CHAPTER IV
A STORMY DAY
'Alack-a-day, what tears we mingle! For trouble ne'er, I wot, came single.'
Though Gorswen was the most quiet little country spot you could find, itlay only four miles away from Warford, a rising inland watering-place,which boasted not only a Mayor and Corporation, but a pump-room andconcert-hall, and had a large and fleeting population of visitors, and,to judge by its growing suburbs, an ever-increasing number of residents.
Lilian and Peggy attended the Warford High School, and Bobby the GrammarSchool. It was not quite what Father would have wished for them, for hehad been a Rugby boy himself, but it was the best he could afford; andcertainly the education was excellent, though the pupils were decidedlymixed. Still, as Aunt Helen said, 'You have no need to copy the mannersof the children you meet. You have been taught at home to behave likegentlepeople, so please to remember you are Vaughans, and keep up thecredit of the family.'
Every morning at eight o'clock the little governess-car and Pixie, thesteady black pony, stood ready at the side gate, and the trio jogged offto school with their lesson-books and their luncheons in theirsatchels. David could not be spared to go with them, but all thechildren had been taught to drive, and even Bobby had a firm hand on thereins, and knew the rules of the road as well as many a more experiencedcoachman; and I think, too, that Pixie had a sense of herresponsibilities, and could be trusted not to get the wheel locked witha passing waggon, or to race too furiously down a steep hill, whateverfeats her drivers might urge her to perform. The pony and trap were putup for the day at a quiet little inn midway between the two schools, andwere always waiting for the children by a quarter past four, when, likethe traditional donkey, they joyfully turned their noses towards homeagain.
On one special Monday morning in May Peggy got out of bed in thatpeculiar frame of mind which Father charitably called 'highly strung,'and Nancy broadly defined as 'having black dog on your back.' To beginwith, it was wet. Not that Peggy minded rain in the least, but if itwere fine Mr. Vaughan had intended to go over to a great cattle fairwhich was to be held that day at Shrewsbury, and had promised to bringher home a guinea-pig. 'And now he won't go,' she thought dismally, 'andI shan't have the chance of another until Warford Agricultural Show inthe autumn.'
Peggy hated Monday mornings. After the delightful freedom of Saturdayand Sunday at home it was always doubly hard to return to school, andthe time until next Friday afternoon seemed an endless prospect. All thenastiest lessons, Peggy thought, came on Mondays--grammar andarithmetic, dates and French verbs, and all those horrid fussy thingswhich take a great deal of learning without being specially interestingin themselves.
On this particular morning the children were late for school, for Pixiehad cast a shoe upon the road, and Lilian had been obliged to drive soslowly that the church clock was chiming a quarter past nine as Peggyopened her classroom door.
It is rather an ordeal to walk late into a schoolroom full of thirtygirls, and the slightly nervous feeling had the unfortunate effect ofmaking Peggy march in with a don't-care look on her face, and shut thedoor with a bang.
Miss Crossland glared at her through her eyeglasses.
'If you are so careless as to be late, Margaret Vaughan,' she remarked,'the least you can do is to come in quietly without disturbing theclass.'
Rather crestfallen, Peggy threaded her way to her place, and took outher arithmetic books.
'Which sum are you doing?' she whispered to her desk-mate, EmilyThompson; but Emily judiciously pretended not to hear, for she did notwish to waste valuable time in giving Peggy information. She was rathera pretty girl. Her light flaxen hair and pale, fair complexion gave hera smooth, shining appearance, and somehow Peggy always thought hermanners were smooth and shining too, for she had a way of wriggling outof any little difficulty and unpleasantness, so that the blame restedupon other people, and was always ready to take a mean advantage, orplay some of those little underhand tricks which schoolgirls know onlytoo well.
Peggy's frank, downright nature held Emily in much contempt, and, as shemade no effort to conceal her opinion, the dislike was mutual, and akind of undeclared war existed between the two. It was unfortunate forPeggy that the third form classroom was furnished with double desks, foras Miss Crossland would permit no changing of places, she was obligedto sit by her enemy for the rest of the term, to their equal discomfortand annoyance.
The lesson dragged on wearily for awhile, till they were disturbed by atap at the door, and a small girl from one of the lower classes entered,full of importance at her errand.
'If you please, Miss Crossland,' she piped, 'Miss Martin would like tospeak to you for a moment in the library.'
Miss Crossland looked annoyed; she disliked being interrupted in herclasses, but the head-mistress's request could not be disobeyed.
