.
+He says he will look in as soon after ten as possible. I am so glad; I
+was dreadfully afraid he couldn't come, for he had to go suddenly into
+the country at the beginning of this week. You know Mr. Hammond very
+well, don't you, Miss Oliphant?"
+
+"Yes," replied Maggie in her careless voice; "he is quite an old
+friend of mine."
+
+"You will be glad to see him?"
+
+"Very glad."
+
+Meta looked at her in a puzzled way. Reports of Hammond's love affair
+had reached her ears. She had expected to see emotion and confusion on
+Maggie's face; it looked bright and pleased. Her "very glad" had a
+genuine ring about it.
+
+"I am so delighted he is coming!" repeated Meta. "I do trust he will
+be here in good time."
+
+She led Miss Oliphant to a prominent seat at the top of the room as
+she spoke.
+
+"I shall have to leave soon after ten," replied Maggie, "so, if Mr.
+Hammond cannot arrive until after that hour, I shall not have the
+pleasure of seeing him."
+
+"Oh, but you must really stay later than that; it would be too cruel
+to leave us so early."
+
+"I am afraid I cannot. The gates are closed at St. Benet's at eleven
+o'clock, and I do not care to remain out until the last moment."
+
+Meta was obliged, with great reluctance, to leave her guest, and a
+moment later Annie Day came up eagerly to Maggie's side.
+
+"It's all right," she said, drawing Miss Oliphant into the shelter of
+a window; "I have found out all I want to know."
+
+"What is that?" asked Maggie.
+
+"Rosalind Merton is the thief."
+
+"Miss Day, how can you say such dreadful things?"
+
+"How can Rosalind do them? I am awfully sorry-- indeed, I am
+disgusted-- but the facts are too plain." Miss Day then in a few eager
+whispers, which Maggie in vain endeavored to suppress, gave her chain
+of evidence. Rosalind's distress; her passionate desire to keep the
+coral; her entreaties that Miss Day would lend her four guineas; her
+assurances that she had not a penny in the world to pay her debt; her
+fears that it was utterly useless for her to expect the money from her
+mother. Then the curious fact that, on the very same evening, Polly
+Singleton should have been given a five-pound note by her. "There is
+not the least doubt," concluded Miss Day, "that Rosalind must have
+gone into your room, Miss Oliphant, and stolen the note while
+Priscilla was absent. You know Miss Peel said that she did leave your
+room for a moment or two to fetch her Lexicon. Rosalind must have
+seized the opportunity; there cannot be a doubt of it."
+
+Maggie's face turned white; her eyes were full of indignation and
+horror.
+
+"Something must be done," continued Annie. "I am no prude, but I draw
+the line at thieves. Miss Merton ought to be expelled; she is not fit
+to speak to one of us."
+
+"The affair is mine," said Maggie after a pause. "You must let me deal
+with it."
+
+"Will you?"
+
+"I certainly will."
+
+"To-night?"
+
+"I cannot say. I must think. The whole thing is terrible, it upsets
+me."
+
+"I thought you would feel it. I am a good bit upset myself and so is
+Lucy Marsh."
+
+"Does Miss Marsh know, too? In that case, Miss Day, it will, I fear,
+be my duty to consult Miss Heath. Oh, I must think; I can do nothing
+hastily. Please, Miss Day, keep your own counsel for the present, and
+ask Miss Marsh to do the same."
+
+Annie Day ran off, and Maggie stood by the open window looking out at
+the starry night. Her head ached; her pulses beat; she felt sick and
+tired. The noise and laughter which filled the gaily thronged rooms
+were all discordant to her-- she wished she had not come. A voice
+close by made her start-- a hand not only clasped hers, but held it
+firmly for a moment. She looked up and said with a sudden impulse,
+"Oh, Geoffrey! I am glad you are here." Then, with a burning blush,
+she withdrew her hand from Hammond's.
+
+"Can I help you?" he asked. His heart was beating fast; her words were
+tingling in his ears, but his tone was quiet. "Can I help you?" he
+repeated. "Here is a seat." He pulled a chair from behind a curtain,
+and Maggie dropped into it.
+
+"Something is wrong," she said; "something dreadful has happened."
+
+"May I know what it is?"
+
+"I don't think I have any right to tell you. It is connected with the
+college; but it has given me a blow, and I was tired beforehand. I
+came here against my will, and now I don't want to talk to any one."
