"No one could be more honest and truthful than Betty," said Kitty proudly. "She wouldn"t dream of saying I was there if I wasn"t."
"But your father, or your aunt--"
"They were both out," said Kitty. "Anna saw me go to the schoolroom, and saw me begin my lessons, and I never moved until father came to me."
So Anna was called.
"Can you support your cousin"s statement that she was in the schoolroom all the evening, and never once left it?"
Anna was about to say "yes," when she hesitated, and grew very red and confused. "I--I couldn"t say," she stammered, and those listening thought she was embarra.s.sed by her desire to shield Kitty, and at the same time tell the truth. Kitty looked at her with wide, horrified eyes. Surely Anna would say why she could not give the required a.s.surance. But only too soon the conviction was borne in on her that Anna did not mean to tell, and Anna was an adept at saying nothing, yet conveying a stronger impression than if she had said much.
Those looking on read in Kitty"s horrified eyes only a fear of what Anna might admit, and opinion was strengthened against her.
"Speak out frankly, Anna," said Miss Richards encouragingly. "Did you notice her absence?"
"She--a--Kitty wasn"t there once when I went back to the room," murmured Anna, apparently with great reluctance.
Kitty"s head reeled. She could not believe that she had heard aright.
Anna was not only concealing her own guilt, but was actually fastening it on to her. "I think I must be going mad, or going to faint," she thought to herself. "I can"t take in what they are saying."
"But, Anna," she cried, in her extremity forgetting judge and jury, "you know father had come to me with Miss Richards"s letter. I was with him when you came in."
"No," said Anna, with a look of injured innocence, "I didn"t know.
You didn"t tell me. Of course I--I knew you were somewhere," she stammered lamely. "I don"t say you were out of the house, only--well I couldn"t say you were in the room if you weren"t, could I?" with a glance at Miss Richards for approbation, and a half-glance at Kitty, whose gray eyes were full of a scorn that was not pleasant to meet.
Kitty could not speak for a moment, her indignation and disgust were too intense. She felt herself degraded by stooping to ask for evidence as to her own innocence.
Miss Melinda whispered to Miss Richards. Miss Richards looked at Kitty and bade her turn round. Kitty, wondering, obeyed.
"How do you account for the fact that your dress is splashed to the waist with mud?" Miss Richards asked frigidly. "Yesterday was quite fine until after you had all gone home from school, then heavy rain fell."
Poor Kitty. Here was Nemesis indeed! Two days ago that skirt had been put aside to be brushed, and now, to-day, without giving a thought to the mud on it, she had put it on and worn it. With crimsoning cheeks she wheeled around. "That mud has been there for days, Miss Richards,"
she said shamefacedly. "I ought to have brushed it yesterday, but I didn"t, and to-day I forgot it." But she saw and felt that no one believed her, and Betty, the only one who could have borne out her words, was not there.
"You can all go back to your cla.s.ses--all but Katherine Trenire," said Miss Richards, ignoring her speech; and the girls, with looks of sympathy or alarm, filed out, leaving Kitty alone.
"Now, Katherine," said Miss Richards firmly, "be a sensible, honest girl and tell the truth, and my sister and I will consult together as to the punishment we feel we must inflict. We do not wish to be too severe, but such conduct must be punished. Now, tell us the truth."
"I have told the truth," said Kitty proudly, "and I have no more to tell. Lettice can clear me if she likes, so can--the girl who was with her, but I can"t do any more. If you won"t believe me, what can I do?"
and suddenly poor Kitty"s proud eyes filled with tears.
Miss Melinda took this as a sign of relenting. She thought confession was coming, and unbent encouragingly. "There, there, that is better, Katherine. Now be advised by us, and get this dreadful load off your mind. You will be so much happier when you have."
Kitty drove back her tears and her weakness, and her gray eyes grew clear enough to show plainly the hurt and the anger which burnt in her brain as she listened to this insulting cajoling, as she termed it in her own mind.
"How dare you!" she cried indignantly. "How dare you fasten it on to me! I know who the girl was, and she knows that I know, but you _want_ to believe that I did it, and--and you can if you want to. You are both very wicked and unjust, and--and I will never set foot in your house again!" And Kitty, beside herself with indignation, her head very erect, her face white, her eyes blazing, marched out of the room and out of the house, and not even her mud splashes could take from the dignity of her exit.
CHAPTER XII.
THOSE DREADFUL STOCKINGS.
Dr. Trenire was extremely annoyed and very indignant when he heard of the inquiry and the result--so indignant that Kitty"s words came true, and she never did set foot within the doors of Hillside again, for her father removed her, and Betty too, from the school at once. Of course Betty could not continue there after all that had happened.