'Very well, Gertrude,' she replied coldly; then, turning to her class:'Girls, I must leave you for a few minutes. I trust you to continue yourarithmetic in silence during my absence. Not a word must be spoken whileI am out of the room.'
For so long indeed as her footsteps echoed in the passage her pupilsobeyed her order, but the moment she might reasonably be believed to beout of earshot a low murmur began among the little heads bent sodiscreetly over the arithmetic books. No one attempted to do any work;sweets and apples appeared mysteriously from within desks, andsurreptitious bites were offered to appreciative neighbours. One daringspirit even mounted the platform, and waved the pointer in supposedimitation of Miss Crossland's majestic style.
'What made you so late, Peggy?' asked Nora Pemberton in the intervals ofecstatic delight over a white mouse, hidden away in a desk-mate'slunchbox.
'Couldn't help it,' replied Peggy, with her mouth full of chocolate.'Pixie lost a shoe, and we thought she would go lame, so we almostcrawled along; and when we got her in, we had to tell them to be sureand have her shod by four o'clock, and of course it all takes time.'
'I wish I drove to school every day,' said Sissie Wilson, a delicatelooking girl who lived in the heart of the town.
'You wouldn't like it when it was wet,' said Peggy. 'And if it's frostyone's hands get just numb holding the reins, though it's jolly enough insummer. We have to start ever so early, too, to be here by nine.'
'Well, I only wish I had the chance,' grumbled the envious Sissie; butshe was interrupted by a warning 'Hush! Miss Crossland!'
In a moment thirty hair-ribbons were bent over thirty desks, and thirtydemure young ladies were adding up figures with the utmost care andattention.
Miss Crossland looked at them suspiciously; perhaps ten years ofteaching had caused her to mistrust such amazing diligence.
'Has any girl spoken during my absence?' she inquired sharply.
No one replied. Peggy's face flushed, and her conscience gave her asharp twinge. A Vaughan must never have anything to do with the leastlittle bit of an untruth, so she stood bravely up in her place.
'I spoke, Miss Crossland,' she admitted.
'And I too,' said Nora Pemberton.
Nobody else followed Peggy's example. Sissie Wilson bit the end of herpencil in abstruse calculation, Emily Thompson was deep in the pages ofher arithmetic, while most of the girls were adding up columns as if fordear life.
Miss Crossland looked grave.
'Very well, Margaret and Nora,' she said, 'I must give you each abad-conduct mark, and shall expect you both to stay after four o'clockthis afternoon.'
The tears rose to Peggy's eyes at the injustice.
'What a mean set they are!' she said to herself. 'I'm sure MissCrossland might have known they had been talking too; but she is alwaysdown upon me.'
She opened her desk, and searched for a fresh pencil to hide hertell-tale face, and somehow (she really did not mean it, but perhaps hertears blinded her) the desk-lid slid from her fingers, and fell downwith an awful crash, which rang through the whole room.
'Take another bad-conduct mark, Margaret Vaughan,' said the calm
voiceof Miss Crossland. 'You must learn not to show temper when you arereproved.'
Poor Peggy groaned. Every bad-conduct mark meant six sums to be workedout when school was over. She and Lilian had been very anxious to gethome early that afternoon, for they had meant to sow seeds in thegarden; and Father was always angry if they kept Bobby waiting, for hedid not like him to be loitering about the inn-yard listening to thetalk of the stable-boys.
But Miss Crossland was writing a problem upon the blackboard in compoundproportion. 'If a hen and a half lay an egg and a half in a day and ahalf, how many eggs can four hens lay in six days?'
'What a stupid sum!' thought Peggy. 'How could there be a hen and ahalf? I don't know the least how to state it. Is the answer to come outin hens or eggs or days?'
She put down a few random figures, then her thoughts wandered off to thebrown speckled hen at home, and she wondered if the little chicks wouldhatch out to-day, and whether Nancy would remember to go and see, andput the dear fluffy yellow things in a basket before the kitchen fire.
'Your answer, Margaret?' said Miss Crossland. But Peggy's mind was sofar away in the Abbey barn that she did not at once hear her.
Perhaps Emily Thompson really wished to recall Peggy's wanderingthoughts, or perhaps there was just a spice of malice in the action--atany rate, she dug the point of her lead-pencil so sharply into poorPeggy's hand that her astonished victim sat up with a yell.
'_Margaret!_' exclaimed the outraged mistress.
'I couldn't help it!' cried Peggy, grown desperate: 'Emily hurt me so!'
'I'm very sorry, Miss Crossland,' said Emily sweetly. 'I didn't mean tohurt Margaret, only to make her see you were speaking to her.'
