The girl looked at him, her eyes dilating with a sort of fear. The big man went up and laid his hand on the slight little shoulder. Good God, what a pretty bit thing she was! and yet there was something altogether wrong with her. Where did the wrong come in? Those eyes would enthrall many a man, those lips would tempt many a man to his destruction. Was there no part of Kitty that could be touched, could be reclaimed? He spoke slowly now.
“I have been talking to my wife about you. She gives me to understand that your aunt Miss Merrydew is a rich woman, and lives in a private hotel in Folkestone. Folkestone is not a cheap place, and to live comfortably in a private hotel there must mean a spanking bit of money. Now you told me that your aunt was very poor, and lived in an attic in a boarding-house. I’d like to know, for my own private satisfaction, which story is true.”
“What I told you, sir,” said Kitty. She raised her eyes for a moment to his face, then dropped them, for he was scowling at her.
“Wench,” he said sternly, “the way of transgressors is hard! You’ll find it so in the long run, in the long run you’ll taste that bitterness. You’re but a young, motherless bit of a thing, and if that were not the case, and I didn’t trust my lassies as I trust myself, I wouldn’t let you go back to The Red Gables School; but I don’t want to ruin you. You have owned to thieving, and you have owned to lying. Now, do you mean to drop these things; for, if you do, honest Injun, I’ll help you, lass; I’ll make it my business—I won’t say how nor why nor when—but I’ll give you a push up when you need it. You can come to us for the Easter holidays, so that’s settled. And now I want you to run straight. If you have any burden on your mind, out with it here and now, and I’ll help you. Before the Lord in His heaven, I will! Don’t be frightened, tell it—tell it all. I’ll put things straight for you. Now, then, have you anything on your mind? Don’t answer in a hurry—think. It’s the best chance you ever had, John Dodd here, standing waiting to put you straight. Is there anything going on at school that you wish with all your heart you hadn’t a finger in, for now is your chance? Out with it! God knows I never failed any one yet who came to me and said, ‘I’m sorry.’ Now, then, I’ll come back to you in a few minutes, and then you can say yes or no. And the Lord guide you, child.”
For nearly a quarter of an hour Dodd was away, and during that time Kitty did pass through a crisis; but, after all, the struggle, to a nature like hers, was brief. To confess meant too much—the giving up of the Howard miniature, the dragging down with her in her fall both Grace and Anne! She could not do it. A clean heart! Perhaps that was a nice possession; but it could never be hers, she had gone too far for that.
Dodd re-entered the room rather noisily; his face was flushed and anxious. He had been praying about the girl all the time he was away from her; now he came in large, steadfast, strong, full of ineffable compassion. She looked at him with a weary expression. If she took him at his word she would pull down his own castle of cards. He did not believe in her, but he did believe in his children. Kitty thought herself rather noble when she resolved not to sacrifice John Dodd’s children to their father’s wrath.
“Well, child—well?” he said.
“I have often boasted a little bit at school,” she began at once, “for you see, most of the girls are rich, and it is so horrid to be poor amongst a lot of rich girls.”
“Pooh!” said the ex-merchant, “you must be a weakling to mind a thing of that sort.”
“Perhaps I am; I don’t know; but I have certainly exaggerated about Aunt Gloriana. I will try—indeed, I will—not to do it again.”