+
+"That can be easily managed. I will stand here and keep off all
+intruders."
+
+"Thank you." Maggie put her hand to her forehead.
+
+The headache, which had scarcely left her for a fortnight, was now so
+acute that all her thoughts were confused; she felt as if she were
+walking in a dream. It seemed perfectly right and natural that Hammond
+should stand by her side and protect her from the crowd; it seemed
+natural to her at that moment, natural and even right to appeal to
+him.
+
+After a long pause he said:
+
+"I am afraid I also have bad news!"
+
+"How?"
+
+"I went to see my uncle, Mr. Hayes."
+
+"Yes; it was good of you-- I remember."
+
+"I failed in my mission. Mr. Hayes says that Miss Peel, our Prissie's
+aunt, would rather die than accept help from any one."
+
+"Oh, how obstinate some people are!" replied Maggie wearily.
+"Happiness, help and succor come to their very door and they turn
+these good things away."
+
+"That is true," replied Hammond. "I am firmly convinced," he added,
+"that the good angel of happiness is within the reach of most of us
+once at least in our lives, but for a whim-- often for a mere whim--
+we tell him to go."
+
+Maggie's face grew very white. "I must say 'good-by': I am going
+home," she said, rising. Then she added, looking full at Hammond,
+"Sometimes it is necessary to reject happiness; and necessity ought
+not to be spoken of as a whim."
+
+  CHAPTER XXX
+
+ "IF I HAD KNOWN YOU SOONER"
+
+AS MAGGIE was leaving the crowded drawing-room she came face to face
+with Rosalind. One of those impulses which always guided her, more or
+less, made her stop suddenly and put her hand on the young girl's
+shoulder.
+
+"Will you come home with me?" she asked.
+
+Rosalind was talking gaily at the moment to a very young
+undergraduate.
+
+"I am obliged to you," she began; "you are kind, but I have arranged
+to return to St. Benet's with Miss Day and Miss Marsh."
+
+"I should like you to come now with me," persisted Maggie in a grave
+voice.
+
+Something in her tone caused Rosalind to turn pale. The sick fear,
+which had never been absent from her heart during the evening, became
+on the instant intolerable. She turned to the young lad with whom she
+had been flirting, bade him a hasty and indifferent "good night" and
+followed Maggie out of the room.
+
+Hammond accompanied the two girls downstairs, got their cab for them
+and helped them in.
+
+After Rosalind consented to come home Miss Oliphant did not address
+another word to her. Rosalind sat huddled up in a corner of the cab;
+Maggie kept the window open and looked out. The clear moonlight shone
+on her white face and glistened on her dress. Rosalind kept glancing
+at her. The guilty girl's terror of the silent figure by her side grew
+greater each moment.
+
+The girls reached Heath Hall and Maggie again touched Rosalind on her
+arm.
+
+"Come to my room," she said; "I want to say something to you."
+
+Without waiting for a reply she went on herself in front. Rosalind
+followed abjectly; she was shaking in every limb.
+
+The moment Maggie closed her room door Rosalind flung her cloak off
+her shoulders, and, falling on her knees, caught the hem of Maggie's
+dress and covered her face with it.
+
+"Don't, Rosalind; get up," said Miss Oliphant in a tone of disgust.
+
+"Oh, Maggie, Maggie, do be merciful! Do forgive me! Don't send me to
+prison, Maggie-- don't!"
+
+"Get off your knees at once, or I don't know what I shall do," replied
+Maggie.
+
+Rosalind sprang to her feet; she crouched up against the door; her
+eyes were wide open. Maggie came and, faced her.
+
+"Oh, don't!" said Miss Merton with a little shriek, "don't look at me
+like that!" She put up her hand to her neck and began to unfasten her
+coral necklace. She took it off, slipped her bracelets from her arms,
+took her earrings out and removed her pins.
+
+"You can have them all," she said, holding out the coral; "they are
+worth a great deal more-- a great deal more than the money I-- took!"
+
+"Lay them down," said Maggie. "Do you think I could touch that coral?
+Oh, Rosalind," she added, a sudden rush of intense feeling coming into
+her voice, "I pity you! I pity any girl who has so base a soul."
