"Hush, my child," said Mrs. Willis very quietly; "try to calm yourself.

Whatever you have got to say shall be listened to later on--now moments are precious, and I cannot attend to you. Calm yourself, Hester, and thank G.o.d for your dear little sister's safety. Prepare yourself to receive her, for the carriage which takes me to Annie will bring little Nan home."

Mrs. Willis left the room, and Hester threw herself on her knees and covered her face with her trembling hands. Presently she was aroused by a light touch on her arm; it was Susan Drummond.

"I may go now I suppose, Hester? You are not quite determined to make a fool of me, are you?"

"I have determined to expose you, you coward; you mean, mean girl!"

answered Hester, springing to her feet. "Come, I have no idea of letting you go. Mrs. Willis won't listen--we will find Mr. Everard."

Whether Susan would really have gone with Heater remains to be proved, but just at that moment all possibility of retreat was cut away from her by Miss Agnes Bruce, who quietly entered Mrs. Willis' private sitting-room, followed by the very man Hester was about to seek.

"I thought it best, my dear," she said, turning apologetically to Hester, "to go at once for our good clergyman; you can tell him all that is in your heart, and I will leave you. Before I go, however, I should like to tell you how I found Annie and little Nan."

Hester made no answer; just for a brief moment she raised her eyes to Miss Agnes' kind face, then they sought the floor.

"The story can be told in a few words, dear," said the little lady. "A workwoman of the name of Williams, whom my sister and I have employed for years, and who lives near Oakley, called on us this morning to apologize for not being able to finish some needlework. She told us that she had a sick child, and also a little girl of three, in her house. She said she had found the child, in ragged gypsy garments, fainting in a field. She took her into her house, and on undressing her, found that she was no true gypsy, but that her face and hands and arms had been dyed; she said the little one had been treated in a similar manner. Jane's suspicions and mine were instantly roused, and we went back with the woman to Oakley, and found, as we had antic.i.p.ated, that the children were little Nan and Annie. The sad thing is that Annie is in high fever, and knows no one. We waited there until the doctor arrived, who spoke very, very seriously of her case. Little Nan is well, and asked for you."

With these last words Miss Agnes Bruce softly left the room closing the door after her.

"Now, Susan," said Hester, without an instant's pause; "come, let us tell Mr. Everard of our wickedness. Oh, sir," she added, raising her eyes to the clergyman's face, "if Annie dies I shall go mad. Oh, I cannot, cannot bear life if Annie dies!"

"Tell me what is wrong, my poor child," said Mr. Everard. He laid his hand on her shoulder, and gradually and skillfully drew from the agitated and miserable girl the story of her sin, of her cowardice, and of her deep, though until now unavailing repentance. How from the first she had hated and disliked Annie; how unjustly she had felt toward her; how she had longed and hoped Annie was guilty; and how, when at last the clue was put into her hands to prove Annie's absolute innocence, she had determined not to use it.

"From the day Nan was lost," continued Hester, "it has been all agony and all repentance; but, oh, I was too proud to tell! I was too proud to humble myself to the very dust!"

"But not now," said the clergyman, very gently.

"No, no; not now. I care for nothing now in all the world except that Annie may live."

"You don't mind the fact that Mrs. Willis and all your schoolfellows must know of this, and must--must judge you accordingly?"

"They can't think worse of me than I think of myself. I only want Annie to live."

"No, Hester," answered Mr. Everard, "you want more than that--you want far more than that. It may be that G.o.d will take Annie Forest away. We cannot tell. With Him alone are the issues of life or death. What you really want, my child, is the forgiveness of the little girl you have wronged, and the forgiveness of your Father in heaven."

Hester began to sob wildly.

"If--if she dies--may I see her first?" she gasped.

"Yes; I will try and promise you that. Now, will you go to your room? I must speak to Miss Drummond alone; she is a far worse culprit than you."

Mr. Everard opened the door for Hester, who went silently out.

"Meet me in the chapel to-night," he whispered low in her ear, "I will talk with you and pray with you there."

He closed the door, and came back to Susan.

All throughout this interview his manner had been very gentle to Hester: but the clergyman could be stern, and there was a gleam of very righteous anger in his eyes as he turned to the sullen girl who leaned heavily against the table.

"This narrative of Hester Thornton's is, of course, quite true, Miss Drummond?"

"Oh, yes; there seems to be no use in denying that," said Susan.

"I must insist on your telling me the exact story of your sin. There is no use in your attempting to deny anything; only the utmost candor on your part can now save you from being publicly expelled."

"I am willing to tell," answered Susan. "I meant no harm; it was done as a bit of fun. I had a cousin at home who was very clever at drawing caricatures, and I happened to have nothing to do one day, and I was alone in Annie's bedroom, and I thought I'd like to see what she kept in her desk. I always had a fancy for collecting odd keys, and I found one on my bunch which fitted her desk exactly. I opened it, and I found such a smart little caricature of Mrs. Willis. I sent the caricature to my cousin, and begged of her to make an exact copy of it. She did so, and I put Annie's back in her desk, and pasted the other into Cecil's book. I didn't like Dora Russell, and I wrapped up the sweeties in her theme; but I did the other for pure fun, for I knew Cecil would be so shocked; but I never guessed the blame would fall on Annie. When I found it did, I felt inclined to tell once or twice, but it seemed too much trouble and, besides, I knew Mrs. Willis would punish me, and, of course, I didn't wish that.

