And Miss Scrimp, speechless with impotent anger, helpless in her rage, stood and saw them go, and saw Hattie kiss Jessie and her mother in the carriage, and then saw it drive off, and many of the boarders, just coming, saw it, too, but not yet did they understand it all.
“I s’pose I’m to thank you for all this,” said Miss Scrimp, her cross-eyes fairly green as she snapped her words short off, speaking to Hattie.
“If you thank me for anything thank me for the mercy which yet keeps you out of prison,” said Hattie, quietly.
“I’d like to kill you!” hissed the spinster.
“No doubt you would if you dared. But there is an eye on you which protects me. So beware.”
Miss Scrimp shivered from head to foot, and looked all around her as if she feared the hand of arrest to be laid upon her.
Yet Hattie had alluded to that “All-seeing eye,” which is never closed.
CHAPTER XXX.
“OH! I AM SO UNHAPPY!”
Mr. W——, when he came to the bindery next morning, knew all about the wonderful discovery, the romance in real life, in which Hattie Butler had borne such a prominent part. For the night before he had gone to his club to try to wear off the melancholy, which he did not want noticed by his loving and keen-eyed sisters at home. And there he had met Frank Legare, who took him aside and told him all about it, giving Hattie all the praise of not only discovering but restoring the long-lost one to his aunt’s loving arms.
“She is a glorious girl!” said Frank. “That Miss Hattie Butler, I mean.”