[CHAPTER IV.]
THE EFFECT OF A BAD NAME.
MR. MANSFIELD was very much vexed when he found that Tilly had not been promoted, and said many hard things; threatening to take his daughter out of school, and send her to a more pretentious "institution," in a neighbouring town. But Tilly herself had no mind to leave school; and Miss Emmeline Mansfield, who was a very good, sensible girl, was very unwilling to have her sister deprived of the training which was just what she needed; and Mr. Mansfield was finally persuaded to let matters rest for the present.
"Why don't you ever wear your watch to school?" said he, one day, as Tilly passed him with her books in her hand. "What is the use of having a watch, if you don't wear it?"
"Emma Hausen told me the girls would laugh at me if I did," replied Tilly. "And Mrs. Hausen and the teachers don't like to have the girls wear finery in school."
"Nonsense," answered Mr. Mansfield. "If they do say anything to you, just tell them you can afford to wear what you like."
Tilly was in a hurry that morning, and did not care to go back to her room for her watch; but the next day, she thought she would wear it, and went to the drawer where she usually kept it.
The watch was not there. Tilly looked through all her drawers and boxes, but the watch was not to be found.
What was to be done now? What had become of it? Tilly remembered that she had shown it to Flora Lester one morning; and that she had afterwards left Flora alone in the room. That was all she could recollect, and she jumped at once to a conclusion. Flora was a thief: she had stolen Mrs. Hausen's red plant; no doubt she had taken the watch, also. Yes, that was it. Flora Lester, the pattern girl, the girl Miss Van Ness petted, and Miss Garland made so much of, who had just been promoted, and welcomed by the fourth grade girls with so much pleasure, was a thief, and had stolen enough to send her to the State Prison.
Tilly had never liked Flora very well heretofore. Flora was polite and kind to her when she first went to school, and had introduced her to the other girls, and showed her the ways of the school. This was only a part of her duty as the oldest girl in the Kindergarten. The head girl in every grade was expected to show such attentions to strangers. But Tilly had resented this conduct as an attempt at patronage on Flora's part, and had said to herself that Flora Lester needn't put on quite so many airs, seeing that her father was only a poor village doctor, who had not as much money in the world as her (Tilly's) father spent every year.