"But, Tilly, your own sister Emmeline is very religious, I am sure. She goes to all the meetings, and has a class in Sunday-school, and all."
"Yes, I know it; and if it was any one else, father wouldn't leave them any peace; but he lets Emmy have her own way in everything, because he thinks she is consumptive, like mother, and won't live long."
"Does Emmeline think that Florry took the watch?"
"She does not know anything about it. She has gone to the city for a few days."
"Well, I must go and look over my geography," said Priscilla. "I am sure I hope you will find your watch."
Before recess that day, almost every girl in the primary room had been told, under a solemn pledge of secrecy, that Florry Lester had stolen Tilly Mansfield's watch and chain, and that when Mr. Mansfield came home, she would have to give it up, and perhaps be sent to State's Prison. They knew, too, (for such stories never lose anything in the telling,) that Florry had stolen from Mrs. Hausen ever so many times; but that Mrs. Hausen had forgiven her for her mother's sake. Some of the girls began to remember how they had unaccountably lost knives and pencils, and other small possessions; and that their paper had been used up very fast. Elizabeth Miller recollected, or thought she did, that she had never seen her tortoise-shell handled knife since one day that she had lent it to Florry to sharpen a pencil; and her sister told how she had once come early to school, and found Florry looking over all the girls' books, pretending that she had lost her own history.
Some of the girls, indeed, took Florry's part vehemently, and threatened "to tell Miss Van Ness;" but Tilly boldly told them to tell, if they liked: it would only bring matters out, and Florry into disgrace all the sooner. In short, the Kindergarten had never been in such a ferment before.
Florry, meantime, had not the least idea of what was going on. She had for two days studied in the fourth grade room, where she had, at first, felt very lonely and homesick; but the girls were all kind to her; and Miss Reynolds, who had the care of the room, took pains to make her feel at home, and she was beginning to like it. She did not go out at the morning recess, but spent her time in the library, looking at a curious book of costumes which Miss Foster the librarian took down for her. Florry had applied for permission to remain another term in the lower room, but it had not been thought best; and she consoled herself by thinking that perhaps Emma would try harder, now that she had nobody to help her.
"So, Florry, you have found your way to the library already," said Mr. Hausen, kindly, as he came into the room, and found Florry busy with her book. "That is right. The books were made to be used."
"The girls here don't know half their privileges," remarked Miss Foster, when the president left the room. "When I was at Eaton College, the girls no more thought of going to the library for a book to read than they did of going to the moon."