"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Fanny. "I should have never thought such a thing of Minnie!"
"Nor I," observed Rhoda.
"Nor I," added Jeannie; "and I won't speak to Minnie again."
Upon this, the girls all agreed to treat Minnie with neglect; and having spent some time longer with Lillia, they parted, and returned to their several homes.
The purpose they had formed was a wrong one. They ought not to have believed so unlikely a story about Minnie. And if it was clear that Minnie had said what Lillia charged against her, they ought to have gone to her, and asked her to explain herself. Certainly it was wrong to treat her with contempt, without giving a reason.
It was not long before the innocent Minnie, tripping lightly along the street, met Fanny and Rhoda. As usual, she ran towards them with a smile upon her pleasant face, and said,—
"How are you, girls? I am so glad to meet you!"
But the girls turned their faces the other way, and passed on without saying a single word in reply.
Poor Minnie! She was cut to the heart. What her two friends meant by such conduct, she could not imagine. So she burst into tears, and walked back to her home weeping.
On the way, she met Jeannie, who, seeing her in tears, did not pass her in silence, but stepping up to her, said,—