+
+Rosalind began to sob freely. "You don't know how I was tempted," she
+said. "I went through a dreadful time, and you were the cause-- you
+know you were, Maggie. You raised the price of that coral so wickedly,
+you excited my feelings. I felt as if there was a fiend in me. You did
+not want the sealskin jacket, but you bid against me and won it. Then
+I felt mad, and, whatever you had offered for the coral, I should have
+bidden higher. It was all your fault; it was you who got me into debt.
+I would not be in the awful, awful plight I am in to-night but for
+you, Maggie."
+
+"Hush!" said Maggie. The pupils of her eyes dilated curiously; she put
+her hand before them.
+
+"The fruits of my bad half-hours," she murmured under her breath.
+After a long pause, she said:
+
+"There is some truth in your words, Rosalind; I did help you to get
+into this false position. I am sorry; and when I tell Miss Heath the
+whole circumstance-- as I must to-morrow-- you may be sure I shall not
+exonerate myself."
+
+"Oh, Maggie, Maggie, you won't tell Miss Heath! If you do, I am
+certain to be expelled, and my mother-- my mother will die; she is not
+over strong just now, and this will kill her. You cannot be so cruel
+as to kill my mother, Maggie Oliphant, particularly when you yourself
+got me into this."
+
+"I did not get you into this," retorted Maggie. "I know I am not
+blameless in the matter; but could I imagine for a moment that any
+girl, any girl who belonged to this college, could debase herself to
+steal and then throw the blame on another. Nancy Banister has told me,
+Rose, how cruelly you spoke to Priscilla-- what agony your cruel words
+cost her. I did wrong, I own, but no act of mine would have tempted
+another girl to do what you have done. Now, stop crying; I have not
+brought you here to discuss your wickedness with you. I shall tell the
+whole circumstance to Miss Heath in the morning. It is my plain duty
+to do so, and no words of yours can prevent me."
+
+With a stifled cry Rosalind Merton again fell on her knees.
+
+"Get up," said Maggie, "get up at once, or I shall bring Miss Heath
+here now. Your crime, Rosalind, is known to Miss Day and to Miss
+Marsh. Even without consulting Miss Heath, I think I can take it upon
+me to say that you had better leave St. Benet's by the first train in
+the morning."
+
+"Oh, yes-- yes! that would be much the best thing to do."
+
+"You are to go home, remember."
+
+"Yes, I will certainly go home. But, Maggie, I have no money-- I have
+literally no money."
+
+"I will ask Priscilla Peel to go with you to the railway station, and
+I will give her sufficient money to pay your fare to London-- you live
+in London, don't you?"
+
+"Yes, at Bayswater."
+
+"What is your address''
+
+"19 Queen Street, Bayswater."
+
+"Priscilla shall telegraph to your mother, when you start, and ask her
+to meet you at King's Cross."
+
+Rosalind's face grew paler and paler. "What excuse am I to give to
+mother?" she asked.
+
+"That is your own affair; I have no doubt you will find something to
+say. I should advise you, Rosalind, to tell your poor mother the
+truth, for she is certain to hear all about it from Miss Heath the
+following morning."
+
+"Oh, what a miserable, miserable girl I am, Maggie!"
+
+"You are a very miserable and sinful girl; It was a wretched day for
+St. Benet's when a girl such as you are came to live here. But I don't
+want to speak of that now, Rosalind; there is something you must do
+before you leave."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"You must go to Priscilla Peel and humbly beg her pardon."
+
+"Oh, I cannot, I cannot! You have no idea how I hate Priscilla."
+
+"I am not surprised; the children of darkness generally hate those who
+walk in the light."
+
+"Maggie, I can't beg her pardon."
+
+"You can please yourself about that: I certainly shall not force you;
+but, unless you beg Priscilla's pardon and confess to her the wicked
+deed you have done, I shall lend you no money to go home. You can go
+to your room now, Rosalind; I am tired and wish to go to bed. You will
+be able to let me know your decision in the morning."
+
+Rosalind turned slowly away. She reached her room before the other
+girls had arrived home, and tossing the coral ornaments on her
+dressing-table, she flung herself across her bed and gave way to the
+most passionate, heart-broken sobs that had ever rent her baby frame.
+
+She was still sobbing, but more quietly, for the force of her passion
+had exhausted her, when a very light touch on her shoulder caused her
+to raise herself and look up wildly. Prissie was bending over her.
