But Miss Eldon answered for her: "Oh, no; she could not have known it, and so I am the only one to blame in this business," she said.
Kate felt very grateful to her teacher for thus helping her out of the difficulty, and vowed in her own mind that she would never act so deceitfully again. No, never again would she follow such a crooked path, and deceive her mother, for it was deceit; now she saw it quite plainly. But still she was afraid to confess the whole truth about the matter.
After Miss Eldon had gone, she had an opportunity of doing this, for her mother said: "Now, Kate, tell me the whole truth about this affair."
"The truth, mother?" repeated Kate. "Teacher told you the whole truth."
"But how could you forget such an important message as this, when you knew it was just what I was wishing for you to get—a nice quiet place near home?"
"But teacher did not say a word about the place that Sunday afternoon," said Kate, in an injured tone.
"But you might have known—might have guessed—what it was likely to be about. It is not as though Miss Eldon was in the habit of sending for me. She never did such a thing before."
"But still, how was I to know she had heard of a place at last? I have been waiting months and months, and nothing has come."
"I know that; but still how you could forget that Sunday afternoon, when you came home and found me in such trouble about your going to London, is more than I can understand."