This was arranged, and Pen, faithfully to the minute, did make her appearance in the boot-house. She drank off her first glass of vinegar with a wry face; but after it was swallowed she began to feel intensely good and pleased with herself.
“Will it pale me in an hour?” was her thought.
She ran upstairs, found a tiny square of looking-glass, concealed it in her pocket, and came down again. During the remainder of the day she might have been observed at intervals sneaking away by herself, and had any one followed her, that person would have seen her taking the looking-glass from her pocket and carefully examining her cheeks.
Alas! the vinegar had only produced a slight feeling of discomfort; it had not taken any of the bloom out of the firm, fat cheeks.
“It’s horrid, and it’s not doing it,” thought the child. “I wish I hadn’t gived her that tidy and that pin-cushion. But I will go on somehow till the color is out. They will send for me when they hear that I’m bad. Perhaps I’ll look bad to-night.”
But Pen’s “perhapses” were knocked on the head, for Miss Tredgold made a sudden and most startling announcement.
“Why wait for the morning?” she exclaimed. “We are all packed and ready. We can easily get to Easterhaze by a late train to-night.”
Accordingly, by a late train that evening Miss Tredgold, Verena, and Pauline departed. They drove to Lyndhurst Road, and presently found themselves in a first-class carriage being carried rapidly away.
“I am glad I thought of it,” said Miss Tredgold, turning to the two girls. “It is true we shall arrive late, but Miss Pinchin will have things ready, as she will have received my telegram. We shall sleep at our new quarters in peace and comfort, and be ready to enjoy ourselves in the morning.”