Susan looked at her coldly, sternly, almost contemptuously, as she entered the room, but she made no remark; and after that one glance, which spoke volumes and cut the poor delinquent to the very heart, she went on with her studies.
No allusion to the difficulty Carrie had passed through was ever made by Susan; but the cousins were now more estranged than ever. Caroline felt that Susan despised her; and, though she felt also that she deserved this, she yet resented it keenly.
For several days nothing had been said by their teacher about the late incident, and the girls had settled down quite composedly, hoping that it was never to be revived, when one morning, after prayers, in the school-room, Mr. Worcester rose and informed the young ladies that he had at last discovered the authors of the mean and contemptible trick to which he had once before alluded. He had learned the whole story, he continued,—from the theft of the basin down to the lies to hide their guilt. He proceeded then, in no measured terms, to speak of the trick: he held its authors up to contempt; and, after a half-hour’s scorching rebuke and cutting sarcasm, he concluded by calling the girls by name and bidding them come forward.
With flashing eyes and compressed lips, Florence, whom this speech had only stung to fierce anger, walked haughtily forward; while Carrie, pale and hardly able to walk, tottered to her place beside her. Every eye in the school was upon the culprits.
Carrie reeled, and would have fallen if Florence had not supported her. Mr. Worcester hardly noticed the girls’ emotion, as he addressed them in a few bitter, sarcastic sentences and then pronounced the penalty.
They were to make an apology first to Miss Winthrop, next to Miss Forester, in presence of the school, confessing also that they had lied, and, moreover, were each to write home an account of the whole affair to their parents.
When Carrie heard this, she was completely overcome and fell back in a partial swoon.
In an instant all was confusion. Susan sprang to her cousin’s side; but Florence pushed her violently away.
“You shall not touch her!” she said, between her teeth; and when at last Carrie regained her consciousness, it was to Florence that she turned, begging to be allowed to go to her own room.
“Is it all true?” she said, when she was left alone with her friend, who had placed her, unaided, on the bed. “Oh, how dreadful it is! I could bear it all, but—— Oh, my mother!”