Harriet, however, had now recovered herself. This attack on the part of her school-fellows was unexpected, and at first she was almost thrown off her usual balance of mind. Her customary self-possession very nearly deserted her, but now she recovered it.
“After all,” she said, “you may think what you please. By this time to-morrow I shall be established in my position, and I don’t think either Ralph or his father will regret it. As you, Patience, have taken it upon you to order Ralph to bed—a thing which I imagine you will never have the power to do again—I shall not disturb him to-night: but when I am his school-mother, he will do what I wish, please understand: he will have passed out of your life, Patience, and out of the lives of all the rest of you, and you need not call yourselves by the ridiculous name of school-mothers any longer. You will be back to your horrid school life, and I wish you joy of it. I shall stay here, and be happy. I wish, however, to say one thing. I think it exceedingly shabby of Robina to give up the contest at the eleventh hour. It shows that notwithstanding your high opinion of her she is a coward at heart. She is so certain that she will be beaten, that she won’t wait to witness her own discomfiture. Ralph choose Robina, indeed! There never was any chance of that.”
“No,” said Patience, “and that brings us to another thing. Dear little Ralph told me that you saved his life—”
“Good gracious!” said Harriet: “didn’t you all see me do it?”
“Yes, but he said you saved his life twice. When was the first occasion?”
Harriet bit her lips.
“Children exaggerate things,” she said after a pause. “I did risk my own life for Ralph at Totland Bay, and the dear little man got confused.”
“I don’t think so,” said Patience; “he is never confused about things. Well, at any rate, Harriet, we should like you to explain that remark of Ralph’s to-morrow to Mr Durrant before the great decision is finally come to.”
“Your likings or not likings, Patience Chetwold, will probably not be of the slightest consequence,” said Harriet, leaving the room as she spoke with her head in the air.
The moment she had gone, the rest of the girls drew close together.