Angela looked from one to the other and shook her head mournfully. "I expect it was," she said. "It sounds exactly like it."
"Oh, yes," continued Jean, cheerfully. "I _know_, because a cousin of mine had something that was catching once, and she nearly lost her sight through it, and she"s had to wear spectacles ever since, and her eyes are all red and shiny, and she looks a hideous sight. I expect that was scarlet fever too."
Angela shuddered, and quite closed her eyes that time. Her two comforters looked at each other expressively.
"Poor Angela!" said Jean, stroking her forehead. "It"s awful hard lines that you should be the one to catch it."
"Oh, never mind about that," answered the victim, meekly. "I"m glad it"s me and not you."
"Lots of people don"t die, you know," added Barbara, taking hold of her hand and waggling it up and down in a way that was intended to express sympathy.
"N--no," said Angela, with some reluctance; "but lots of people do.
Anyhow, I hope I shall be brave, whatever happens." And she stifled a sigh.
"Of course you will," said Jean, warmly. "_We_ know that!"
"If--if this should be the last time we are together before they separate us," continued Angela, opening her eyes again and looking up at them appealingly, "you _will_ remember, won"t you, that----"
The door opened and put an abrupt stop to her pathetic last request. The triumvirate, still clasping hands affectionately, looked round and met the astonished gaze of the head-mistress.
"What"s the matter with Angela?" she inquired briskly.
Angela closed her eyes again hastily. The other two prepared valiantly to defend her position.
"She"s got a headache and a sore throat, and she"s feverish," answered Jean, glibly.
"She thinks she"s got it," added Babs, coming straight to the point.
They fully expected Miss Finlayson to do something startling to show her concern at the approaching peril of Angela; but Miss Finlayson merely smiled.
"Oh, so that"s what she thinks, is it?" she observed. "And may I ask if that is why you have chosen this particular moment to hang over her more closely than usual?"
The triumvirate loosed hands, and Miss Finlayson came and looked very sharply at the unconscious features of the sufferer; then she suddenly whipped a thermometer out of her pocket and into the open mouth before her. Angela sat up in dismay, and tried to protest; but Miss Finlayson smiled again and pressed her gently back.
"You mustn"t speak, or we shall not be able to find out your temperature,"
she said, and Angela put on a resigned air, and suffered in silence.
"Now," continued the head-mistress, pleasantly, "we can have a few minutes" conversation, while we are waiting to discover whether Angela has scarlet fever or not. To begin with, I want to ask you if you remembered, when you went out of bounds last Thursday, that you were abusing the trust I had placed in you? Recollect!--I do not keep policemen at every corner to spy over you when you are left to yourselves, but I do put you on your honour not to do anything you know I have forbidden. Did you think of this, Jean?"
Jean reddened and looked down.
"No, I didn"t," she blurted out. "I forgot all about the bounds, at first, and I only thought you would like us to feed the poor, and it was such a grand opportunity. And then, afterwards----"
"Yes--afterwards?" said Miss Finlayson, encouragingly, as Jean hesitated.
"Afterwards, when I saw that woman look like she did, I never thought of you or anything," she muttered with an effort; and she was very red indeed by the time she had finished.
Miss Finlayson took her hand and held it between her own, and then turned to Barbara.
"Was that your reason too, Babs?" she asked.
"No, it wasn"t," answered Babs, without hesitation. "I did remember about going out of bounds directly we climbed over the gate; but I saw the other two had forgotten, so I didn"t say anything."
The thermometer nearly fell out of Angela"s mouth from surprise at this amazing admission; and Jean felt compelled to say something in Barbara"s defence.
"You see, the boy was crying so," she interrupted anxiously; "and I suppose Babs thought----"
"Hush!" said the head-mistress, softly; "I want Babs to tell me what she thought."
Barbara was almost as red as Jean by this time. "I didn"t think about the boy, or the poor, or anything," she confessed; "but I wanted to see whether the lane did lead to the enchanted grotto, where the beautiful princess----"
She paused, because she remembered just in time that n.o.body ever understood about those things. Miss Finlayson was watching her carefully.
"And did it?" she asked quietly.
"Oh no," said Barbara; "it was _horrible_ when it got round the corner."
Miss Finlayson nodded, and smiled her own mysterious smile. Then she took the thermometer out of Angela"s mouth.
"And what was your reason, Angela?" she asked.
"I don"t know," said Angela, rather foolishly. "Jean said "Come on!" and we"d promised to share the first opportunity that came; and Babs went, and so of course I went too."
Miss Finlayson looked relieved. "You have made me feel much happier, children," she said, "because I see now that you did not realise what you were doing, and that your own reasons seemed good enough to you at the time. If I thought I could not trust to your honour any more, I should be most unhappy. Do you think you understand?"
The triumvirate looked very thoughtful. Angela, who seemed to have forgotten all about her alarming symptoms, was the first to speak.
"I suppose I ought to have found out whether the others were right before I followed them," she said.
Miss Finlayson nodded.
"And we ought to have made sure we were right ourselves before we let her follow us, because Angela always follows," added Jean.
Miss Finlayson nodded again.
Barbara roused herself and shook back her hair. "I was the worst," she said impetuously. "I did remember about the bounds, and the others didn"t until afterwards. But I forgot about the honour part, truthfully!"
"Yes," answered the head-mistress; "you were the worst, Babs; and you soon found out that the lane did not lead to the enchanted grotto, didn"t you? Now, what we can all see very clearly from this conversation is that we must think a little more carefully in future before we do things. The rules in my school are made for people who _think_, and not for people who have to be told whether a thing is right or wrong. People of that kind are not the people for me. Are you going to let me trust you again in future, children?"
There was no doubt whatever from their faces that they thought she might; but Babs still wanted something cleared up.
"Was the Canon"s sermon all wrong, then?" she asked in her straightforward manner. Jean and Angela looked at the head-mistress nervously; but Miss Finlayson did not seem to mind.
"The Canon"s sermon was rather like my rules," she pointed out; "and it was meant for people who think. It is no use being unselfish in a thoughtless kind of way, or else you do as much harm as most people do by being selfish. I want you to try very hard to put lots of thought and cleverness into your good deeds all your life, so that by the time you are grown up your good deeds will be really worth doing. Then you will be able to carry out properly what the Canon told you; for, to tell the truth, the Canon"s sermon was rather meant for grown-up thinking, and perhaps that is why you misunderstood it. But children"s thinking is worth just as much in its own way; don"t forget that, little girls."
She jumped up and kissed them all round, then glanced hastily at her watch. "It strikes me," she said gravely, "that if somebody looks out of the window in five minutes" time, somebody will see something in the garden."
She was just going out of the room, when an exclamation from Barbara called her back. "Why," she said, "you haven"t told us about Angela"s scarlet fever yet!"