+
+"I knocked several times," she said, "but you did not hear me, so I
+came in. You will be sick if you cry like this, Rose. Let me help you
+go to bed."
+
+"No, no; please don't touch me. I don't want you, of all people, to do
+anything for me."
+
+"I wish you would let me undress you. I have often helped Aunt Raby to
+go to bed when she was very tired. Come, Rose, don't turn away from
+me. Why should you?"
+
+"Priscilla, you are the last person in the world who ought to be kind
+to me just now; you don't know, you can never, never guess, what I did
+to you."
+
+"Yes, I can partly guess, but I don't want to think of it."
+
+"Listen, Prissie: when I stole that money, I hoped people would accuse
+you of the theft."
+
+Prissie's eyes filled with tears. "It was a dreadful thing to do," she
+said faintly.
+
+"Oh, I knew you could never forgive me."
+
+"I do forgive you."
+
+"What! aren't you angry? Aren't you frantic with rage and passion?"
+
+"I don't wish to think of myself at all: I want to think of you. You
+are the one to be pitied."
+
+"I? Who could pity me?"
+
+"Well, Rosalind, I do," answered Priscilla in a slow voice; "you have
+sunk so low, you have done such a dreadful thing, the kind of thing
+that the angels in heaven would grieve over."
+
+"Oh, please don't talk to me of them."
+
+"And then, Rosalind," continued Prissie, "you look so unlike a girl
+who would do this sort of thing. I have a little sister at home-- a
+dear, little innocent sister, and her eyes are blue like yours, and
+she is fair, too, as you are fair. I love her, and I think all good
+things of her. Rosalind, I fancy that your mother thinks good things
+of you. I imagine that she is proud of you, and that she loves to look
+at your pretty face."
+
+"Oh, don't-- don't!" sobbed Rosalind. "Oh, poor mother, poor mother!"
+she burst into softened and sorrowful weeping. The hardness of her
+heart had melted for the time under the influence of Priscilla's
+tender words.
+
+"I wish I had known you sooner," whispered Rose when Prissie bent down
+and kissed her before leaving her for the night. "Perhaps I might have
+been a good girl if I had really known you sooner, Priscilla Peel."
+
+  CHAPTER XXXI
+
+ A MESSAGE
+
+EARLY the next morning Rosalind Merton left St. Benet's College never
+to come back. She took all her possessions with her, even the pink
+coral, which, to their credit be it spoken, not a girl in the college
+would have accepted at her hands. Annie Day and Lucy Marsh were not
+the sort of people to keep their secret long, and before the day of
+her departure had expired nearly everyone at Heath Hall knew of
+Rosalind's crime. Miss Heath was made acquainted with the whole story
+at an early hour that morning.
+
+"I may have done very wrong to let her go without obtaining your
+permission, Miss Heath," said Maggie, when the story was finished. "If
+so, please forgive me, and also allow me to say that, were the same
+thing to occur again, I fear I should act in the same way. I think my
+primary object in giving Rosalind money to go home this morning was to
+save the college from any open slur being cast upon it."
+
+Miss Heath's face had grown very pale while Maggie was speaking. She
+was quite silent for a moment or two after the story was finished;
+then, going up to Miss Oliphant, she took her hand and kissed her.
+
+"On the whole, my dear," she said, "I am obliged to you. Had this
+story been told me while Miss Merton, was in the house I should have
+been obliged to detain her until all the facts of this disgraceful
+case were laid before the college authorities, and then, of course,
+there would have been no course open but to publicly expel her. This,
+at least, you have spared St. Benet's, and I am relieved from the
+terrible responsibility. I'll say nothing now about the rule you have
+broken, for, of course, you had no right to assist Rosalind to go home
+without permission. It lies within my discretion to forgive you,
+Maggie, however, so take my kiss, dear."
+
+The vice-principal and Miss Oliphant talked for some little time
+longer over Rosalind's terrible fall, and, as Miss Heath felt
+confident that the story would get abroad in the college, she said she
+would be forced to mention the circumstances to their principal, Miss
+Vincent, and also to say something in public to the girls of Heath
+Hall on the subject.
+
+"And now we will turn to something else," she said. "I am concerned at
+those pale cheeks, Maggie. My dear," as the young girl colored
+brightly, "your low spirits weigh on my heart."
+
+"Oh, don't mind me," said Maggie hastily.
