Violet had grown exceedingly white, and she could scarcely speak for passion. At that moment she felt that she positively hated Agnes Hosking; but, with a great effort, she succeeded in curbing her rage, and answered with a calmness which surprised her companion:—
"I have made no pretence about anything, and you have no right whatever to speak to me in such an insulting fashion. If I am living on the Reeds' charity, what is that to you?"
"But are you?" asked Agnes, who was by no means sure of what she had stated.
"You say so," Violet responded haughtily, "but, if you are in the least doubtful on the point, why not ask Ann? She will no doubt tell you the truth. By all means ask Ann."
But Agnes had no intention of doing that. She began to see that she had gone too far and had made a mistake in taunting Violet, so she commenced to temporise.
"We won't quarrel, for that's foolish," she said; "but, really, it was your fault that I spoke out as I did. Haven't I tried to be friendly with you? Wasn't I pleased to meet you here? And yet, when I suggested that you might get Ann Reed to ask me to her house to tea you began to put me off immediately. That aggravated me, naturally, and I am quick-tempered. Come, Violet, get Ann to invite me for next Saturday afternoon and I will promise not to let you down before the other girls."
"How could you 'let me down' as you express it?" Violet inquired, vainly trying to hide the anxiety she was experiencing.
"I could tell them that your father is so poor he couldn't possibly afford to pay for you to board with the Reeds or for your school fees, and you wouldn't like everybody to know that, I suppose? I can assure you that your position here would be very different to what it is if it were known you were being educated by charity. I will keep all this to myself, though, if you will only do what I ask you."
Violet was silent. She had entirely lost all interest in the game of hockey now, and, though she still gazed at the players, it was with unseeing eyes which noted none of their movements. Her thoughts had flown to her own home, to her hard-working father who certainly did his best for his family, to her mother, and sisters, and the boys. Why should she mind if her companion spoke of the poverty of her home to her school-fellows? she asked herself. The Reeds saw nothing to be ashamed of in connection with it, and, though the majority of the girls at Helmsford College were the children of wealthy parents, and it would certainly be humiliating to have her private affairs brought under discussion, she felt most disinclined to give way to Agnes Hosking.
Ah, but what she did mind was that Agnes would inform everybody that she was being educated at the expense of Dr. Reed—by charity, as she had said. There lay the sting. So kind and considerate had the Reeds been to her that her position in her new home had seemed quite natural, and the thought of being pointed at as an object for charity galled her immeasurably. Never before in her life had she experienced such a sense of keen humiliation, and she felt she should never be able to hold up her head at Helmsford College again if Agnes carried out her threat and told the girls that she was being educated by charity. How much did Agnes know? she wondered. Did she know that Dr. Reed paid all her expenses and even kept her supplied in pocket-money? Would she tell the girls that? Oh, it was unendurable even to contemplate it! She would do anything to prevent it.