“Yes; her name is Phœbe Birch, and I went to her house. She has a stepmother who is not kind to her. Her father was sitting in a corner of the room; he had been drinking; and when I went in, Phœbe was crying. Her eyes were quite red and swollen; she brightened at the sight of me; but I was too much afraid of both the father and mother to talk much to her, poor child! At last I asked her if she would not come regularly to Sunday-school, and gave her a little Prayer-book, which seemed to make her very happy. The mother scolded and said, ‘She was good for nothing already, and she did not think going to Sunday-school would make her any better.’ I told her that I hoped it would. But when I had got out of the close little room, from that hard scowling woman and the drunken man, into the fresh air, I could scarcely bear to think of poor little Phœbe’s spending all her life there.”
Miss Lane looked round the beautiful rooms, her eye glancing through an open door to the glittering table awaiting them with its delicacies, and she sighed heavily. Her cloak lay on the sofa; she was holding her hat by one string, and Lillie was trembling, lest any moment she might go up to her own room to put them away, and so discover the mischief that had been done. What would she have given to live over that day again, that she might have left that undone?
It was too late then, and her face blanched as Miss Lane, gathering up her things, went gaily up stairs to brush her hair. In a little while she came down again, and Lillie’s watchful eyes saw—as no doubt she expected—a change in her face immediately.
“Has any one been in my room to-day?” she inquired. There was a chorus of Noes, and she continued:
“Some one or some thing has knocked my Cologne bottle off the bureau, and I found it lying shattered on the floor.”
“It must have been Sallie,” said Jennie, “she is so careless; she spilled all the ink in my bottle on the parlor carpet yesterday.”
“What were you doing with ink in the parlor?” asked Miss Lane.
“I was writing my exercises: Mary Noel and Lillie made so much noise in the hall that I could not write in my room.”
“Don’t go there to write again; it is not the proper place; and I wish none of you to have anything to do with Mary Noel; she is not a proper companion for you, I am sure. When she comes here to ask you to walk with her again, just tell her I do not allow you to go. I must speak to Sallie about breaking my things; there is no occasion for such accidents.”
She walked toward the door. Lillie started up to stop her; but the words died on her lip. She could not utter them; she could not bear to see the expression of disapproval gathering upon her teacher’s face, to know her trust was forfeited, and feel the punishment deserved.