Prudence sat down and leaned her elbows on the table, her chin in her palms. "I met Miss Allen to-day," she said, closely observing the faces of the twins. A significant glance flashed between them, and they stiffened instantly.
"She"s very pretty and sweet, isn"t she?" continued Prudence.
"Yes, very," agreed Lark without any enthusiasm.
"Such pretty hair," added Carol dispa.s.sionately.
"She must be very popular with the scholars," suggested Prudence.
"Yes, most of them are fond of her," a.s.sented Lark.
"She has rather winsome manners, I think," said Carol.
"Which of your professors do you like best?" queried Prudence.
"Duck," they answered unanimously, and with brightening faces.
"Why?"
"Because he is a duck," said Carol, and they all laughed. But Prudence returned to the charge without delay.
"Do you like Miss Allen?" She was going through these questions with such solemnity that the twins" suspicions had been aroused right at the start. What had Miss Allen told their sister? Again that significant flash from twin to twin.
"She certainly has very likeable ways," said Lark shrewdly.
"But do you like her?" insisted Prudence.
"I would like her very much under ordinary circ.u.mstances," admitted Carol.
"What is unusual about the circ.u.mstances?" Prudence wanted to know.
"Look here, Prudence, what did Miss Allen tell you? Was she complaining about us? We"ve been very nice and orderly, I"m sure."
Lark was aggrieved.
"She wasn"t complaining. She likes you both. But she says you do not like her. I want to know why."
"Well, if you must know, Miss Allen is a heretic," snapped Lark.
Then Prudence leaned back in her chair and gazed at the flushed faces of the twins for two full minutes.
"A--a--a what?" she e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, when power of speech returned to her.
"Heretic," said Carol with some relish. "A heretic! You know what heresy is, don"t you? We"ll tell you all about it if you like, now you"ve got things started."
"We didn"t tell you before because we thought you and father would feel badly about sending us to school to a heretic. But don"t you worry,--Miss Allen hasn"t influenced us any."
"We haven"t given her a chance," said Carol, with her impish smile.
"Go on," begged Prudence. "Tell me. You"re both crazy, I see that.
But tell me!"
"Well," began Lark, for Carol always relegated the story-telling to her more gifted twin, "we"ve suspected Miss Allen right from the start.
They used to have Bible reading every morning in school, one chapter, you know, and then the Lord"s prayer. After the first week, Miss Allen dropped it. We thought that was a--a suspicious circ.u.mstance."
"Phenomenally so," said Carol darkly.
"But we kept our suspicions to ourselves, and we didn"t come across anything else for several days. We wouldn"t condemn anybody on--on circ.u.mstantial evidence, Prue. We"re very fair-minded, you know."
"In spite of being twins," added Carol.
"What"s that got to do with it?" Prudence inquired, frowning at Carol.
"Oh, nothing," admitted Carol, driven into a corner. "I just wanted to make it emphatic."
"Go on, Lark."
"Well, there"s a girl at school named Hattie Simpson. You do not know her, Prue. We don"t a.s.sociate with her. Oh, yes, we like her very well, but she isn"t parsonage material."
"She"s a goat," put in Carol. "You needn"t frown, Prue, that"s Bible!
Don"t you remember the sheep and the goats? I don"t know now just what it was they did, but I know the goats were very--very disreputable characters!"
"Go on, Lark."
"Well, her folks are atheists, and she"s an atheist, too. You know what an atheist is, don"t you? You know, Prue, Mount Mark is a very religious town, on account of the Presbyterian College, and all, and it seems the Simpsons are the only atheists here. Hattie says people look down on her terribly because of it. She says the church folks consider them, the Simpsons, that is, the dust on their shoes, and the crumbs off the rich man"s table. She got that terribly mixed up, but I didn"t correct her."
"I think she did very well for an atheist," said Carol, determined not to be totally overlooked in this discussion.
"What has all this to do with Miss Allen?"
"Well, one day Hattie was walking home from school with us, and she was telling us about it,--the dust on their shoes, etc.,--and she said she liked Miss Allen better than anybody else in town. I asked why. She said Miss Allen believed the same things the Simpsons believe, only Miss Allen daren"t say so publicly, or they would put her out of the school. She said Miss Allen said that most church members were hypocrites and drunkards and--and just generally bad, and the ones outside the church are nearly always good and moral and kind. She said Miss Allen joined the Presbyterian church here because most of the school board are Presbyterians. She said Miss Allen said she didn"t care if people were Catholics or Jews or atheists or--or just ordinary Protestants, so long as they were kind to one another, and went about the world doing good works. And that"s why Miss Allen wouldn"t read the Bible and say the Lord"s prayer in school."
"What do you think of that?" demanded Carol. "Isn"t that heresy?
She"s as bad as the priest and Levite, isn"t she?"
"Did you ask Miss Allen about it?"
"No, indeed, we"ve just ignored Miss Allen ever since. We have watched her as closely as we could since then, to see if we could catch her up again. Of course she has to be careful what she says in school, but we found several strong points against her. It"s a perfectly plain case, no doubt about it."
"And so you went among the other freshmen influencing them, and telling tales, and criticizing your----"
"No indeed, Prue, we wouldn"t! But you know it says in the Bible to beware of false doctrines and the sowers of bad seed,--or something like that--"
"And we bewared as hard as we could!" grinned Carol.
"We have tried to explain these things to the other freshmen so Miss Allen could not lead them into--into error. Oh, that"s Christian Science, isn"t it? Well, Minnie Carlson is a Christian Scientist and she talks so much about falling into error that--honestly----"
"We can"t tell error from truth any more," interjected Carol neatly.
"And so I hope you won"t punish us if we accidentally vary from the truth once in a while."