Hazel and Margaret soothed her with their sympathy when she reached the haven of the study, and even Jessie Wayne tore herself out of her books to give her a kindly word. Then they all settled down to steady work again, and a hush was on the room, until a Fifth Form girl came up with a message that the Head wanted to see Dorothy at once.
“As bad as that?” cried Hazel in consternation. “Oh, Dorothy, I am sorry for you!”
“I expect I shall survive,” answered Dorothy with a rather rueful smile, and then she went downstairs to the private room of the Head.
“Well, Dorothy, what have you to say about this storm in a teacup?” asked the Head, motioning Dorothy to a low seat by the fire, while she herself remained sitting at her writing table. A stately and gracious woman, she was, with such a light of kindness and sympathy in her eyes that every girl who came to her felt assured of justice and considered care.
“I think it was rather a storm in a teacup,” Dorothy answered, smiling in her turn, yet on the defensive, for she did not know of how much she had been accused by Miss Ball.
“What were you doing on the stairs just then?” asked the Head; and looking at Dorothy, she was secretly amused at the thought of catechising a girl of the Sixth in this fashion.
“I was going up to the study,” said Dorothy. “I met Rhoda, who was coming down from her study; we stopped to speak about her having ousted me from the top. We were still talking when Miss Ball came, and—and she said we were slackers, and setting a bad example to the rest of the girls.”
“That much I have already gathered,” said the Head. “But I am not quite clear as to what came after. What had you said that caused such a storm of angry words from Miss Ball?”
Dorothy smiled. She really could not help it—she had been so completely the scapegoat for Rhoda.
“I had said nothing,” she answered slowly. Then seeing that the Head still waited, she hesitated a moment, then went on. “I think Miss Ball was just pouring out her anger upon me because Rhoda had slipped away, and only I was left.”