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

leaving school?"
In her present mood, Emily took the opportunity (in the popular phrase) of
snubbing Francine. "You have guessed wrong; I do regret," she answered. "I have
found in Cecilia my dearest friend at school. And school brought with it the
change in my life which has helped me to bear the loss of my father. If you must
know what I was thinking of just now, I was thinking or my aunt. She has not
answered my last letter--and I'm beginning to be afraid she is ill."
"I'm very sorry," said Francine.
"Why? You don't know my aunt; and you have only known me since yesterday
afternoon. Why are you sorry?"
Francine remained silent. Without realizing it, she was beginning to feel the
dominant influence that Emily exercised over the weaker natures that came in
contact with her. To find herself irresistibly attracted by a stranger at a new
school--an unfortunate little creature, whose destiny was to earn her own
living--filled the narrow mind of Miss de Sor with perplexity. Having waited in
vain for a reply, Emily turned away, and resumed the train of thought which her
schoolfellow had interrupted.
By an association of ideas, of which she was not herself aware, she now passed
from thinking of her aunt to thinking of Miss Jethro. The interview of the
previous night had dwelt on her mind at intervals, in the hours of the new day.
Acting on instinct rather than on reason, she had kept that remarkable incident
in her school life a secret from every one. No discoveries had been made by
other persons. In speaking to her staff of teachers, Miss Ladd had alluded to
the affair in the most cautious terms. "Circumstances of a private nature have
obliged the lady to retire from my school. When we meet after the holidays,
another teacher will be in her place." There, Miss Ladd's explanation had begun
and ended. Inquiries addressed to the servants had led to no result. Miss
Jethro's luggage was to be forwarded to the London terminus of the railway--and
Miss Jethro herself had baffled investigation by leaving the school on foot.
Emily's interest in the lost teacher was not the transitory interest of
curiosity; her father's mysterious friend was a person whom she honestly desired
to see again. Perplexed by the difficulty of finding a means of tracing Miss
Jethro, she reached the shady limit of the trees, and turned to walk back again.
Approaching the place at which she and Francine had met, an idea occurred to
her. It was just possible that Miss Jethro might not be unknown to her aunt.
Still meditating on the cold reception that she had encountered, and still
feeling the influence which mastered her in spite of herself, Francine
interpreted Emily's return as an implied expression of regret. She advanced with
a constrained smile, and spoke first.
"How are the young ladies getting on in the schoolroom?" she asked, by way of
renewing the conversation.
Emily's face assumed a look of surprise which said plainly, Can't you take a
hint and leave me to myself?
Francine was constitutionally impenetrable to reproof of this sort; her thick
skin was not even tickled. "Why are you not helping them," she went on; "you who
have the clearest head among us and take the lead in everything?"
It may be a humiliating confession to make, yet it is surely true that we are
all accessible to flattery. Different tastes appreciate different methods of
burning incense--but the perfume is more or less agreeable to all varieties of
noses. Francine's method had its tranquilizing effect on Emily. She answered