+
+"It is scarcely kind to say this to one who loves you. I have been
+many years vice-principal of this hall, and no girl, except Annabel
+Lee, has come so close to my heart as you have, Maggie. Some girls
+come here, spend the required three years and go away again without
+making much impression on any one. In your case this will not be so. I
+have not the least doubt that you will pass your tripos examination
+with credit in the summer; you will then leave us, but not to be
+forgotten. I, for one, Maggie can never forget you."
+
+"How good you are!" said Maggie.
+
+Tears trembled in the eyes which were far too proud to weep except in
+private.
+
+Miss Heath looked attentively at the young student, for whom she felt
+so strong an interest. Priscilla's words had scarcely been absent from
+her night or day since they were spoken.
+
+"Maggie ought to marry Mr. Hammond. Maggie loves him and he loves her,
+but a bogie stands in the way." Night and day Miss Heath had pondered
+these words. Now, looking at the fair face, whose roundness of outline
+was slightly worn, at the eyes which had looked at her for a moment
+through a veil of sudden tears, she resolved to take the initiative in
+a matter which she considered quite outside her province.
+
+"Sit down, Maggie," she said. "I think the time has come for me to
+tell you something which has lain as a secret on my heart for over a
+year."
+
+Maggie looked up in surprise, then dropped into a chair and folded her
+hands in her lap. She was slightly surprised at Miss Heath's tone, but
+not as yet intensely interested.
+
+"You know, my dear," she said, "that I never interfere with the life a
+student lives outside this hall. Provided she obeys the rules and
+mentions the names of the friends she visits, she is at liberty,
+practically, to do as she pleases in those hours which are not devoted
+to lectures. A girl at St. Benet's may have a great, a very great
+friend at Kingsdene or elsewhere of whom the principals of the college
+know nothing. I think I may add with truth that were the girl to
+confide in the principal of her college in case of any friendship
+developing into-- into love, she would receive the deepest sympathy
+and the tenderest counsels that the case would admit of. The principal
+who was confided in would regard herself for the time being as the
+young girl's mother."
+
+Maggie's eyes were lowered now; her lips trembled; she played
+nervously with a flower which she held in her hand.
+
+"I must apologize," continued Miss Heath, "for having alluded to a
+subject which may not in the least concern you, my dear. My excuse for
+doing so is that what I have to tell you directly bears on the
+question of marriage. I would have spoken to you long ago, but, until
+lately, until a few days ago, I had not the faintest idea that such a
+subject had even distantly visited your mind."
+
+"Who told you that it had?" questioned Maggie. She spoke with anger.
+"Who has dared to interfere-- to spread rumors? I am not going to
+marry. I shall never marry."
+
+"It is not in my power at present to tell you how the rumor has
+reached me," continued Miss Heath, "but, having reached me, I want to
+say a few words about-- about Annabel Lee."
+
+"Oh, don't!" said Maggie, rising to her feet, her face pale as death.
+She put her hand to her heart as she spoke. A pang, not so much mental
+as bodily, had gone through it.
+
+"My dear, I think you must listen to me while I give you a message
+from one whom you dearly loved, whose death has changed you, Maggie,
+whose death we have all deeply mourned."
+
+"A message?" said Maggie; "a message from Annabel! What message?"
+
+"I regarded it as the effects of delirium at the time," continued Miss
+Heath, "and as you had fever immediately afterward, dreaded referring
+to the subject. Now I blame myself for not having told you sooner, for
+I believe that Annabel was conscious and that she had a distinct
+meaning in her words."
+
+"What did she say? Please don't keep me in suspense."
+
+"It was shortly before she died," continued Miss Heath; "the fever had
+run very high, and she was weak, and I could scarcely catch her words.
+She looked at me. You know how Annabel could look, Maggie; you know
+how expressive those eyes could be, how that voice could move one."
+
+Maggie had sunk back again in her chair; her face was covered with her
+trembling hands.
+
+"Annabel said," continued Miss Heath, "'tell Maggie not to mistake me.
+I am happy. I am glad she will marry'-- I think she tried to say a
+name, but I could not catch it-- tell her to marry him, and that I am
+very glad.'"
+
+A sob broke from Maggie Oliphant's lips. "You might have told me
+before!" she said in a choked voice.
