Mrs. Pangborn had intended calling Miette to her office and charging her with this complaint, made by Miss Bylow, when the unhappy ending to the pranks on initiation night almost threw the child into nervous prostration. This postponed the investigation.
So, as the matter rested only Nita Brandt, and perhaps Miss Bylow, knew the contents of the disastrous note. If Dorothy only could know it she felt she would be able to do something to “mend matters.” But how was she to find out? She could not ask Nita Brandt, neither could she think of asking Miss Bylow.
So Dorothy turned the matter over and over in her busy brain. Finally she made a resolve: she would ask Miette.
CHAPTER XIV
DOROTHY TO THE RESCUE
The cloud that had so persistently floated over the head of Miette since the girls of Nita’s clique showed their disapproval of the new pupil, now seemed to have settled down upon her with a strange, sullen gloom.
She attended her classes, recited her lessons, but beyond the mere mechanical duties of school life she took no part in the world of girls about her. Even Dorothy did not feel welcome in Miette’s room. The little French girl wanted to be alone, that was painfully evident.
Neither had she received any letters. This fact struck Mrs. Pangborn as strange, as usually the first week of the new term is marked by an abundance of mail, concerning things forgotten, things too late to go in with the packing, things that thoughtful mothers wished to remind their daughters of lest some important health rule should be laid aside in the school and so on; but to Miette no such message came. The girl had come to Glenwood under rather strange arrangements, as only an aunt who brought with her a line of introduction from a business acquaintance of Mrs. Pangborn came with the new pupil.
But the girl was so eager to enter the school, and appeared so gentle and refined that Mrs. Pangborn accepted the pupil upon the word of this business friend in whom, however, she had unquestionable confidence.
So it happened that the president of Glenwood knew practically nothing of Miette’s home life. This aunt, a Mrs. Huber, had told Mrs. Pangborn of the recent death of Miette’s mother, and also that she had charge of the girl and she wished her to try one term at Glenwood. Her tuition was paid in advance, and so Miette stayed. But Mrs. Pangborn could not help observing that no show of affection passed between the niece and aunt at parting, but this she attributed to a possible foreign conservatism or even to personal peculiarities.