The girls reached Heath Hall, and Maggie again touched Rosalind on her arm.
“Come to my room,” she said; “I want to say something to you.”
Without waiting for a reply she went on herself in front. Rosalind followed abjectly; she was shaking in every limb.
The moment Maggie closed her room door, Rosalind flung her cloak off her shoulders, and, falling on her knees, caught the hem of Maggie’s dress and covered her face with it.
“Don’t, Rosalind; get up,” said Miss Oliphant, in a tone of disgust.
“Oh, Maggie, Maggie, do be merciful! Do forgive me! Don’t send me to prison, Maggie—don’t!”
“Get off your knees at once, or I don’t know what I shall do,” replied Maggie.
Rosalind sprang to her feet; she crouched up against the door; her eyes were wide open. Maggie came and faced her.
“Oh, don’t!” said Miss Merton, with a little shriek, “don’t look at me like that!” She put up her hand to her neck and began to unfasten her coral necklace. She took it off, slipped her bracelets from her arms, took her earrings out, and removed her pins.
“You can have them all,” she said, holding out the coral; “they are worth a great deal more—a great deal more than the money I—took!”