+
+  CHAPTER XXXII
+
+ THE PRINCESS
+
+THE great event of the term was to take place that evening. The
+Princess was to be acted by the girls of St. Benet's, and, by the kind
+permission of Miss Vincent, the principal of the entire college,
+several visitors were invited to witness the entertainment. The
+members of the Dramatic Society had taken immense pains; the
+rehearsals had been many, the dresses all carefully chosen, the
+scenery appropriate-- in short, no pains had been spared to render
+this lovely poem of Tennyson's a dramatic success. The absence of
+Rosalind Merton had, for a short time, caused a little dismay among
+the actors. She had been cast for the part of Melissa:
+
+  "A rosy blonde, and in a college gown
+   That clad her like an April daffodilly."
+
+But now it must be taken my some one else.
+
+Little Ada Hardy, who was about Rosalind's height, and had the real
+innocence which, alas! poor Rosalind lacked, was sent for in a hurry,
+and, carefully drilled by Constance Field and Maggie Oliphant, by the
+time the night arrived she was sufficiently prepared to act the
+character, slight in itself, which was assigned to her. The other
+actors were, of course, fully prepared to take their several parts,
+and a number of girls were invested in the
+
+                         "Academic silks, in hue
+   The lilac, with a silken hood to each,
+   And zoned with gold."
+
+Nothing could have been more picturesque, and there was a buzz of
+hearty applause from the many spectators who crowded the galleries and
+front seats of the little theater when the curtain rose on the
+well-known garden scene, where the Prince, Florian and Cyril saw the
+maidens of that first college for women-- that poet's vision, so amply
+fulfilled in the happy life at St. Benet's.
+
+                                                       There
+  One walk'd, reciting by herself, and one
+  In this hand held a volume as to read,
+  And smoothed a petted peacock down with that:
+  Some to a low song oar'd a shallop by,
+  Or under arches of the marble bridge
+  Hung, shadow'd from the heat: some hid and sought
+  In the orange thickets: others tost a ball
+  Above the fountain jets, and back again
+  With laughter: others lay about the lawns,
+  Of the older sort, and murmur'd that their May
+  Was passing: what was learning unto them?
+  They wish'd to marry: they could rule a house;
+  Men hated learned women. . . ."
+
+The girls walked slowly about among the orange groves and by the
+fountain jets. In the distance the chapel bells tolled faint and
+sweet. More maidens appeared, and Tennyson's lovely lines were again
+represented with such skill, the effect of multitude was so skilfully
+managed that the
+
+  "Six hundred maidens, clad in purest white,"
+
+appeared really to fill the gardens,
+
+  "While the great organ almost burst his pipes,
+   Groaning for power, and rolling thro' the court
+   A long melodious thunder to the sound
+   Of solemn psalms, and silver litanies."
+
+The curtain fell, to rise in a few moments amid a burst of applause.
+The Princess herself now appeared for the first time on the little
+stage. Nothing could have been more admirable than the grouping of
+this tableau. All the pride of mien, of race, of indomitable purpose
+was visible on the face of the young girl who acted the part of the
+Princess Ida.
+
+                                                 "She stood
+  Among her maidens, higher by the head,
+  Her back against a pillar."
+
+It was impossible, of course, to represent the tame leopards, but the
+maidens who gathered round the Princess prevented this want being
+apparent, and Maggie Oliphant's attitude and the expression which
+filled her bright eyes left nothing to be desired.
+
+"Perfect!" exclaimed the spectators: the interest of every one present
+was more than aroused; each individual in the little theater felt,
+though no one could exactly tell why, that Maggie was not merely
+acting her part, she was living it.
+
+Suddenly she raised her head and looked steadily at the visitors in
+the gallery: a wave of rosy red swept over the whitness of her face.
+It was evident that she had encountered a glance which disturbed her
+composure.
+
+The play proceeded brilliantly, and now the power and originality of
+Priscilla's acting divided the attention of the house. Surely there
+never was a more impassioned Prince.
+
+Priscilla could sing; her voice was not powerful, but it was low and
+rather deeply set. The well-known and familiar song with which the
+Prince tried to woo Ida lost little at her hands.
+
+  "O Swallow, Swallow, flying, flying South,
+   Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves,
+   And tell her, tell her what I tell to thee.
+  "O tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each,
+   That bright and fierce and fickle is the South,
+   And dark and true and tender is the North.
+  "Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with love,
+   Delaying as the tender ash delays
+   To clothe herself, when all the woods are green?