'Which would not have been necessary if she had been attendingproperly,' replied the mistress. 'And I must say I think little of anygirl who cannot endure a moment's pain in silence. Read out your answer,Emily, and I will then correct the home-work.'
Peggy heaved a sigh of relief at that. She knew the sums which she hadworked at home on Saturday were correct, for Lilian had gone over themcarefully afterwards, so she opened her book and took up her pencilready to put a triumphant 'R' to each of them.
'Miss Martin has borrowed my Blackie's Arithmetic,' said Miss Crossland,'so I have not the answers here. But read out your results, Bertha Muir,and I shall be able to judge from the general average whether they arecorrect or not.'
'Three hundred and nineteen pounds six and sevenpence,' read outBertha.
'Hands up girls who have got that answer,' said Miss Crossland.
At least twenty out of the thirty hands went up like lightning into theair.
'Right!' ventured the teacher.
Peggy gazed at her sum in amazement. She differed from the answer byseveral figures. Could both she and Lilian have made a mistake? Itseemed impossible, for Lilian was so splendid at arithmetic. But Berthawas reading out the next sum, and the next. To each answer she gave acrowd of uplifted hands agreed with her, and poor Peggy found, to herchagrin, that in every case her figures were not the same. It could notbe that all the ten sums she had taken so much pains over were wrong. Ifso, it meant a very bad mark for arithmetic.
'Oh, Miss Crossland,' she burst out, 'it's not fair! I _know_ my answerswere right. If you would only work them out on the board, you'd soonsee.'
'Margaret Vaughan,' said Miss Crossland sternly, 'I am the best judge inthis matter, and if I have any more trouble with you this morning Ishall send you straight to Miss Martin. I do not allow any girl to speakto me in that tone.'
Though inwardly raging, Peggy was forced to put on an outward appearanceof submission and good behaviour, and the lessons droned on somehowuntil the morning was over. Most of the girls fled, as usual the momentthe class was dismissed; but Peggy stayed behind in the schoolroom totidy her desk and talk to Nora Pemberton, who just at present was herparticular friend among her schoolmates.
'I can't think how it was my sums were all wrong,' she lamented, as sheput away the ill-fated home-lesson book. 'Did you get yours right,Nora?'
'No, wrong, every one; and I had worked them so carefully.'
'Just let me look at your answers. Why, they are exactly like mine! Iknow they are right. How is it all the other girls got the same asBertha?'
'Oh, I can tell you that,' said Nora, 'They all copied her sums, for Isaw them doing it just before school began. You know it was the MilitaryBazaar at the Assembly Rooms on Saturday, and I suppose most of thegirls were there, and had no time to do their home-work, so they justscribbled down Bertha's figures before the bell rang.'
'How unfair! How shamefully mean!' cried Peggy, with flaming cheeks.'Miss Crossland ought to work out those sums.'
'She won't, though. You made her so angry about it this morning, andwhen once she says a thing she sticks to it.'
'She's always hard on me somehow,' sighed Peggy. 'She's been perfectlyhorrible to-day. Why, Nora, what's the matter?'
For Nora had also had a tidy fit, and had been turning out her desk, andshe now drew forth a book with such a very blank and rueful face thatPeggy might well exclaim.
'It's the Literature Notes,' said Nora in an awe-struck voice--'thatbook Miss Martin lent us to copy from, and that vanished so mysteriouslya month ago. Don't you remember what a fearful fuss she made about it,and we were all told to search in our desks? I thought I had lookedquite to the bottom of mine, but there it was, under a pile of oldexercise-books. Whatever shall I do? She will be so dreadfully angrywith me.'
'Why, of course, you'll have to take it back,' said Peggy. 'But,' herlove of mischief getting the upper hand, 'I don't see why we shouldn'thave a little fun with it first. You won't find Miss Martin in thelibrary now, and it would do quite as well at four o'clock, so supposeyou put it inside Mary Hill's desk, just to give her a fright. She'ssuch a goose, she'll give a perfect howl of horror when she finds it,and then we'll pretend to think she must have had it there all the time,and get her into _such_ a state of mind before we tell her.'
Nora laughed, for practical jokes were at a high tide of popularity inthe class, and many were the tricks which the girls played on oneanother.
'I owe Mary something,' she said, 'for she tied my hair-ribbon to theback of the desk on Friday, and when I tried to get up I was held fastby my pigtail.'
