“Oh, oh, oh! I can’t!—I can’t bear it!”
Just then there was a noise heard in the passage outside, and Miss Greene, accompanied by two of the girls, entered the room. She looked with astonishment at Peggy, who was standing very upright, not a scrap of fear in her manner, but a great deal of proud resolution. Then Miss Greene glanced at Kitty, who was crouching into the darkest shadow of the room. Kitty’s heart began to beat furiously, she backed away and away, nearer and nearer to the window, which stood open.
“What are you two doing here?” said Miss Greene, who read disturbance in the air.
“Having a little bit of a tiff, no less,” said Peggy. “We thought we’d lay the matter before Mrs. Fleming.”
Miss Greene was about to interfere, for she knew that Mrs. Fleming was very tired; but there was something about Peggy’s attitude which stopped her.
“Miss Greene,” said Peggy, “ye’d best be collecting the prize essays, they’re all on your desk safe and sound. Now, then, Kitty, come along. Why, wherever——Have you seen her?” she asked, turning to one of the girls.
“Do you mean Kitty Merrydew?” asked Prissy, for it was she. “I saw her step out of the window a minute ago. I suppose she has gone back to the Lower School.”
“My word!” said Peggy. She turned and also left the room.
CHAPTER XXIII.
DISCOVERY AND FLIGHT.
But Kitty had not gone to the Lower School. She was not going there any more. All of a sudden, just as though the hand of Almighty God Himself were stretched out, she was stopped in her wickedness. When Peggy spoke to her it was like the writing on the wall at the impious feast described in the Bible: “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” She walked rapidly, her head in a whirl, her breath coming quickly. How near to success she had been, but instead of success she had touched failure. Kitty was clever enough to know that in Peggy she had met an antagonist worthy of her powers; there was no getting round Peggy, there was no cajoling her, there was no rousing her pity. Peggy was sorry for others, but not for Kitty. Kitty recognised as a fact beyond all other facts that Peggy would do what she said; there was nothing for her, therefore, but in the moment of Peggy’s success to go away. She must leave The Red Gables, she must leave her schoolfellows, she must leave her hopes, her ambitions, all her plans for the future. She was found wanting. Yes, to her, Peggy stood in the place of God—Peggy, the Irish peasant girl, whom she had despised. She did not despise her now. In all the world she had never respected any one as she did Peggy Desmond at that moment.