"Wilkie Collins - I Say No" - читать интересную книгу автора (Collins Wilkie)

The sound of the softly-closed door was just audible in the darkness. She had
spoken--she had gone--never to be seen by Emily again.
Miserable, interesting, unfathomable creature--the problem that night of Emily's
waking thoughts: the phantom of her dreams. "Bad? or good?" she asked herself.
"False; for she listened at the door. True; for she told me the tale of her own
disgrace. A friend of my father; and she never knew that he had a daughter.
Refined, accomplished, lady-like; and she stoops to use a false reference. Who
is to reconcile such contradictions as these?"
Dawn looked in at the window--dawn of the memorable day which was, for Emily,
the beginning of a new life. The years were before her; and the years in their
course reveal baffling mysteries of life and death.



CHAPTER IV.
MISS LADD'S DRAWING-MASTER.
Francine was awakened the next morning by one of the housemaids, bringing up her
breakfast on a tray. Astonished at this concession to laziness, in an
institution devoted to the practice of all virtues, she looked round. The
bedroom was deserted.
"The other young ladies are as busy as bees, miss," the housemaid explained.
"They were up and dressed two hours ago: and the breakfast has been cleared away
long since. It's Miss Emily's fault. She wouldn't allow them to wake you; she
said you could be of no possible use downstairs, and you had better be treated
like a visitor. Miss Cecilia was so distressed at your missing your breakfast
that she spoke to the housekeeper, and I was sent up to you. Please to excuse it
if the tea's cold. This is Grand Day, and we are all topsy-turvy in
consequence."
Inquiring what "Grand Day" meant, and why it produced this extraordinary result
in a ladies' school, Francine discovered that the first day of the vacation was
devoted to the distribution of prizes, in the presence of parents, guardians and
friends. An Entertainment was added, comprising those merciless tests of human
endurance called Recitations; light refreshments and musical performances being
distributed at intervals, to encourage the exhausted audience. The local
newspaper sent a reporter to describe the proceedings, and some of Miss Ladd's
young ladies enjoyed the intoxicating luxury of seeing their names in print.
"It begins at three o'clock," the housemaid went on, "and, what with practicing
and rehearsing, and ornamenting the schoolroom, there's a hubbub fit to make a
person's head spin. Besides which," said the girl, lowering her voice, and
approaching a little nearer to Francine, "we have all been taken by surprise.
The first thing in the morning Miss Jethro left us, without saying good-by to
anybody."
"Who is Miss Jethro?"
"The new teacher, miss. We none of us liked her, and we all suspect there's
something wrong. Miss Ladd and the clergyman had a long talk together yesterday
(in private, you know), and they sent for Miss Jethro--which looks bad, doesn't
it? Is there anything more I can do for you, miss? It's a beautiful day after
the rain. If I was you, I should go and enjoy myself in the garden."
Having finished her breakfast, Francine decided on profiting by this sensible
suggestion.