'It will be a good way to pay her back, then,' said Peggy. 'See, I'llput it just on the top in front, where she'll find it first thing; butdon't tell a soul till this afternoon, or you'll spoil all the fun.'
The two conspirators ran downstairs laughing, and were soon romping inthe playground. After dinner one of the elder girls suggested rounders,and the game grew so enthralling that time flew by until the bell,ringing for afternoon school, sent the players, hot and rosy with theirexertions, hurrying up the great staircase to their classrooms. As Peggypassed the door of Miss Martin's study she happened to notice Mary Hillcome out of it, with a particularly red and uncomfortable look upon herface.
'What has she been doing there?' thought Peggy; but there was neithertime to inquire Mary's errand nor to carry out her anticipated joke withthe note-book, for the girls were taking their places, and MissCrossland came in a moment afterwards.
She mounted the platform and rang the bell for order, but, instead ofcalling their names as usual, she announced:
'Girls, Miss Martin desires that you should all be present in thelecture-hall, where she wishes to address the whole school. File out inorder, beginning with the top desk on the right.'
Full of astonishment, the girls marched down to the large lecture-hall,where all the classes were assembling, marshalled by their teachers. Itwas evidently a matter of some importance, for it was seldom indeed thatlessons were interrupted in this manner. The girls kept whispering toeach other under their breath:
'Whatever can it all be about? Have you heard anything? Why does shewant us all here?'
But their surmises were soon put an end to by the appearance of MissMartin herself, stately and commanding as usual, a
nd with a grieved lookon her face. She mounted the platform, and with a little sigh turned toher expectant audience.
'Girls,' she began, with an air almost of tragedy, 'a very distressingincident has happened to-day--a circumstance which in all the records ofthis school has never occurred before. You see this book in my hand,'and she held up (oh, luckless Peggy!) the missing note-book. 'This bookof manuscript notes, which I had compiled myself from various sources,and valued greatly, I lent to be copied by the third form. It was lost,and though I caused every search to be made, I could find no trace ofit. Girls, I regret to say that to-day this book has been brought backto school, and _has been placed in another girl's desk_--in the desk, Irepeat, of an innocent girl, who had nothing to do with its loss.'
Miss Martin paused, and a wave of horror passed over the school. As forPeggy, her blood ran cold. It had never struck her before that the actof placing the book in Mary's desk could be open to such a construction.She had meant it all for a joke, and thought Mary would have been thefirst to join in the fun, and then Nora would, of course, have taken itback. She saw now that, while they had still been romping at rounders,Mary must have gone up to the schoolroom, and finding the missing notesin her desk, had carried them at once to the library.
'Oh, why did we not come up sooner?' groaned Peggy. 'Who would ever havethought of Miss Martin taking it like this?'
'I feel,' continued the head-mistress sadly, 'that we have one girlamong us of so dishonourable a nature that she seeks to hide her faultby throwing the blame on to the shoulders of another. Who that girl maybe I cannot tell, but her own conscience must surely convict her.'
She paused again, and her glance passed slowly round the room. Peggy'sface grew burning hot.
'I am determined,' Miss Martin went on, 'to probe this matter to thebottom, and I now call upon any girl who may have any knowledge on thesubject to rise up and tell what she knows.'
Peggy tried to look at Nora, but Nora was several rows behind her. Forone moment she hesitated, and in that moment she was lost. EmilyThompson had risen in her place.
'Well, Emily,' said Miss Martin gravely, 'do you know anything aboutthis unhappy affair?'
'I do, Miss Martin,' replied Emily in a low voice.
'Tell me at once, then,' commanded the head-mistress.
'I would much rather not, please,' said Emily, casting down her eyes.'I don't like getting another girl into trouble.'
'Emily Thompson, this is not the time to shield a companion, and I orderyou to say at once what you know.'
'Well,' said Emily, twisting her slim hands nervously, 'if I must tell,I went back to the schoolroom before dinner for my pencil-box, and,'with a sidelong look at Peggy, 'I noticed Margaret Vaughan putting abook inside Mary Hill's desk.'
The bolt had fallen. Miss Martin turned to Peggy, who, with white andquivering lips, sat as still as if she had been frozen on to the form.
'Is this false or true, Margaret Vaughan?' she asked, in a voice thatwas scarcely more than a whisper.
There were nearly four hundred girls in the room, but you could haveheard a pin drop in the silence. Lilian had risen half up in her place,and was looking at Peggy with eager, expectant face. As for Peggy, shefelt as if the end of the world had come. She could not in truth denythe fact, though of the intention she was absolutely guiltless. She hadnever in her life told a lie, and she summoned all the Vaughan spirit toher aid.
