A Sweet Girl Graduate

Miss Eccleston looked excited and angry; Miss Heath’s expression was a little perplexed, and a kind of sorrowful mirth brought smiles to her lips now and then, which she was most careful to suppress instantly.

As Maggie made her way to the front of the room she recognised several of the girls. Rosalind Merton, Annie Day, Lucy Marsh, were all present. She saw them, although they were standing hidden behind many other girls. Prissie, too, was there – she had squeezed herself into a corner. She looked awkward, plain, and wretched. She was clasping and unclasping her hands, and trying to subdue the nervous tremors which she could not conceal.

Maggie, as she walked across the room, singled Prissie out. She gave her a swift glance, a brilliant and affectionate smile, and then stood in such a position that neither Miss Eccleston nor Miss Heath could catch a glimpse of her.

Miss Eccleston, who had been speaking when Maggie entered the room, was now silent. She had a note-book in her hand, and was rapidly writing something in it with a pencil. Someone gave Maggie a rather severe prod on her elbow. Polly Singleton, tall, flushed, and heavy, stood close to her side.

“You’ll stand up for me, won’t you, Miss Oliphant?” whispered Polly.

Maggie raised her eyes, looked at the girl, who was even taller than herself, and began to reply in her usual voice.

“Silence,” said Miss Eccleston. She put down her note-book. “I wish for no conversation between you at the present moment, young ladies. Good-evening, Miss Oliphant; I am pleased to see you here. I shall have a few questions to ask you in a minute. Now, Miss Singleton, if you please, we will resume our conversation. You have confessed to the fact of the auction. I wish now to ascertain what your motive was.”

Poor Polly stammered and reddened, twisted her hands as badly as Prissie herself could have done, and looked to right and left of her in the most bewildered and unhappy manner.

“Don’t you hear me, Miss Singleton? I wish to know what your motive was in having an auction in Katharine Hall,” repeated Miss Eccleston.

“Tell her the truth,” whispered Maggie.

Polly, who was in a condition to catch even at a straw for support, said, falteringly —

“I had the auction in my room because of dad.” Miss Eccleston raised her brows. The amused smile of sorrow round Miss Heath’s mouth became more marked. She came forward a few steps, and stood near Miss Eccleston.

“You must explain yourself, Miss Singleton,” repeated the latter lady.

“Do tell everything,” said Maggie, again.

“Dad is about the only person I hate vexing,” began Polly once more. “He is awfully rich, but he hates me to get into debt, and – and – there was no other way to raise money. I couldn’t tell dad – I —couldn’t keep out of debt, so I had to sell my things.”

“You have made a very lame excuse, Miss Singleton,” said Miss Eccleston, after a pause. “You did something which was extremely irregular and improper. Your reason for doing it was even worse than the thing itself. You were in debt. The students of St. Benet’s are not expected to be in debt.”

“But there’s no rule against it,” suddenly interrupted Maggie.

“Hush! your turn to speak will come presently. You know, Miss Singleton – all the right-minded girls in this college know – that we deal in principles, not rules. Now, please go on with your story.”

Polly’s broken and confused narrative continued for the next five minutes. There were some titters from the girls behind her – even Miss Heath smiled faintly. Miss Eccleston alone remained grave and displeased.

“That will do,” she said at last. “You are a silly and rash girl, and your only possible defence is your desire to keep the knowledge of your extravagance from your father. Your love for him, however, has never taught you true nobility. Had you that even in the most shadowy degree, you would abstain from the things which he detests. He gives you an ample allowance. Were you a school-girl and I your mistress, I should punish you severely for your conduct.”

Miss Eccleston paused. Polly put her handkerchief up to her eyes and began to sob loudly.

“Miss Oliphant,” said Miss Eccleston, “will you please account for the fact that you, who are looked up to in this college, you who are one of our senior students, and for whom Miss Heath has a high regard, took part in the disgraceful scenes which occurred in Miss Singleton’s room on Monday evening?”

“I shall certainly tell you the truth,” retorted Maggie. She paused for a moment. Then, the colour flooding her cheeks, and her eyes looking straight before her, she began —

“I went to Miss Singleton’s room knowing that I was doing wrong. I hated to go, and did not take the smallest interest in the proceedings which were being enacted there.” She paused again. Her voice, which had been slightly faltering, grew a little firmer. Her eyes met Miss Heath’s, which were gazing at her in sorrowful and amazed surprise. Then she continued – “I did not go alone. I took another and perfectly innocent girl with me. She is a newcomer, and this is her first term. She would naturally be led by me, and I wish therefore to exonerate her completely. Her name is Priscilla Peel. She did not buy anything, and she hated being there even more than I did, but I took her hand and absolutely forced her to come with me.”

“Did you buy anything at the auction, Miss Oliphant?”

“Yes, a sealskin jacket.”

“Do you mind telling me what you paid for it?”

“Ten guineas.”

“Was that, in your opinion, a fair price for the jacket?”

“The jacket was worth a great deal more. The price I paid for it was much below its value.”

Miss Eccleston made some further notes in her book. Then she looked up.

