'She 's not silly,' replied Jasmine; 'but she would like an answer.'
'Well, tell her from me that as far as the North Pole is from the South, so am I from her, and ever will be. There now, what do you think of that? I don't care who hears me. I 'm accustomed to ladies, not to common little Scotch girls who tell lies.'
Jasmine was too gentle, too firm, too really noble to make any response; but as she went out of the room she was followed by a crowd of girls, a few of whom turned round and hissed at Leucha. The hisses were very soft, but, at the same time, very distinct; and this was the final straw in the wretched girl's misery.
As to Hollyhock, she was, greatly owing to Leucha's conduct, now the ruling spirit in the school, not by any means as regards lessons, but as regards what schoolgirls treasure so much, popularity and good-fellowship. Even Barbara and Dorothy Fraser went boldly to her side, and congratulated her on her self-restraint, and even apologised for their cousin's unseemly conduct.
Hollyhock's fine eyes lit up with a great glow. 'I do not care,' she said. 'Poor lassie! I pity her; I do, truly!'
'You are a wonderful girl, Hollyhock,' said Dorothy; 'and may my sister and I join your circle to-night? And will you tell us some bogy tales?'
'I will that,' said Hollyhock.
'And here's a hand, my trusty frien's,
And gie's a hand o' thine.'
She sang the words, and they were taken up immediately by every girl in the school, with the exception of Leucha and the miserable, depressed Daisy. But Hollyhock knew that she had her punishment to undergo. Was not her own mother a Cameron of the great race, and would she disgrace herself by crying out and making a fuss? 'The de'il is in me all the same,' she whispered under her breath; 'but he 'll not show his little horns until the Flower Girls are back at The Garden.'
She was a passionate little poet, and she now sang softly under her breath: