“You are out late, girls,” she said as she hurried past, and for some reason they both had an uncomfortable feeling of having done something wrong.
Miss Gray hastened into the school building just as the janitor appeared to lock up.
“Jennings,” she said, “switch on the light in the sophomore study room. I shall only be there a moment.”
The janitor shuffled after her and turned on the light while Miss Gray opened Mary’s desk. She sighed deeply and shook her head.
“She must have got here before me,” she thought. “It was cruel to tempt the child at such a time as this when her mother is in great need of money. I felt so sure she would bring it straight to me and that was the only test I required. Oh, dear, what a crooked world this is. I am out fifty dollars. But how will the poor child ever explain all this money to her mother? She must have saved a good deal out of her pilfering——”
Miss Gray’s disconnected train of thought did not bring her any comfort, as she slowly descended the three flights of steps into the basement and plunged into the mist again.
“At least I shall wait a day or two,” she continued. “The child may think better of it. She might have stopped me this evening, though. At all events I deserve to lose the money. It was a silly, stupid impulse, but I was so sure—so very sure——”
The mist had grown so thick now that the Principal walked very slowly, keeping close to the fence in order to guide herself to the corner where she must turn to go to her own home. A voice reached her through the fog. Someone was coming up from behind.
“I have procured fifty, Señor, a curious lucky stroke, and from a schoolroom, too—would you have believed——” the voice broke off in a laugh.
“Be careful——” said another voice, and two figures passed Miss Gray in the fog and were swallowed up again immediately.