Miss Leicester left the room, and Molly, sinking down on the nearest chair, burst into tears.
"If Kate dies I shall never feel happy again," she said, with a sob.
"But she won't die," said Hester; "she's a great deal too strong and young. Why,"—Hester wore a troubled look,—"she's only just seventeen. Girls of seventeen don't die merely from a fall. She's bad, but she'll soon be better. Don't cry, Molly!"
"Girls often die," cried Molly. "Oh, Hester! can nothing be done to save her? I wonder if Miss Forester knows how bad she really is."
Hester went up to one of the windows and began to drum her fingers on the glass.
"It's all wretched," continued Molly. "I can't tell you what I feel, Hetty. If only Miss Leicester would let me help in any way, I should not feel so dreadful. I feel, somehow or other, as if I were responsible for Kate's illness."
"Oh, now you are getting horridly morbid!" said Hester. "What had you to do with it?"
"Nothing in one way, of course; but if all this had not happened, Kate would have gone out with me, and not with the other girls, and I would not have let her climb up that awful rock just to get those miserable ferns. Oh, dear! I thought I should be so happy at St. Dorothy's, and now this seems to cast a blank over everything."
"The worst of it is," said Hester, after a pause, "that even if Kate does get well—I don't doubt that for a minute—even if she does get well, she won't be allowed to study for a good while, and then she'll lose her scholarship. I know she has not a great deal of money. She was quite certain of getting the scholarship, and after that, of course, she could, by and by, take a good position as a teacher. After a brain attack of this sort, she won't be allowed to study for some time. Of course one ought not to think of that just now, but in Kate's position, where there is not much money, it is, of course, important."
"Yes," said Molly. "I wish I were with her," she added. "One can scarcely think of examinations at the present moment, can one, Hester? Oh dear; oh, dear! I think I'll just creep upstairs and see if I can help Cecil in any way."