He did not tell the girls what he thought about the matter, but he told Miss Richards plainly that he considered the inquiry was a prejudiced one, and that an injustice had been done. They had made up their minds that Kitty was guilty, and had not made sufficient inquiries as regarded the other pupils.
Miss Richards was, of course, indignant and greatly upset, and Aunt Pike was in a great dilemma. She scarcely liked to keep Anna at the school after her cousins were withdrawn from it, yet she was very loth to deprive her of the companionship of such desirable friends as she considered she was thrown amongst there. Also, in her heart of hearts, Aunt Pike did not feel at all sure that Kitty was innocent.
"They are such extraordinary children," she said to herself, "I would not be surprised at anything they did--not from bad motives, perhaps, but from sheer ignorance of the difference between right and wrong."
So Anna was to stay on at Hillside, at any rate until the term and the term"s notice should be up; and Miss Pooley came again to teach Kitty and Betty and Tony, greatly to Tony"s delight, for he had been having a dull time, poor little man, and had not found much joy in doing lessons with Aunt Pike.
So the rest of the term wore away, and time healed the wound to some extent; and by-and-by the Christmas holidays drew near and the date of Dan"s return, and that was sufficient to drive unwelcome thoughts from their minds and lighten every trouble.
"When the day comes, the real right day," said Kitty, "I shall be quite perfectly happy--"
"Touch wood," said Betty anxiously; "you know it is unlucky to talk like that. f.a.n.n.y says so."
"Pooh! nonsense!" cried Kitty, growing daring in her excitement.
"What could be lovelier than for Dan to be coming home, and Christmas coming, and the holidays; and oh, Betty, it does seem too good to be true, but it _is_ true, and I am sure nothing could spoil it all."
But Kitty had not touched wood, and had reckoned without Aunt Pike; and even when that lady came into their room with a paper parcel in her hand they suspected no harm--in fact, they looked at the parcel with pleasure and excitement for a moment, even after she had said, "Children, I have got you some winter stockings, and you must put them on at once, the weather has become so cold." They even agreed heartily, and Betty plumped right down on the floor there and then, and bared one foot in readiness by the time the parcel was opened.
And then the parcel was opened, and dismay and horror fell on them, for the stockings were not only of an ugly pale gray, with white stripes going round and round the legs, but they were woollen ones!--rough, harsh, scratchy woollen ones! The colour was bad enough, but that was as nothing compared with the awful fact of their being woolly; for two children with more painfully sensitive skins than Katherine and Elizabeth Trenire could not be found in the whole wide world, and for them to wear anything in the shape of wool was a torture more dreaded than any other.
Betty instinctively drew her pretty bare feet under her for protection, and looked from Aunt Pike to Kitty with eyes full of horror. Kitty was desperate.
"I am very sorry, Aunt Pike," she said, quite gently and nicely, but very emphatically, "but we cannot wear woollen stockings. They drive us nearly mad--"
"Nonsense," interrupted Aunt Pike, with the complete indifference of a person not afflicted with a sensitive skin. "You will get over that in an hour or two. If you don"t think about it you won"t notice anything.
Try them on at once. I want to see if they fit."
"It--it would really be better not to put them on," urged Kitty, "for we really couldn"t wear them if you bought them, aunt, and the people won"t take them back if they are creased."
"They will not be required to take them back," said Mrs. Pike firmly.
"I have bought you six pairs each"--Betty groaned--"Don"t make that noise, Elizabeth--and if they fit they will be kept. They are very fine and quite soft; any one could wear them quite comfortably, and so can you, unless, of course," severely, "you make up your minds not to."
Persons who are not afflicted with sensitive skins cannot, or will not, be made to understand how great and real the torment is, and young though Kitty was, she had, already learned this, and her heart sank.
"I hate light stockings too," said Betty; "they look so ugly with black shoes."
It was an unfortunate remark to make just then.
"Ah," said Aunt Pike triumphantly, "I suspected that vanity was at the bottom of it all! Now try on this one at once, Katherine; make haste."
She went to the door.--"Anthony," she called, "come here to Kitty"s room, I want you," and she stood over the three victims until their poor shrinking legs were encased in the hideous, irritating gray horrors.
Oh, the anger of Kitty and the dismay of Betty! Oh, the horrible, damp, sticky feeling that new stockings seem never to be without!
Betty"s blue eyes filled with tears of helpless misery, Kitty"s gray ones with rebellion. Why should they be tormented in this way? It was so cruel, so unjust! They had not suffered from the cold more than had other people, certainly they had not complained of it--not half as much as had Mrs. Pike and Anna, who were clad in wool from their throats to their toes.