“Have you anything more to say, Miss Oliphant?”

“I could say more. I could make you think even worse of me than you now think, but as any further disclosures of mine would bring another girl into trouble I would rather not speak.”

“You are certainly not forced to speak. I am obliged to you for the candour with which you have treated me.”

Miss Eccleston then turned to Miss Heath, and said a few words to her in a low voice. Her words were not heard by the anxiously listening girls, but they seemed to displease Miss Heath, who shook her head; but Miss Eccleston held very firmly to her own opinion. After a pause of a few minutes, Miss Heath came forward and addressed the young girls who were assembled before her.

“The leading spirit of this college,” she said, “is almost perfect immunity from the bondage of rules. The Principals of these Halls have fully trusted the students who reside in them, and relied on their honour, their rectitude, their sense of sound principle. Hitherto we have had no reason to complain that the spirit of absolute trust which we have shown has been abused; but the circumstance which has just occurred has given Miss Eccleston and myself some pain.”

“It has surprised us; it has given us a blow,” interrupted Miss Eccleston.

“And Miss Eccleston feels,” proceeded Miss Heath, “and perhaps she is right, that the matter ought to be laid before the college authorities, who will decide what are the best steps to be taken.”

“You don’t agree with that view, do you, Miss Heath?” asked Maggie Oliphant suddenly.

“At first I did not. I leant to the side of mercy. I thought you might all have learnt a lesson in the distress which you have caused us, and that such an occurrence could not happen again.”

“Won’t Miss Eccleston adopt your views?” questioned Maggie. She glanced round at her fellow-students as she spoke.

“No – no,” interrupted Miss Eccleston. “I cannot accept the responsibility. The college authorities must decide the matter.”

“Remember,” said Maggie, stepping forward a pace or two, “that we are no children. If we were at school you ought to punish us, and, of course, you would. I hate what I have done, and I own it frankly. But you cannot forget, Miss Eccleston, that no girl here has broken a rule when she attended the auction, and bought Miss Singleton’s things; and that even Miss Singleton has broken no rule when she went in debt.”

There was a buzz of applause and even a cheer from the girls in the background. Miss Eccleston looked angry, but perplexed. Miss Heath again turned and spoke to her. She replied in a low tone. Miss Heath said something further. At last Miss Eccleston sat down, and Miss Heath came forward and addressed Maggie Oliphant.

“Your words have been scarcely respectful, Miss Oliphant,” she said, “but there is a certain justice in them which my friend, Miss Eccleston, is the first to admit. She has consented, therefore, to defer her final decision for twenty-four hours; at the end of that time the students of Katharine Hall and Heath Hall will know what we finally decide to do.”

After the meeting in Miss Eccleston’s drawing-room the affair of the auction assumed enormous proportions. There was no other topic of conversation. The students took sides vigorously in the matter: the gay, giddy, and careless ones voting the auction a rare bit of fun, and upholding those who had taken part in it with all their might and main. The more sober and high-minded girls, on the other hand, took Miss Heath’s and Miss Eccleston’s views of the matter. The principles of the college had been disregarded, the spirit of order had been broken; debt, which was disgraceful, was made light of. These girls felt that the tone of St. Benet’s was lowered. Even Maggie Oliphant sank in their estimation. A few went to the length of saying that they could no longer include her in their set.

Katharine Hall, the scene of the auction itself, was, of course, now the place of special interest. Heath Hall was also implicated in it, but Seymour Hall, which stood a little apart from its sister Halls, had sent no student to the scene of dissipation. Seymour Hall was the smallest of the three. It was completely isolated from the others, standing in its own lovely grounds on the other side of the road. It now held its head high, and the girls who belonged to the other Halls, but had taken no part in the auction, felt that their own beloved Halls were lowered, and their resentment was all the keener because the Seymour Hall girls gave themselves airs.

“I shall never live through it,” said Ida Mason, a Heath Hall girl to her favourite chum, Constance Field. “Nothing can ever be the same again. If my mother knew, Constance, I feel almost sure she would remove me. The whole thing is so small and shabby and horrid, and then to think of Maggie taking part in it! Aren’t you awfully shocked, Constance? What is your true opinion?”

“My true opinion,” said Constance, “is this: it is our duty to uphold our own Hall and our own chums. As to the best of us, if we are the best, going away because a thing of this sort has occurred, it is not to be thought of for a moment. Why, Ida,” Constance laughed as she spoke, “you might as well expect one of the leading officers to desert his regiment when going into battle. You know what Maggie Oliphant is, Ida. As to deserting her because she has had one of her bad half-hours, which she frankly confessed to, like the brave girl she is, I would as soon cut off my right hand. Now, Ida, my dear, don’t be a little goose. Your part, instead of grumbling and growling, and hinting at the place not being fit for you, is to go round to every friend you have in Heath Hall, and get them to rally round Maggie and Miss Heath.”

“There’s that poor Miss Peel, too,” said Ida, “Maggie’s new friend – that queer, plain girl; she’s sure to be frightfully bullied. I suppose I’d better stick up for her as well?”