enny would talk
readily enough about the school. But on one point--the tribulation it was
bringing upon Aunt Butson--he kept silence; for the thought of it made him
unhappy. He knew that Hester was innocent, but he could not wholly acquit
himself of complicity in the poor old woman's fate. Mr. Benny had a
troublesome and tender conscience in all matters that concerned his duty
towards his neighbour. The School Board was driving Mrs. Butson out of
employ, taking away her scanty earnings; and he was Clerk to the School
Board. To be sure, if he resigned to-morrow, another man would take his
place, and Mrs. Butson be not one penny the better. Mr. Benny saw this,
yet it did not ease his conscience wholly.

Hester, too, kept silence. Her way to the school led her past the little
shanty (originally a carpenter's workshop) in which Aunt Butson taught.
It stood a stone's-throw back from the village street, partly concealed by
a clump of elms; but once or twice she had heard and spied children at
play between the trees there--children with faces unfamiliar to her--and
gathered that the old woman still kept her door open. As the days went by
the date for raising Mrs. Trevarthen's rent, and the cottage still showed
every sign of habitation, she took it for granted that Mr. Sam had
relented--possibly in obedience to his promise not to persecute the young
sailor. She did not know that, in serving his notice without consulting
Peter Benny, Mr. Sam had made a trifling mistake; that Mrs. Trevarthen
held her cottage on a quarterly tenancy, and could neither have her rent
raised nor be evicted before Michaelmas. Hester would have been puzzled
to say precisely what sealed her lips from inquiry. Partly, no doubt, she
shrank from discovering a fresh obligation to Mr. Sam, whose unctuous
handshake she was learning to detest. Tom Trevarthen had disappeared.
His mother kept house unmolested. Why not let sleeping dogs lie?
For the rest, the school absorbed most of her thoughts, and paid back
interest in cheerfulness. The children were beginning to show signs of
loyalty, and a teacher who has won loyalty has won everything. Myra alone
stood aloof, sullen, impervious to kindness.

In truth, Myra was suffering. For the first time in their lives her will
and Clem's had come into conflict; and Clem's revealed itself as
unexpectedly, almost hopelessly, stubborn. That the _Virtuous Lady_ had
sailed for Quebec, carrying away Aunt Hanna