At recess, when the other children had trooped out of doors to play, Dixie remained, and Miss Bayley, who was writing on the board, turned to find a pair of eager eyes watching.
“Did you want to speak to me, Dixie, dear?” she inquired.
“Yes, ma’am, Miss Bayley, please, if ’twouldn’t be interrupting too much. I want to ask advice about something that’s very secret.”
The teacher smiled. She believed that she was at last to learn the cause of the inward glow that radiated from the thin, freckled face of the older Martin girl, who was sometimes called “homely.”
But the secret something was destined not to be told, for just then Jessica Archer, who had missed Dixie from the playground, entered the schoolroom in search of her. Not that she desired the companionship of a Martin, but she did not wish to give Dixie an opportunity to be alone with the teacher.
Miss Bayley frowned, and very softly she said: “Dear, can’t you come over to my cabin after school to-night? I very much want to have a real heart-to-heart visit with you.”
“Oh, teacher, Miss Bayley, I’d love to. You can’t think how I’d love to!” was the eagerly given reply.
Jessica Archer could not possibly have heard, and so it was merely a coincidence which prompted her to say, “Miss Bayley, my mother said I was to tell you to come home with me after school to-night and have supper at our house.”
“Thank you, dear,” Miss Bayley replied, “I am sorry that I cannot accept. Please thank your mother for me, and tell her that I had already made another engagement.”
The young teacher was rebellious. Her free time, surely, was her own, and she determined that she would do with it as she pleased.