Pixie O'Shaughnessy Part 7

"Ask Miss Phipps, then, if you won't believe me. Oh, I say, look at the icing on the cake! We didn't have icing last time. Doesn't the table look nice? I do think it is sweet of Miss Phipps to take so much trouble. Sit by me, and we will get hold of Pixie, and make her tell us stories. It makes me laugh just to hear that child talk. Her brogue doesn't get a bit better."

"I hope it never may. Pixie, here! Sit by us. We've kept a place!"

But Pixie shook her head, for she had been engaged to Flora ever since breakfast, and was already seating herself at the other end of the table. She did not speak much, however, during the meal, for experience had taught what it had been difficult to express in words--that it was not respectful to her teachers to chatter in their presence, as she would do with her companions. She applied herself instead to the good things that had been provided, and ate away steadily until she had sampled the contents of every plate upon the table, and could superintend the choice of her companions with the wisdom of experience.

Miss Phipps had drawn out a programme of games for the evening's amus.e.m.e.nt, and later on the older pupils took it in turns to play waltzes and polkas, while the others danced. The teachers joined in with the rest, and it was a proud girl who had Miss Phipps for a partner, while Mademoiselle was so light and agile that it was like dancing with a feather, and Fraulein felt like a heavy log lying against one's arm. Then everyone sat down and puffed and panted, while Jeanie, the Scotch girl, danced a Highland Fling, and when Pixie called out an appropriate "Hoch! Hoch!" the teachers laughed as heartily as the girls; for be it well understood there are things which are allowed on term-holiday which the rashest spirit dare not attempt on working days!

Then two pretty sisters went through the stately figures of a minuet, and Margaret sang a song in her sweet voice, p.r.o.nouncing the words so distinctly that you really knew what she was singing about, which nowadays is a very rare and wonderful accomplishment. Altogether it was a most festive evening, and Flora was in the act of remarking complacently, "We really are a most accomplished school!" when suddenly the scene changed, and an expression of horrified anxiety appeared on every face, for Mademoiselle came rus.h.i.+ng into the room, which she had left but a few minutes before, and the tears stood in her eyes, and her face was scarlet with mingled grief and anger. She held in one hand the gold stopper of her precious scent-bottle, and in the other a number of pieces of broken gla.s.s, at sight of which a groan of dismay sounded on every hand.

"_Voila! Regardez_ See what I 'ave found! I go to my room, and the air is full of scent, and I turn up the gas, and there it is--on the dressing-table before my eyes--in pieces! My bottle--that I have kept all these years--that was given to me by my friend--my dear, good friend!"

Her voice broke off in a sob, and Miss Phipps came forward to examine the pieces with an expression of real distress.

"But, Mademoiselle, how has it happened? You found it on the table, you say,--not on the floor. If it had been on the floor, you might perhaps have swept it off in leaving the room, and not heard the sound against the mat. But on the table! How could it be broken on the table?"

"Someone has been touching it and let it drop."

"I be so careless as to break my bottle? It is impossible to think of!

I never come away without a look to see that it is safe. I dust my dressing-table myself every morning, so that no one shall interfere with my things. The servants know that it is so. When I came downstairs this evening it was all right. I have not been upstairs since."

"I think very few of us have. We have been too busy. Ellen would go in, of course, to prepare the bed. Did she--"

"Yes! It was Ellen who told me. I was in the hall, and she came out of the kitchen and said, 'Oh, Mademoiselle, do you know? Your beautiful bottle is broken!'" Mademoiselle's voice broke; she held out the pieces and exclaimed in broken tones, "And I ran--and I saw--this!"

"I am sorry! I am grieved! But we must get to the bottom of this mystery. Things do not fall over and break by themselves. Girls, do any of you know anything about this? If so, please speak out at once, and don't be afraid to tell the truth. If by any chance one of you has unintentionally broken Mademoiselle's bottle, I know you will be as deeply grieved as she can be herself; but the only thing you can do now is to explain, and beg her forgiveness. Carelessness it must have been, and you cannot hope to escape altogether without punishment, but remember deception is fifty times worse. I have no mercy on a girl who knows she is guilty, and lets her companions rest under the shadow of suspicion. Now, I ask you again, do you know anything at all of the cause of this accident?"

There was a unanimous burst of denial from all parts of the room; but different girls took the question in different ways, as was natural to the different characters. Some looked grieved, some indignant, a few showed suspicions of tears, and Pixie looked so thoroughly scared and miserable that more than one eye rested curiously upon her.

Miss Phipps glanced around with her keen, scrutinising glance, then pressed her lips together, and said sharply--

"This becomes serious! You all deny it? Very well, I must find out the truth for myself. Call Ellen, please, Mademoiselle. I am sorry to have such a painful ending to our happy holiday, but we cannot go to bed with this cloud hanging over us. Ellen, Mademoiselle tells me that you found the scent-bottle broken when you went into her room just now to turn down the bed!"

Ellen straightened herself and fumbled miserably with the corner of her ap.r.o.n. She loved all the girls, and had known many of them for years; for though other maids might come and go, Ellen, like the brook, went on for ever. She had been a servant in the Phipps family, and had accompanied "her young lady" when Holly House was bought and the school first founded. Matron, nurse, general factotum, and refuge in time of trouble, it would have been as easy to suspect her of duplicity as Miss Phipps herself. She was wretched now because she feared that her "children" might be in trouble, and her "children" knew it, and loved her for her fear.

