"It would be no use for me to try to keep myself, grannie dear," was the stammering reply, "for I should do something wrong directly, but when I let Jesus hold me tight, then it is all right."
Mrs. Beauchamp made no answer, and, after waiting a moment or two, Monica slipped off, fearful lest she had offended her grandmother.
But the old lady sat thinking deeply for a long, long time--thinking of the past when she was a girl of Monica's age, and with as headstrong a nature as hers--thinking of her married life, when her whole time and thought had been given to the things of this world--thinking of the unrestful, unsatisfying present, and of the dark, dark future stretching out beyond.
"Little Elsa told me, once, that she prayed God every day to bless me," she murmured, while a tear trickled slowly down her cheek. "God bless the child ... and me, too!"
A week elapsed before any reply came to Monica's letter, and she began to be afraid that Miss Buckingham would not make known her decision before it was too late, for the school reopened in another few days. However, one morning, the long-looked-for letter arrived, and the girl's heart was overjoyed when she found that her request had been granted, and that Lily Howell would be allowed to re-attend the school if she wrote an apology for her past conduct, and sent it to the head-mistress without delay. Miss Buckingham added that it had been a matter of regret with her, that one of her scholars should have had to leave the school under such circumstances, so that if Lily were really penitent, the past should be overlooked; more especially as the girl she had endeavoured to injure had taken upon herself the task of interceding for her.
"I wish she hadn't put that last bit in," mused Monica, "because that will very likely offend Lily more than ever, because she will hate to think she owes anything to me. However, I can't help that; I have done what seemed right, and I must just leave the result, and I am dreadfully afraid she won't apologise. Well, I'll do as grannie suggests--just send Miss Buckingham's letter to Mrs. Howell, and then wait to see what happens."
A little note, badly expressed and ill-spelt, but breathing gratitude in every line, from Mrs. Howell, was all that Monica received, and in it there was only a hope expressed that Lily would send the apology, but no certainty. So she had to be patient, and wait a little longer.
Meanwhile, she kept the matter quite secret, not even breathing a word of it to Olive, for she thought, and very wisely, that if the whole affair fell through, it would be much better for no one to have known anything of it. But Monica was not very clever at keeping a secret, and if she had seen much of the Franklyns the probability is, that in a moment of forgetfulness she would have divulged it. However, the girls met but seldom during the days that elapsed between Mrs. Franklyn's funeral and the school reopening.
Once, when Monica was in Osmington, she ran up against Amethyst Drury, and, as they were talking, Mr. Howell's motor car passed them, reminding the younger girl of his daughter.
"I saw Lily the other day, Monica, and she wouldn't look at me. She walked by just as proud as Lucifer. The idea! As if we were all to blame, and she was innocent! I'm awfully glad she won't be at school any more."