"Dora Russell was always very nasty to me, and when I found she was putting on such airs, and pretending she could write such a grand essay for the prize, I thought I'd take down her pride a bit. I went to her desk, and I got some of the rough copy of the thing she was calling 'The River,' and I sent it off to my cousin, and my cousin made up such a ridiculous paper, and she hit off Dora's writing to the life, and, of course, I had to put it into Dora's desk and tear up her real copy. It was very unlucky Hester being in the room. Of course I never guessed that, or I wouldn't have gone. That was the night we all went with Annie to the fairies' field. I never meant to get Hester into a sc.r.a.pe, nor Annie either, for that matter; but, of course, I couldn't be expected to tell on myself."

Susan related her story in her usual monotonous and sing-song voice.

There was no trace of apparent emotion on her face, or of regret in her tones. When she had finished speaking Mr. Everard was absolutely silent.

"I took a great deal of trouble," continued Susan, after a pause, in a slightly fretful key. "It was really nothing but a joke, and I don't see why such a fuss should have been made. I know I lost a great deal of sleep trying to manage that twine business round my foot. I don't think I shall trouble myself playing any more tricks upon schoolgirls--they are not worth it."

"You'll never play any more tricks on these girls," said Mr. Everard, rising to his feet, and suddenly filling the room and reducing Susan to an abject silence by the ring of his stern, deep voice. "I take it upon me, in the absence of your mistress, to p.r.o.nounce your punishment. You leave Lavender House in disgrace this evening. Miss Good will take you home, and explain to your parents the cause of your dismissal. You are not to see _any_ of your schoolfellows again. Your meanness, your cowardice, your sin require no words on my part to deepen their vileness.

Through pure wantonness you have cast a cruel shadow on an innocent young life. If that girl dies, you indeed are not blameless in the cause of her early removal, for through you her heart and spirit were broken. Miss Drummond, I pray G.o.d you may at least repent and be sorry. There are some people mentioned in the Bible who are spoken of as past feeling. Wretched girl, while there is yet time, pray that you may not belong to them. Now I must leave you, but I shall lock you in. Miss Good will come for you in about an hour to take you away."

Susan Drummond sank down on the nearest seat, and began to cry softly; one or two pin-p.r.i.c.ks from Mr. Everard's stern words may possibly have reached her shallow heart--no one can tell. She left Lavender House that evening, and none of the girls who had lived with her as their schoolmate heard of her again.

CHAPTER L.

THE HEART OF LITTLE NAN.

For several days now Annie had lain unconscious in Mrs. Williams' little bedroom; the kind-hearted woman could not find it in her heart to send the sick child away. Her husband and the neighbors expostulated with her, and said that Annie was only a poor little waif.

"She has no call on you," said Jane Allen, a hard-featured woman who lived next door. "Why should you put yourself out just for a sick la.s.s?

and she'll be much better off in the workhouse infirmary."

But Mrs. Williams shook her head at her hard-featured and hard-hearted neighbor, and resisted her husband's entreaties.

"Eh!" she said, "but the poor lamb needs a good bit of mothering, and I mis...o...b.. me she wouldn't get much of that in the infirmary."

So Annie stayed, and tossed from side to side of her little bed, and murmured unintelligible words, and grew daily a little weaker and a little more delirious. The parish doctor called, and shook his head over her; he was not a particularly clever man, but he was the best the Williamses could afford. While Annie suffered and went deeper into that valley of humiliation and weakness which leads to the gate of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, little Nan played with Peggy Williams, and accustomed herself after the fashion of little children to all the ways of her new and humble home.

It was on the eighth day of Annie's fever that the Misses Bruce discovered her, and on the evening of that day Mrs. Willis knelt by her little favorite's bed. A better doctor had been called in, and all that money could procure had been got now for poor Annie; but the second doctor considered her case even more critical, and said that the close air of the cottage was much against her recovery.

"I didn't make that caricature; I took the girls into the fairies' field, but I never pasted that caricature into Cecil's book. I know you don't believe me, Cecil; but do you think I would really do anything so mean about one whom love? No, No! I am innocent! G.o.d knows it. Yes, I am glad of that--G.o.d knows it."

Over and over in Mrs. Willis' presence these piteous words would come from the fever-stricken child, but always when she came to the little sentence "G.o.d knows I am innocent," her voice would grow tranquil, and a faint and sweet smile would play round her lips.

Late that night a carriage drew up at a little distance from the cottage, and a moment or two afterward Mrs. Willis was called out of the room to speak to Cecil Temple.

"I have found out the truth about Annie; I have come at once to tell you," she said; and then she repeated the substance of Hester's and Susan's story.

"G.o.d help me for having misjudged her," murmured the head-mistress; then she bade Cecil "good-night" and returned to the sick-room.