"Oh, please don't question me," said Christian.
"Why can't you speak? The girls will expect you to do so this evening. We always get a new girl to tell us as much as ever she can of her life's story—after dark. You look as though you were a splendid story-teller. Are you?"
"I could tell you some stories," said Christian.
She thought of her darling attic and the heroines of her past life. Nevertheless, her terrors were getting greater each moment. If the girls insisted on questioning her with regard to the unlooked-for circumstances which were supposed to have detained her, she would certainly betray herself; and for a girl like Star Lestrange to know of such an escapade would cause poor Christian almost to lose her senses.
"I will introduce you to the nicest girls," said Louisa, who was watching her face—"the nicest and the kindest—and I will ask them to look after you when I am not with you myself."
"But mayn't I stay near you all day? Oh, I wish—I wish you'd let me."
"You dear young thing, of course you may. But then you see to-morrow will come, and the day after, and the day after that. I am in the sixth class of the school. I am rather young to be there, but I am, all the same; and I am proud of it, I can tell you. You, of course, will be in a different class, and you must associate with the girls of your own age. You see, you can't help yourself. You will have great fun after a bit. Here come the mistresses and the girls, and lessons have begun. Sit down near me at this desk, and listen with all your might. Miss Forest and Mademoiselle le Brume may question you a bit about your attainments this morning. I am not quite certain, but I think they will."
"I wish they would; I'd much rather," said Christian.
"Would you really? Then I'll go and speak to Miss Forest at once."
Each desk now had a bright and merry or a grave and serious girl seated before it, and forty pairs of eyes were darting from time to time in Christian's direction—some quizzical, some indifferent, some alive with curiosity; some sober, earnest, kind. But whatever the feelings that dwelt in the minds of the girls who owned the eyes, they all kept gazing at Christian, who felt at last as though she were under forty pairs of burning glasses, so keen became the torture.