As she dropped on her knees on the rug at her aunt’s feet, waving a pamphlet before her eyes, Miss Haredale looked at her, but in a preoccupied, inattentive way.
“What list, my dear?”
“What list, auntie! Why, the Cambridge Examination list, of course. And I’m in it! And I have a class—a second class; and, auntie—I’m ‘distinguished in literature.’ There! Oh the relief to one’s mind! Did you ever know anything so delightful?”
“It won’t make any difference, my dear, I’m afraid, to the trouble that has come upon us,” said Miss Haredale, too deeply disturbed even to think of how she was dashing a pleasure, which seemed to her to bear little more relation to the realities of life than if Amethyst had shown her a new doll.
“What is the matter?” said the girl, startled. “Is anything wrong? Father—or mother?”
“No, my dear. But—but I have fallen into great misfortune; I would not tell you while there seemed a chance of its being a mistake. I hope I shall be enabled to bear it,—but it is more than I can face now.”
“What—what, auntie?” cried Amethyst, pressing close to her aunt’s knees and seizing the trembling hands clasped on them.
It took some talking and explaining before Amethyst could be made to comprehend the situation; but when she did understand how entirely the circumstances of their two lives were altered, her young soft face assumed a resolute expression. She stood up by the fireplace, and once more took the examination list in her hand.
“Auntie,” she said, “it is very sad, of course, but it would have been much worse yesterday. Now, I don’t think you need be anxious about me, at any rate. I am worth something now. I shall go to Miss Halliday; I think she will let me have Miss Hayne’s situation at Saint Etheldred’s. At least, I know that a girl, with so good a certificate as this, can always get employment. So, dear auntie, I can do for myself, and help you perhaps a little too.”
“Be a school-teacher?” exclaimed Miss Haredale, in horror. “You, at your age! with your family, and your appearance!—Perfectly impossible.”