+  "O tell her, brief is life but love is long,
+   And brief the sun of summer in the North,
+   And brief the moon of beauty in the South.
+  "O Swallow, flying from the golden woods,
+   Fly to her, and pipe and woo her, and make her mine,
+   And tell her, tell her that I follow thee."
+
+The wooing which followed made a curious impression; this impression
+was not only produced upon the house, but upon both Prince and
+Princess.
+
+Priscilla, too, had encountered Hammond's earnest gaze. That gaze
+fired her heart, and she became once again not herself but he; poor,
+awkward and gauche little Prissie sank out of sight; she was Hammond
+pleading his own cause, she was wooing Maggie for him in the words of
+Tennyson's Prince. This fact was the secret of Priscilla's power; she
+had felt it more or less whenever she acted the part of the Prince;
+but, on this occasion, she communicated the sensations which animated
+her own breast to Maggie. Maggie, too, felt that Hammond was speaking
+to her through Priscilla's voice.
+
+  "I cannot cease to follow you, as they say
+   The seal does music; who desire you more
+   Than growing boys their manhood; dying lips,
+   With many thousand matters left to do,
+   The breath of life; O more than poor men wealth,
+   Than sick men health-- yours, yours, not mine-- but half
+   Without you; with you, whole; and of those halves
+   You worthiest, and howe'er you block and bar
+   Your heart with system out from mine, I hold
+   That it becomes no man to nurse despair,
+   But in the teeth of clench'd antagonisms
+   To follow up the worthiest till he die."
+
+In the impassioned reply which followed this address it was noticed
+for the first time by the spectators that Maggie scarcely did herself
+justice. Her exclamation--
+
+  "I wed with thee! I, bound by precontract
+   Your bride, your bondslave!"
+
+was scarcely uttered with the scorn which such a girl would throw into
+the words if her heart went with them.
+
+The rest of the play proceeded well, the Prince following up his
+advantage until his last words--
+
+  "Accomplish thou my mandhood and thyself;
+   Lay thy sweet hands in mine and trust to me,"
+
+brought down the house with ringing applause.
+
+The curtain fell and rose again. The Prince and Princess stood with
+hands clasped. The eyes of the conquered Princess looked again at the
+people in the gallery, but the eyes she wanted to see did not meet
+hers.
+
+An hour later Maggie Oliphant had occasion to go back to the forsaken
+green-room to fetch a bracelet she had left there. Priscilla was
+standing in the corridor when she passed. Quick as lightning Prissie
+disappeared, and, making her way into the library, which was thrown
+open for a general reception that evening, sought out Hammond, and,
+taking his hand, said abruptly:
+
+"I want you; come with me."
+
+In surprise he followed her into the hall.
+
+"Maggie is in the green-room. Go to her," said Priscilla.
+
+He raised his brows; his eyes seemed to lighten and then grow dark.
+They asked Priscilla a thousand questions; his lips refused to ask
+one.
+
+Replying to the look in his eyes, Priscilla said again: "It is cruel
+of you to leave her alone. Go to her; she is waiting for you-- and oh,
+I know that her heart has been waiting for you for a long, long time."
+
+"If I thought that," said Hammond's eyes.
+
+He turned without a word and went down the long corridor which led to
+the little theater.
+                               _______
+
+Late that evening, after all the bustle and excitement were over and
+most of the guests had left, Miss Heath was standing in her own
+sitting-room talking to Prissie.
+
+"And you have quite made up your mind, Prissie?"
+
+"Yes," answered Priscilla. "I heard from Aunt Raby to-day; she told me
+all about Mr. Hammond's visit, for Mr. Hayes went to see her and told
+her everything."
+
+"Well, Prissie," said Miss Heath, "what have you decided? It is a
+great chance for you, and there is nothing wrong in it; indeed, for
+aught we can tell, this may be the direct guiding of Providence."
+
+"But I don't think it is," said Priscilla in a slow voice. "I have
+thought it all over very carefully, and I don't think the chance
+offered by dear Maggie would be a good one for me."
+
+"Why not, my dear? Your reasons must be strong when you say this."
+
+"I don't know if they are strong," answered Priscilla, "but they are
+at least decided. My father and mother were poor and independent. Aunt
+Raby is very poor and also independent. I fancy that were I rich in
+comparison, I might cease to be independent. The strong motive power
+might go. Something might be taken out of me which I could never get
+back, so I----" Her lips trembled.
