Excellent advice was given; the question was, Would it be followed?
For Dorothy there was less doubt. Miss Ashton 247 had already found a school for her, where, excellently well-fitted, she could begin in the fall her career as a teacher. Of her success, only Dorothy felt a doubt.
Susan Downer, Miss Ashton had put off seeing until the last, hoping the girl would come herself and confess, if there was anything to confess; but as day after day went by, Susan shunning her when she could, and when she could not, passing her with averted face, Miss Ashton saw she must take the matter into her own hands and settle it one way or other; to ignore was to condone it. It was, therefore, only a few days before the close of the term when Susan, who had grown almost buoyant in her hope of escape, found herself summoned to what she was sure was to be her final trial.
“She can’t expel me now,” she said to herself triumphantly as she went to the room, “and she can’t withhold my diploma, for that is for scholarship, and I stand well there, so I’m safe at any rate.”
Still it was a trembling, pale girl that answered Miss Ashton’s “Come in.”
“I do not want you to leave me uncertain both of your truth and honesty,” she said gently. “I have been waiting, hoping you would come to me of yourself, but as you have not, I demand now an answer to my question. Did, or did you not write ‘Storied West Rock’?”
“I d—i—d.”
Before she had time to finish the answer, Miss Ashton had said emphatically, “not; I know the 248 truth, Susan! I want to spare you the falsehood I see you are about to tell.”
“I am not going to ask you where you found the story; I only want you to see, and see so plainly that you can never forget it, how small and mean a thing such a deceit, or any deceit, is, and how sure in the end to turn to the injury of the one who commits it. Of all the class that are to leave me, you, Susan Downer, carry away with you my greatest anxiety for your future. God help and save you, you poor child!”
Miss Ashton’s voice had tears in it as she ceased speaking, and those, more than any words she had spoken, reached and moved the girl before her.