"There, that's right. Now you look natural again. But as I was saying, I don't think you will ever want any more secrets."
"No, indeed!" said Delia, heartily. "I don't think I shall as long as I live."
Great was the wonderment of the school when the true story of Mr. Hugo's departure came out, and great also the triumphing of Almira, who declared that she knew there was something queer about him, and appealed to the girls to know if she had not always said so. She had kept herself pretty quiet after the loss of her hair, and the consequent exposure, but the "delight" of finding herself in the right, as she expressed it, quite overcame her previous mortification, and she was loud in her exaltation, ending by saying—
"And more than that, I know that Emily Arlington and Delia Mason had something to do with the business, or why does Delia stay in Mrs. Pomeroy's room and see no one, and why were her father and mother sent for in such a wonderful hurry? As to her being sick, that is all humbug. I don't believe she is any more sick than I am. Mrs. Pomeroy means to keep the thing quiet, that is all."
"Did you learn all that the night you lost your hair?" asked some one.
"You just be quiet, Sue Dayton. I am not the only person in this house that has ever listened at a door. But any how, I know just as well as I know any thing—"
"That is not so strong an assertion as you might use, Almira," interrupted Belle; "since there are some things that you don't know very well."
"Just as well as I know any thing," continued Almira, disregarding the interruption—"that Em. Arlington and Delia Mason were mixed up in that affair of Mr. Hugo's."
"Let me advise you, as a friend, not to repeat that assertion, Almira," said Janet Graves, seriously. "Mrs. Pomeroy would be very angry to hear you connect the name of any of her young ladies with Mr. Hugo's, and you do not stand so well with her now, that you can afford to lose any favor. It would only take a very few more mis-steps on your part, to ensure your dismission from school."
"I should like to know how you come to know so much about it," said Almira. "You are not a teacher, and I don't believe Mrs. Pomeroy tells you every thing."