+
+"Pause a minute, Prissie; remember what Maggie offers, a sufficient
+income to support your aunt, to educate your sisters and to enable you
+to pursue those studies at St. Benet's for which you have the greatest
+talent. Think of the honors that lie before you; think how brilliantly
+you may pass your tripos examination with your mind at rest."
+
+"That's not the point," said Priscilla. There was a ring in her voice
+which she must have inherited from a long line of rugged, proud but
+worthy ancestors. "In a question of this kind, I ought never to
+content myself with looking at the brilliant and tempting side.
+Forgive me, Miss Heath. I may have done wrong after all; but, right or
+wrong, I have made my resolve. I will keep my independence."
+
+"Have you considered your Aunt Raby in this?"
+
+"She has put herself absolutely out of the question by declining all
+aid as far as she is concerned. She says such assistance would kill
+her in a week. If I can earn money to help her before she dies, she
+will accept it from me with thankfulness, but from no one else."
+
+"Then you will give up your Latin and Greek?"
+
+"For the present, I must."
+
+"And you are quite happy?"
+
+"If Maggie and Mr. Hammond will only marry one another, I shall be one
+of the happiest girls in the world."
+
+There came a knock at the door. Priscilla opened it.
+
+"Prissie, darling!" said Maggie Oliphant's voice. She flung her arms
+round the young girl's neck and kissed her several times.
+
+"It's all right, Priscilla," said Hammond.
+
+Miss Heath made a step or two forward.
+
+"Come and tell Miss Heath," said Prissie. "Miss Heath, here is Maggie!
+Here is dear Maggie and here is Mr. Hammond, and it is all right."
+Tears of gladness filled Priscilla's eyes. She went up to Hammond,
+took one of his hands in both her own and said in a voice of rapture,
+"I did help you to-night, didn't I? You know I said I would do
+anything in the world for you."
+
+"You have done everything for me, Priscilla," replied Hammond. "I
+shall bless you while I live."
+
+Maggie Oliphant's arms were round Miss Heath's neck; her head rested
+against her breast. "We have come straight to you," she said; "you
+told me that if such an occasion came, you would act as a mother to
+me."
+
+"So I can and so I will, dear child. God bless you. You are happy
+now."
+
+"Happy!" Maggie's eyes were glistening through the softest rainbow of
+tears. Hammond came and took the hand which she had suddenly thrown at
+her side.
+
+"We both owe everything to Priscilla," he said.
+
+ CONCLUSION
+
+BEFORE Maggie Oliphant left St. Benet's she brought some of the honor
+which had long been expected from her to the dearly loved halls: she
+took a first class in her tripos examination. With her mind at rest, a
+great deal of the morbidness of her character disappeared, and her
+last term at St. Benet's reminded the students who had known her in
+Annabel Lee's time of the old, brilliant and happy Maggie. Miss
+Oliphant's bad half-hours became rarer and rarer, and Hammond laughed
+when she spoke to him of them and said that she could not expect him
+to believe in their existence.
+
+Shortly after the conclusion of the summer term Maggie and Hammond
+were married, and her little world at St. Benet's had to get on
+without the presence which had always exerted the influence of a
+strong personality and which had been potent both for good and evil.
+
+By this time, however, a girl whose personal charms were few, whose
+poverty was apparent and whose gaucherie was even now often extreme,
+was more than filling the place left vacant by Maggie. Extreme
+earnestness, the sincerity of a noble purpose, the truthfulness of a
+nature which could not stoop to deceit, was spreading an influence on
+the side of all that was good and noble. No girl did more honor to
+Heath Hall than she who, at one time, was held up to derision and
+laughed at as odd, prudish and uninteresting.
+
+Every one prophesied well for Priscilla in the future which lay before
+her; her feet were set in the right direction; the aim of her life was
+to become-- not learned, but wise; not to build up a reputation, but
+to gain character; to put blessedness before happiness-- duty before
+inclination.
+
+Women like Priscilla live at the root of the true life of a worthy
+nation. Maggie Oliphant had brilliance, beauty, wealth; she had also
+strong personal influence and the power of creating love wherever she
+went; but, when Priscilla Peel leaves St. Benet's, she will be more
+missed than was Maggie.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A SWEET GIRL GRADUATE ***
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