“Hush, Martha!” exclaimed Mrs. Holloway.
Ruth turned with flaming cheeks and angry eyes. Her temper at last had got the better of her discretion.
“I believe you are the meanest woman whom I ever saw!” she exclaimed, much to Helen’s delight. “Don’t you dare say Helen and I touched your railroad ticket. I—I wish there were some means of punishing you for accusing us the way you do. I don’t blame your scholars for treating you meanly—if they did. I don’t see how you could expect them to do otherwise. Nobody could love such a person as you are, I do believe.”
“Three rousing cheers!” gasped Helen under her breath, while Nettie Parsons looked on in open-mouthed amazement.
“There! you hear how the minx dares talk to me,” cried Miss Miggs, appealing to the ladies about her.
Besides Mrs. Holloway, there were three or four others. Miss Miggs was dressed now and looked more presentable than she had when endeavoring to escape from the hotel in her raincoat and slippers.
“I—I don’t understand it at all,” confessed the hotel proprietor’s wife. “Surely, my cousin would not accuse these girls without some reason. She is from the North, too, and must understand them better than we do.”
No comment could have been more disastrous to the peace of mind of Ruth and Helen. The latter uttered a cry of anger and Ruth could scarcely keep back the tears.
“Perhaps we had better look out for our possessions,” said one of the other ladies, doubtfully.
“Yes. They did just come out of one of these rooms,” said another.