"I did, Miss Emily. It was lying just where it usually stands, with the gla.s.s piled up in a little heap."

"It looked, then, as if someone had arranged it so? Not as if it had been, say, blown over by any chance?"

"It couldn't have blown over, Miss Emily! It was too heavy. And it wasn't near the window, either."

"And the pieces, you say, were gathered together, as if someone had placed them so? Very well, I understand! Now, Ellen, have any of the other maids been upstairs to your knowledge since Mademoiselle left her room at seven o'clock?"

"They say they have not, miss, for I asked them, and I've been in the kitchen all the time. We were busy clearing away after tea, and getting the refreshments ready for supper, and then we came and watched the young ladies dance."

"You would have noticed if anyone had gone upstairs?"

"I think I should, being together all the time. They have no work upstairs at this hour--"

"I know that, but I must speak to them myself later on. There is one thing more, Ellen. Your work upstairs takes you a good time. In pa.s.sing to and fro, you didn't happen to see anyone in or near Mademoiselle's room, I suppose? Speak up, please! Remember I rely upon you to do all in your power to help me to get to the bottom of this mystery!"

The last words were added in a warning voice, for Ellen's start of dismay and drawn, miserable brows too plainly betrayed the truth of her mistress's surmise.

"I saw--when I went up first in the middle of the dancing, I was at the end of the pa.s.sage, and I saw little Miss O'Shaughnessy coming out of a room. I couldn't be sure, but I _thought_ it was Mademoiselle's!"

She had said it, and in an instant every eye in the room was riveted upon Pixie, and every heart sank woefully at the sight of her crimson, agitated face. It said much for the hold which she had gained on her companions' affections that at this moment the feeling in every girl's breast was that she would prefer to find the culprit in almost any other girl in the school than in dear, loving, kind-hearted Irish Pixie.

Perhaps Miss Phipps felt the same, but it did not become her to show favouritism, and her voice was very stern and cold.

"Come here, Pixie, please! Stand before me! You have heard what Ellen says! Was it Mademoiselle's room out of which you were coming?"

"It--was, Miss Phipps!" said Pixie, with a gulp; and a groan of dismay sounded through the room, at which Miss Phipps's eyes sent out a flas.h.i.+ng glance.

"Silence, please! Leave this to me! Was it you who let the bottle fall and broke it, then, though you would not acknowledge it when I asked just now?"

Pixie's lips moved, but she seemed so paralysed with fear that she had to repeat her words twice over before they could be heard.

"No, I--I didn't break it, Miss Phipps! I didn't break it!"

"Do you mean to say you know nothing about it? Did you not notice it when you were in the room? May I ask what you were doing in that room at all? You had no business in there."

"I--I--please, Miss Phipps, the gas was down; I didn't see anything!"

"I asked you, Pixie, what you were doing in that room?"

To the dismay of her companions, Pixie hung her head and refused to answer, and, when the question was repeated, had no reason to offer but a stammering, "It was nothing! I was doing nothing!"

"That is nonsense, Pixie; you would not go upstairs and into a strange room, to-night of all nights, without a very definite reason. I insist upon your telling me what you were doing. If it is nothing of which you are ashamed, you need surely not hesitate to speak."

"I wasn't doing anything! I never touched it!" said Pixie once more, and an expression came over her face which was well known to the inhabitants of Bally William, though so far it was unfamiliar to her companions--a dumb, obstinate look which promised little satisfaction to the questioner.

"If you refuse to answer me, Pixie, it is your own fault if I suspect you. You have been with us only a short time, but I have always believed you to be truthful and straightforward. I should be sorry to change my opinion, but you will have yourself to blame!" She paused and looked down at the little black figure, and her face softened regretfully. "You need not look so terrified, child. Mademoiselle is naturally very grieved and distressed, but you know her well enough to be sure that she would forgive you if you have unintentionally broken her pretty bottle. She would be sorry to drive you into telling a falsehood--wouldn't you, Mademoiselle?"

"I shall say nothing to her. My bottle is gone, and it can do no good now. But she had no right to touch my things. My room is my own, and she had no business there at all. I thought you were a good girl, Pixie, and remembered what I had said to you. I did not think you would grieve me like this. I have not so many treasures!"

Mademoiselle's tears trickled down afresh, and the girls began to look askance at Pixie, and to feel the first incredulity give place to a horrible doubt. Why wouldn't she speak? Why did she look so guilty?

Why need she have been so alarmed at the first mention of the accident if she had no part in bringing it about? Margaret held out her hand with an involuntary gesture of appeal, and Pixie, seeing it, shut her lips more tightly than ever.

"You may go to your room, Pixie," said Miss Phipps coldly. "I am very much disappointed in you!"

CHAPTER NINE.

DARK DAYS.

The three girls who shared Pixie's room were not forbidden to speak to her when they went upstairs to bed, and their first impulse was to pull aside the curtains of her cubicle, where she was discovered lying on the top of the bed, still fully dressed, with features swollen and disfigured with crying. She was s.h.i.+vering, too, and the hand which Kate touched was so icy cold that she exclaimed in horrified reproach--

"Pixie, you are freezing! What do you mean by not getting into bed?

You will catch a chill, and then goodness knows what may happen! You may go into consumption and die."