She knew how strongly the child was influenced by her
likings and lovings, and feared that this might be the case of Scamp
over again, with the important difference that Hetty was now a girl in
her twelfth year, and that her new favourite might prove to be a human
being instead of a dog.
The next day Hetty was seriously ill. She had caught a severe cold and
lay tossing feverishly in her bed. Miss Davis came up to see her in the
afternoon and sat at her bedside for half an hour.
"Hetty," she said, "I fear you must have been very foolish yesterday,
and that your cold is the consequence. Now that we are alone I expect
you will tell me exactly all that you did."
"I can't indeed, Miss Davis."
"You disappoint me exceedingly. I had been thinking so much better of
you; I conclude you were not alone yesterday."
"Not all the time, but most of it."
"Who was with you when you were not alone?"
Hetty hesitated, and then said, "Mark."
"But Mark was out riding with his father."
"Yes."
"And you were alone all that time."
"Yes."
"And yet there is something behind that you will not tell.
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