I wish, and never say such things
about any one again, whoever may tell you. It is our duty never to
speak ill of others, you know; least of all when we know that to do so
will be the cause of much pain and trouble. I hope you will very soon
be able to come back again to us. And now I will say good-bye."

In the shop Miss Rutherford renewed to the chemist her sincere regret
for what had taken place.

"Of course I cannot risk the recurrence of such a thing," she said.
"The child who did it will not return to me, Mr. Smales."

Mr. Smales uttered incoherent excuses, apologies, and thanks, and
shufflingly escorted the lady to his shop-door.

Miss Rutherford went home in trouble. She did not doubt the truth of
what Harriet Smales had told her, for she herself had already
entertained uneasy suspicions, dating indeed from the one interview she
had had with Mrs. Starr, when Ida was first brought to the school, and
deriving confirmation from a chance meeting in the street only a few
days ago. It was only too plain what she must do, and the necessity
grieved her. Ida had not shown any especial brilliancy at her books,
but the child's character was a remarkable one, and displayed a
strength which might eventually operate either for good or for evil.
With careful training, it seemed at present very probable that the good
would predominate. But the task was not such as the schoolmistress felt
able to undertake, bearing in mind the necessity of an irreproachable
character for her school if it were to be kept together at all. The
disagreeable secret had begun to spread; all the children would relate
the events of yesterday in their own homes; to pass the thing over was
impossible. She sincerely regretted the step she must take, and to
which she would not have felt herself driven by any ill-placed prudery
of her own. On Monday morning it must be stated to the girls that Ida
Starr had left.

In the meantime, it only remained to write to Mrs. Starr, and make
known this determination. Miss Rutherford thought for a little while of
going to see Ida's mother, but felt that this would be both painful and
useless. It was difficult even to write, desirous as she was of somehow
mitigating the harshness of this sentence of expulsion. After
half-an-hour spent in efforts to pen a suitable note, she gave up the
attempt to write as she would have wished, and announced the necessity
she was under in the fewest possible words.

CHAPTER II