'It's true,' she faltered, trying to speak bravely, but wishing all thetime that she could sink through the floor.
Miss Martin gazed at her for a moment as if dumbfounded.
'That will do,' she said at last. 'I will inquire into this privately.Miss Pope, will you kindly take Margaret Vaughan into the kindergartenclassroom, where she will wait until I come to her? Each form may nowleave the room in turn. We have wasted too much time already.'
Peggy's head was in a whirl. She had a confused idea that Lilian wastrying to come to her across a row of benches, and was being held backby a teacher; but otherwise she scarcely knew what was happening, exceptthat she seemed to be the centre for all the eight hundred eyes in theroom, till Miss Pope took her by the shoulder and marched her away likea warder escorting a very small convict to gaol. The kindergarten babiesdid not return to school in the afternoon, so their little classroom wasempty. Left alone, the poor child flung herself on to one of the lowseats and burst into a passion of tears.
That it should come to this--that she, Peggy Vaughan, who, whatevermight be her faults, had always held such an unstained reputation forhonour and truthfulness, should be deemed capable of such a mean anddiscreditable action seemed too hard to be borne. She felt as if shecould never explain the matter properly, and that the brand of thishorrible affair would remain on her for the rest of her life, bringingdisgrace upon the whole family for her sake. She worked herself upnearly to the point of heartbreak when she thought of what Father andAunt Helen would think about it, and it seemed to her as though the veryCrusaders and the lady and gentleman in the Elizabethan ruffs would lookat her from their tombs in the church next Sunday with grave disapprovalin their eyes.
'It's all my own fault, too,' she thought, 'for Nora wanted to take thatwretched book back at once, and she would have done so if it hadn't beenfor me. I don't think Miss Martin will ever believe me now, when I tellher how it was, and all the girls will think me a mean sneak forevermore.' And her tears flowed down faster and faster as she picturedherself a sort of social outcast in the school, shunned and avoided byeveryone. 'I wonder how long they're going to leave me here?' shethought dismally, as the afternoon wore away and the clock chimedhalf-past three. 'Miss Martin said she was coming after me at once. Oh,if _only_ I could get home, I'd ask Father not to send me to schoolagain. Perhaps Aunt Helen would teach me lessons at home if I beggedhard. I can never bear to face anybody here after all this.'
It really seemed too bad to leave the poor little culprit so long insuspense, for to a child's mind the agony of waiting is often far worsethan the dreaded punishment, and childhood's sorrows are so overwhelmingand hopeless that they almost eclipse those of later years.
Peggy's head was aching, her eyes were red and swollen with crying, anddark despair was settling down upon her, when the door suddenly opened,and Lilian burst in and caught her in a regular bear's hug, while Norafollowed like a perfect whirlwind only a yard behind.
'There, darling! don't cry any more. I _knew_ you couldn't do such amean thing,' said Lilian between her kisses. 'I've been just longing tocome and comfort you, but they wouldn't let me. I rushed off at once totell Miss Martin I was sure it was all a horrible mistake, but she wasengaged with a tiresome caller who had just been shown into the library,and I've been dodging about the corridor all this time waiting to seeher.'
'And so have I,' cried Nora. 'I have been simply dancing with impatienceon the doormat. I know I ought to have told at once, but I was sodreadfully taken aback at it all turning out like that, and you beingaccused, that I could only stand and stare like an idiot while Miss Popemarched you out of the room. Miss Martin's been ever so nice about it,though. She talked a lot about my being careless and our wanting to playtricks on Mary, but she said she was "glad to be able to think as highlyof Margaret Vaughan as she had always done," and we were to go at onceand set you free. She actually kissed us both before we went, didn'tshe, Lilian? Do say you forgive me, Peggy, for I feel as if I had gotyou into all this trouble.'
'Of course I do,' said Peggy warmly, feeling ready to forgive even EmilyThompson in her relief.
'The girls all know about it,' said Nora. 'They're waiting outside inthe playground. They think Emily Thompson was a sneak to go tellingtales like that, without asking you first if you had really done it, andthey're so sorry for you that they say they'll give you a "hooray" whenyou come out.'
But, though all is well that ends well, Peggy was still so tear-stainedand upset that she did not feel equal to facing her school-fellows,however sympathetic they might be, so she escaped with Lili
an throughthe side-door into the street, feeling she would never be really happyor at ease again till she was back in that haven of home where she wasalways appreciated and understood, and pouring out her troubles to AuntHelen in the sanctuary of the Rose Parlour.