Delia made no answer, except to shut the door in her face, when she attempted to enter the room, for the purpose of continuing her lecture. Emily had not spoken one word. She was no adept at making excuses, and she perceived that Delia was perfectly competent to sustain the warfare with Miss Thomas, but her heart sank as she thought of being summoned to Mrs. Pomeroy's presence on the morrow.
"Oh, Delia, what shall we do now?" were her first words, after the door had closed upon Miss Thomas and her exhortations. "I don't see but we are ruined outright."
"We are in a scrape, certainly," replied Delia, beginning to undress. "But I have been as badly off before, and I think I see my way out."
"That is more than I do," said Emily. "What can we possibly say to Mrs. Pomeroy? Who would have thought Miss Thomas could see so far?"
"She did not see, she only guessed," returned Delia. "I saw how she winced when I told her she had no proof. Every one in the house knows that she is as near-sighted as a bat, besides being old. I shall tell Mrs. Pomeroy frankly, that after filling our pitcher, we were tempted by the beauty of the night to take a walk in the garden, and stayed longer than we intended. Then we shall get a lecture, and a long piece of French or Latin to learn by heart, and perhaps be forbidden to go out two or three weeks, and that will be the end of the matter. Miss Thomas is not such a favorite with Mrs. Pomeroy that she will be a very partial judge where she is concerned. Oh no, it is not nearly as bad as you think.
"Dear me, if you knew some of the things the girls used to do at the Gymnasium—this is not a circumstance. The rules there were ten times more strict than they are here, and I am sure there was forty times as much mischief going on. The girls were forbidden even to raise their eyes when they passed a man in the street, and they were not allowed to walk in front of the house at all. It was perfectly ridiculous, and did no good either. But come, dear, go to sleep, and leave the whole to me. I promise you it shall all go right, yet."
Delia's confidence restored some degree of courage to Emily, though she could not keep her heart from sinking, as she thought of meeting Mrs. Pomeroy's eye in the morning. Of that other Eye, from which no secrets are hid, she had almost ceased to think. She had silenced the voice of conscience so long and so determinedly, that the inward monitor now seldom made itself heard, though there was all the time a dull, heavy pain pressing on her heart, and paralyzing her energies. She turned and tossed, and finally fell into an unquiet slumber, which seemed to have lasted only a few minutes, when the rising bell rung, and reminded her of all that was before her.
As the girls were forbidden to leave their rooms, they did not go down to breakfast. No sooner were prayers over, than the monitress appeared with the much dreaded summons to attend Mrs. Pomeroy in the library.
Why is it, that the study or the library must always be the place of fear in every boarding school? So it almost invariably is, and so it was at Mrs. Pomeroy's, and few were they who entered its precincts on any special summons without a shudder. The lady principal now sat enthroned in awful state upon her velvet covered chair, dignified as usual, but evidently somewhat ruffled. Near her sat Miss Thomas, her cheeks flushed, and her little black eyes sparkling, clearly not in a very sweet humor.
"Good morning, young ladies," said Mrs. Pomeroy, with dignity. "Be pleased to sit down."