Boarding schools -- England -- Juvenile fiction; Girls -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction
On the day before Annie sailed to Canada she was seated in a London
hotel. All the packing had been done. There were really no farewells
to make. Mabel Lushington had never written to her from the day she had
left Zermatt Lady Lushington had doubtless also forgotten her existence.
Her school friends, if they thought of Annie Brooke at all, must think
of her as one whose name should be spoken with bated breath, who was
deceitful, who had gone far astray, and who had finally left her native
land because it was best for her to turn her back on England. There was
no one for Annie to say farewell to, unless indeed, Priscilla Weir. But
she and Priscilla had never been real friends, and was it likely that
Priscilla would think of her now? It made her head ache--for she was
not nearly as strong as before her illness--even to try to remember
Priscilla. She pressed her hand to her forehead. She and John Saxon
and her other friends were to start early on the following day.
Just at that moment the room door was opened. The light had not yet
been turned on. The days were a little dusky. A tall girl came
hurriedly forward. She came straight up to Annie where she sat, dropped
on one knee, and took one of her little, cold hands.
"Annie--Annie Brooke," she said; "I am Priscilla. Have you nothing to
say to me?"
Annie looked at her, at first with a sort of terror, then with a
softened expression in her blue eyes; then all of a sudden they kindled,
there was a smile round her lips, and a radiation spread itself over her
wan little face. She flung her arms round Priscilla.
"Oh! Did you know I was going? Have you come to say good-bye?"
"I only heard it to-day from Mr Saxon," said Priscilla. "Yes, I have
come to kiss you, and to tell you that I, in spite of everything, love
you."
"You can't," said Annie. "You don't know."
"I know everything, Annie. Annie, we have both been in deep waters; we
have both sinned, and God has forgiven us both."
"I am going away," said Annie restlessly. "When I am in another country
I won't hear that awful text echoing so often."
"What text, Annie?"
"`Be sure your sin will find you out.'"
"But it did find you out," said Priscilla; "and that was the very best
thing that could have happened, because then you turned to God; you
could not help yourself; and God, who is infinite in His compassion,
forgave you."
"Oh, do you think so--do you think so?" said Annie, beginning to sob.
"Priscie, I promised him--my angel uncle, my more than father--to meet
him in the home where he is now. Oh Priscie! can I--can I?"
"You will meet him," said Priscilla, with conviction.
"But, Priscie, do you quite know everything?" Annie, as she spoke,
still kept her arms round Priscilla's neck, and her words were whispered
in Priscilla's ears. "Do you know all about Susan Martin and the
poems?"
"Yes," said Priscilla, "I know. Mr Manchuri is going to help Susan;
only, if possible, I should like to have the manuscript book back."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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