No one could know how she had dreaded that Mrs. Wilson would gossip about that ugly fact of the past to some one who would bring the story to the school, and make it public there.
Now, now, the danger was past! That garrulous tongue was stilled, and the past might lie buried for always. How good it was!
Dorothy drew long breaths of satisfaction as she sat down in her accustomed chair. How good life was! How glorious it was to work, and to achieve! Perhaps she would win the Lamb Bursary. Then she would go to the university. She would have her chance of making a mark in the world, and—and——
By a sudden movement of her arm one of the books piled round her on the table was sent spinning to the floor. It opened as it fell, and as she stooped to reach it she read on the opened page—
“That which seemeth to die may only be lying dormant, waiting until the set time shall come, when it shall awake and arise, ready to slay, or to ennoble, according as it shall be written in the Book of Fate.”
“Humph! There does not seem to be much comfort in that!” muttered Dorothy under her breath.
“What is the dear child prattling about, and what gem of knowledge has it lighted on from that old book, which might well have been used to light a fire, say, a generation ago?” Hazel leaned over from her corner of the table to look curiously at the shabby old volume Dorothy was holding in her hands.
“Oh, it is not so very old,” said Dorothy, with a laugh. “To have consigned it to the fire a generation ago would have been to burn it before it had a being. It is only a dictionary of quotations, and the one the book opened at seemed to give the lie direct to the thing I was thinking about. That is why I made noises with my nose and my mouth, disturbing the studious repose of this chamber of learning.”
“Chamber of learning be blowed! What is the quote?” and Hazel stretched herself in a languid fashion as she held out her hand for the book.
She read the quotation aloud, then in keener interest demanded, “What do you make of it anyhow? ‘To slay, or to ennoble, according as it shall be written in the Book of Fate’—the two ideas seem to knock each other over like the figures in a Punch and Judy show.”