Girls New and Old

by L. T. Meade

"Perhaps the mystery is being put straight now," said Hester. "Molly did the very best thing she could, when she said she would go to Kate. Kate is excited and softened now, and if Molly goes to her and confesses, and says she is sorry, I have not the least doubt that Kate will forgive her."

"But," said Cecil indignantly, "Molly has nothing to be sorry about. If ever a girl in the world was as true as steel, it is Molly Lavender. Come," she added, "I am a stranger at present at St. Dorothy's, I don't know any of you girls, but I do know Molly Lavender. She and I were at school together when we were children, and have been great friends all our lives."

"Then of course you take her part," said Hester.

Cecil's eyes flashed fire.

"I do," she answered with spirit, "and I insist on knowing the truth. What has Molly done?"

"Well, it is this. Kate, for all her high spirits and her fun and nonsense, has a lot of reserve about her. She will hardly tell her innermost thoughts to anyone. Not a soul in the place, except, of course, Miss Forester and Miss Leicester, knew about the story which she told us to-night. We thought of her just like any other girl. We did not know that she had a romance at the back of her; we did not know anything about her origin. Of course she is, in every sense of the word, a perfect lady, and we just thought, if we thought at all, that she had been brought up like the rest of us in a comfortable home, and with all the usual refinements of life. Well, when Molly came, Kate took a great fancy to her, and Molly seemed equally fond of Kate. You know Molly Lavender is rich, and she has a bedroom to herself, and all kinds of little luxuries which the girls who live in dormitories can't aspire to. Well, when poor Kate began to sigh, and tried to get up a society in the cause of the Dwellers in Cubicles, as she called them, Molly was one of her most stanch supporters; she shared her room with her night after night until you came, Cecil. In short, they were inseparable, and scarcely ever apart; and one day Kate opened her heart to Molly, and showed her that picture which she sketched so graphically for us all to-night. She never told another soul, and of course she thought that she was safe with Molly. What do you think happened? In less than a week the story began to be known all over the school. Not dear Kate's own beautiful story, but a vulgar, common edition of it. Kate was no lady, Kate used to do menial work, Kate was received here on charity! You know how silly schoolgirls can be over this sort of thing; and although everybody liked Kate, there were some silly girls who began to look down on her. At last it reached my ears, and I thought it only fair to tell her."

"Who did you trace the report to?" asked Cecil.

"Well, of course, Matilda Matthews was in it. You know what a horrid, disagreeable girl Matilda is. There is no girl in the whole school so disliked, and how Molly could have so completely forgotten herself as to give Matilda her confidence passes my comprehension. There is not the least doubt that she did tell her, for the simple reason that Molly alone, in the whole school, knew the truth."

When Hester had finished speaking, there was a little pause. Cecil was standing up, her face was white, her eyes stared straight in front of her; she was evidently thinking hard. Hester looked at her, and so did several of the other girls, expecting her to make some response, but she did not speak.