And so, though at intervals during the day, Andrew dropped mysterious hints anent some still deeper disgrace that had befallen Hubert at Gaston’s hands, just for the sake of “getting a rise” out of Hubert, the girls never discovered the nature of poor Gaston’s further delinquency.
“Well, I don’t care,” said Di, standing in the doorway between her own room and Faith’s, “I always did think Gaston was a horrid little wretch, and now I’m sure of it. He must have done something horribly bad, for Jack said he’d never have forgiven him, if he’d been Hubert.”
“I’m afraid he did,” said Phoena, reluctantly, “but I’m quite sure, it could not have been all Gaston’s fault.”
“Well, it’s quite clear,” said Fay, with the uncompromising finality of early youth, “Gaston isn’t fit to play with our boys, we’ve tried to make the best of him, because he was an orphan and all that, but he has behaved like a little savage, and the less we have to do with him the better.”
But Marygold, who had been put to bed full an hour ago, and was supposed by her elders to be sound asleep, hid her face against the pillow and cried softly. “Oh! dear Father in Heaven,” she prayed, “be kind to poor Gaston, he is such a werry sad little boy.”
The same thought came to soften Mrs. Busson’s heart,—very little was needed to do that,—as according to custom, she took a last look at Gaston, lying in his bed in the little room next her own.
“Poor little dear,” she said, looking down at the small thin face as it lay with closed eyes on the pillow, and carefully shading her light with her hand, that its reflection might not disturb him, “It’s a good little face, that it is, and it isn’t his fault that he was not born a nice English boy like the rest. It is a pity, to be sure, that he’s got to grow up into one of those Frenchmen. Well, I’m glad at any rate, that he’s sleeping so quiet.”
And Mrs. Busson crept away noiselessly to her own room.
Good soul! She little guessed that her softly spoken words had added the last drop of bitterness to Gaston’s already over-full cup. The lids that she had fancied were fast shut over Gaston’s eyes were quivering with wakefulness, and on the ears which she believed to be securely closed in sleep, every word of her mutterings fell clear and distinct.
From that day forward, there was a marked change in the relations between Gaston and the other boys. Whenever they invited him to join in their games and expeditions, he went with them, but more often than not they forgot all about him, and the girls never reminded them.