“Go away?” she said.
“Yes; how can I bear to stay at the school when I am disgraced?”
“But your punishment is not very great,” said the French teacher.
“But to let the others know, and to have my freedom as an English girl taken away from me!”
“It will be restored again, I am sure, if you bear your punishment with meekness,” said Mademoiselle; “but if you rebel and make a fuss the Baroness will keep up her indignation.”
“And will she tell my people at home?”
“I do not think she will do that if you bear your punishment with all due patience. You did wrong.”
“I did wrong, but not such a dreadful sin as you give me credit for. I did wrong in ignorance. There is a great, great difference between doing a thing you know is wrong and doing a thing that is wrong without knowing it.”
A slight smile played round the lips of Mademoiselle. She was, as a rule, kindly; but she could not quite understand my nice distinction.
“The effect is the same,” she said. “Do you not know that for a young lady in this school to have a correspondence with a schoolboy, as the Comtesse Riki has done, is quite scandalous? It would ruin the school. The Comtesse must be made an example of.”