"I wish I had gone home when I had father's last letter," reflected the girl, looking in her mirror at the traces of grief that insisted on setting their stamp upon her olive face. "But now, of course that old cat Higley will make a fuss—Oh, I wish I never had seen these cracked walls. I wish I had gone to a fashionable school—"
She stopped suddenly. Why not get away now to that swell school near Boston? She could surely set aside her mother's foolish sentiment about Glenwood,—just because she had met Mrs. Pangborn abroad and had become interested in this particular school for girls.
Viola had enough of it. She would leave—go home. And then perhaps—she might get to the Beaumonde Academy.
CHAPTER XXI
SUNSHINE AGAIN
A sense of suppressed excitement greeted Dorothy as she entered the classroom. Edna and Molly managed to greet her personally with a pleasant little nod, and even Miss Higley raised her eyes to say good morning.
Certainly Dorothy felt heroic—and she had good reason. Having suffered so long from a mysterious insult, she now had fortified herself against its stigma.
At the same time she was conscious of an awful weight hanging over her head—like the gloom of those who suffer without hope.
"She just looks like a sweet nun," whispered Ned to Amy.