Sara looked down and flushed a little,because she thought her pet fancy might not be easy for strangers--even nice ones--to understand at first.
"I--TRIED not to be anything else,"she answered in a low voice--"even when I was coldest and hungriest--I tried not to be."
"Now it will not be necessary to try,"said Miss Minchin,acidly,as Ram Dass salaamed her out of the room.
She returned home and,going to her sitting room,sent at once for Miss Amelia.She sat closeted with her all the rest of the afternoon,and it must be admitted that poor Miss Amelia passed through more than one bad quarter of an hour.She shed a good many tears,and mopped her eyes a good deal.One of her unfortunate remarks almost caused her sister to snap her head entirely off,but it resulted in an unusual manner.
"I'm not as clever as you,sister,"she said,"and I am always afraid to say things to you for fear of making you angry.
Perhaps if I were not so timid it would be better for the school and for both of us.I must say I've often thought it would have been better if you had been less severe on Sara Crewe,and had seen that she was decently dressed and more comfortable.
I KNOW she was worked too hard for a child of her age,and I know she was only half fed--"
"How dare you say such a thing!"exclaimed Miss Minchin.
"I don't know how I dare,"Miss Amelia answered,with a kind of reckless courage;"but now I've begun I may as well finish,whatever happens to me.The child was a clever child and a good child--and she would have paid you for any kindness you had shown her.
But you didn't show her any.The fact was,she was too clever for you,and you always disliked her for that reason.She used to see through us both--"
"Amelia!"gasped her infuriated elder,looking as if she would box her ears and knock her cap off,as she had often done to Becky.
But Miss Amelia's disappointment had made her hysterical enough not to care what occurred next.
"She did!She did!"she cried."She saw through us both.
She saw that you were a hard-hearted,worldly woman,and that I was a weak fool,and that we were both of us vulgar and mean enough to grovel on our knees for her money,and behave ill to her because it was taken from her--though she behaved herself like a little princess even when she was a beggar.She did--she did--like a little princess!"And her hysterics got the better of the poor woman,and she began to laugh and cry both at once,and rock herself backward and forward.
"And now you've lost her,"she cried wildly;"and some other school will get her and her money;and if she were like any other child she'd tell how she's been treated,and all our pupils would be taken away and we should be ruined.And it serves us right;but it serves you right more than it does me,for you are a hard woman,Maria Minchin,you're a hard,selfish,worldly woman!"
And she was in danger of making so much noise with her hysterical chokes and gurgles that her sister was obliged to go to her and apply salts and sal volatile to quiet her,instead of pouring forth her indignation at her audacity.
And from that time forward,it may be mentioned,the elder Miss Minchin actually began to stand a little in awe of a sister who,while she looked so foolish,was evidently not quite so foolish as she looked,and might,consequently,break out and speak truths people did not want to hear.
That evening,when the pupils were gathered together before the fire in the schoolroom,as was their custom before going to bed,Ermengarde came in with a letter in her hand and a queer expression on her round face.It was queer because,while it was an expression of delighted excitement,it was combined with such amazement as seemed to belong to a kind of shock just received.
"What IS the matter?"cried two or three voices at once.
"Is it anything to do with the row that has been going on?"
