"You are certainly here at no one else's instigation."
"Did she tell Mrs. Freeman to make a close prisoner of me, and to starve me?"
"It is your own fault if you are starved, Bridget; don't exaggerate, my dear; you do no good by that. As to your being made a prisoner, you certainly owe it to Evelyn. She can say things, even though she does not put them into words."
"Oh, I understand," said Bridget. She turned again to look out of the window, and her impatient fingers once more played a tattoo on the glass.
"Evelyn is most popular," continued Janet, "for the simple reason that people don't read her through and through. I can see beneath that sweet, saintly calm, and I honestly say that I cannot bear her. Now, Bridget, if you will come on my side, if you will join me in opposing the pernicious influence that girl exercises, I can help you out of this scrape without allowing you to humiliate yourself, and I can at the same time put you up to having the nicest little revenge in the world on this delightful Miss Percival."
"But Dorothy believes in her, and Dorothy is so sweet and kind," exclaimed Bridget, in perplexity.
"Poor, dear Dolly," exclaimed Janet, "anyone can take her in; but you, my dear, although you are not very learned, are clever. However, this is your own concern. If you like to stay in this hot room until Mrs. Freeman breaks in your proud spirit, and if you like to submit to the many indignities which I can plainly see are before you, that, of course, is your affair. I thought it only kind to warn you, but perhaps I have interfered unwarrantably. If so, forgive me."
Janet rose as she spoke, and took a step or two toward the door.
"No, don't go," exclaimed Biddy. "You puzzle me very much; there's no one in the world who hates mean ways more than I do, and if Evelyn is that sort——"
"She is that sort, Bridget."