“What is the matter, my child?”
“I—I’d so much rather not talk about it, please.”
“Then you do know something?”
“Please, please, father, don’t question me!”
“I won’t if you don’t wish it; but your manner puzzles me a good deal. Well, dear, if you can get it by any chance, you had better put it into Mrs. Haddo’s charge until I return. I asked those poor children if they had seen it, and they denied having done so.”
Fanny felt herself shiver, and had to clasp her hands very tightly together.
“I also asked that good shepherd Donald Macfarlane and his wife, and they certainly knew nothing about it. I can’t stay with you any longer now, my little girl; but if you do happen to go to Craigie Muir you might remember that I am a little anxious on the subject, for it is my wish to carry out the directions of my dear cousin Frances in all particulars. Now, try to be very, very good to your cousins, Fan; and remember how lonely they are, and how differently they have been brought up from you.”
Fanny could not speak, for she was crying too hard. Sir John presently went away, and forgot all about the little packet. But Fanny remembered it; in fact, she could not get it out of her head during the entire day; and in the course of the afternoon, when she found that the Vivian girls joined the group of the Specialities, she forced a chair between Betty and Olive Repton, and seated herself on it, and purposely, hating herself all the time for doing so, felt Betty’s pocket. Beyond doubt there was something hard in it. It was not a pocket-handkerchief, nor did it feel like a pencil or a knife or anything of that sort.
“I shall know no peace,” thought Fanny to herself, “until I get that unhappy girl to tell the truth and return the packet to me. I shall be very firm and very kind, and I will never let out a single thing about it in the school. But the packet must be given up; and then I will manage to convey it to Mrs. Haddo, who will keep it until dear father returns.”
But although Fan intended to act the part of the very virtuous and proper girl, she did not like her cousins the more because of this unpleasant incident. Fanny Crawford had a certain strength of character; but it is sad to relate that she was somewhat overladen with self-righteousness, and was very proud of the fact that nothing would induce her to do a dishonorable thing. She sadly lacked Mrs. Haddo’s rare and large sympathy and deep knowledge of life, and Fanny certainly had not the slightest power of reading character.