Hester's Counterpart: A Story of Boarding School Life

BOSTON LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
Published, August, 1910 Copyright, 1910, by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. All Rights Reserved Hester's Counterpart NORWOOD PRESS BERWICK & SMITH CO. NORWOOD, MASS. U. S. A.
Trancriber's note: Table of contents created for the HTML version.

Debby Alden, to use her own adjective in regard to herself, was not slack. To this her friends added another term. Debby was set. There could be no doubt of that.
When Hester was but twelve years old, Debby had decided that the girl should have at least one year at the best boarding-school. Four years had passed, during which time, Debby's purpose had remained firm, although not yet ripe for perfecting.
After the experience with Mary Bowerman's taunts and Abner Stout's guile, Debby decided that the time had come for Hester to have a change of environment. Miss Richards's advice was again sought. But that old friend no longer held the full power in her hands. Debby had grown alive and alert. She knew the standing of the schools throughout the State, and in what particular line of study or discipline each one excelled.
For months, she studied catalogues and estimated expenses. She had never made a study of psychology; but she understood that Hester had reached the most impressionable age of her life. Each thought and word would leave its marks upon her. Debby, who believed firmly that tendencies are inherited, had always with her the fear that Hester would show the tendencies of an alien race. Her one consolation was that much may be overcome by training, and too, perhaps, there was in Hester's veins only a drop of darker blood.
No one understood the position in which Debby Alden was placed. She always held herself responsible for the death of Hester's mother. Duty had compelled her to take care of the child, until love had come to her as a reward for the fulfillment of duty.
There was no one to whom she could speak concerning Hester and her fears in regard to her. One thing she had done and would do; she would keep the child far removed from any influence which would tend to the strengthening of those traits which are supposed rightfully to belong to the race of slaves.