CHAPTER XVII.

LYING CONTAGIOUS.

THE next morning, when school was dismissed, Miss Salsbury and her niece, Miss Farley, started immediately for the next town, where they had business. It was near night before they were able to return, and they were driving through a retired street which shortened their distance about a mile, when they saw in front of them a buggy upset, and a crowd rapidly gathering about it.

"I am afraid some one is injured," remarked Miss Farley, as they drew nearer. "See, they are lifting a lady from the ground."

"John," said Miss Salsbury to the driver, "stop here. We cannot get through the crowd and I wish to get out."

The man, who was on the front seat, went on a few yards, stopped, stood up in the carriage to see better, and then said,—

"That's one of our young ladies, ma'am, the one I hear 'em call the beauty."

At this moment, Mr. Morris limped away from the buggy, trying to walk to a house near by. He was evidently suffering, and his face was deathly pale. A horrible suspicion flashed through Miss Salsbury's mind. Miss Saunders, her pupil, had deceived her,—had taken advantage of her absence to break the rules of the school, and ride with Mr. Morris. Without waiting for John to open the door, she turned the handle herself and got out. Two men were assisting Alice up the steps to the house, when Miss Salsbury stopped them.

"You needn't take the young lady up there," she said; "I have a carriage here and will convey her home. If one of you will go for the doctor as quickly as possible, and ask him to call at the Ladies' Seminary, you will do Miss Saunders a great favor."

The men turned and lifted the young miss down the steps.

"John," called his mistress, "take Miss Saunders in your arms and lift her into the carriage as carefully as you used to lift your sick mother. My niece will support her, and I will sit in front."

Mr. Morris stood with his hand to his head, viewing all these arrangements with a stupid gaze of astonishment. It seemed so strange that, of all persons in the world, the preceptress should happen to be there.

Just as they started away and while the crowd stood gazing after them, Miss Salsbury said,—

"Mr. Morris, you will do me a favor if you will request Dr. Bowles to call at the Ladies' Seminary this evening."

Dr. Wilson reached the hall nearly as soon as the preceptress was ready for him. With the proffered assistance of John, Alice was conveyed to her room, where she was laid on the bed, groaning terribly.

"A sad accident, miss!" said the doctor, bending over her.

She opened her eyes and said feebly, "I have broken my arm. I—"

"Get me some camphor or sal volatile," urged the physician, "she is faint; or stay, I have some ammonia."

When she revived, the young lady complained of severe pain in the side and difficulty in drawing a breath. The doctor soon discovered that, in addition to her broken arm, she had broken two ribs.

It was more than an hour before the jacket he wished for a support to her side could be prepared. And then her poor arm must be carefully splintered, so that a second message came from Dr. Bowles before he could leave.

As yet Miss Salsbury had found no time to inquire into the particulars of the accident; but after the patient, under the influence of an anodyne, had fallen asleep, she learned that soon after she rode from the door, Alice and Ella started from the hall for a walk; one of the teachers remembering the fact from the circumstance of Miss Saunders wearing her dress, hat, and mantilla.

Ella returned in less than an hour, saying her companion had extended her walk to the village. Miss Salsbury instantly sent for Ella, who, since the accident, had sat in her room crying bitterly. She was now completely humbled and ready to confess everything.

The preceptress listened with horror as the child unfolded a long tissue of falsehoods into which she had been led by her artful friend.

"I haven't been happy at all as I used to be," sighed Ella. "I wanted to confess to you how wicked I have been, and how wicked Ned was growing, for he has told Dr. Bowles a great many lies; but Alice wouldn't let me."

"Poor child," said her teacher, "I ought to have guarded you from such influences; but I never knew you were intimate."

"Alice told me not to speak to her when others were by. She was afraid you would suspect about Ned," sobbed the weeping girl. "Oh, how sorry my mother will feel! Do you think Ned is hurt so he will die?"

"No, Ella; I do not imagine either he or Miss Saunders are in any immediate danger; but I am more shocked than I can tell you at what I have heard. I hope, dear child, you will learn by this sad experience how dangerous it is to trifle with God's commands. Solomon says, 'A lying tongue is but for a moment.' Sooner or later a liar will be put to confusion, and his words, even though he speak the truth, be distrusted."

"My mother taught me to tell the truth," faltered Ella, her lip quivering; "and I don't believe Ned ever told lies till he knew Alice."

The next morning, when the doctor came, he told her that Alice was far more comfortable than his other patient, who had struck his head against a stone, and had been delirious all night. On first reaching home, however, he had frankly confessed to his teacher his sorrow at having broken the rules of the school, taking all the blame of the accident on himself, saying he was struck with the beauty of Ella's friend, and had repeatedly invited her to ride with him, which she had constantly refused until the occasion when this dreadful accident occurred.

From one of his classmates, the doctor learned that he confessed to have hired the buggy professedly to carry his sister to ride, but always intending to take Alice, and thought the accident a just punishment for the deception he had practised toward his teacher. They rode about ten miles to a neighboring town, and were returning to the place where Miss Saunders wished to alight, when the horse took fright and ran backward against a stone wall, upsetting the buggy and throwing them both to the ground.

During the night, his thoughts ran upon his mother, who he seemed to imagine was standing over him, and whom, in the most heartrending terms, he implored to forgive him.

The first moment of returning consciousness, he begged the nurse to ask his teacher to come to his bedside, and when Dr. Bowles instantly complied, entreated that his mother might not hear of his sad conduct until he could write and confess it to her.

"I am her only boy," he said, feebly putting his hot hand on the doctor's, "and it will not hurt her so much if she hears it from me."

Dr. Bowles readily promised this, offering to send for Mrs. Morris if he wished, only stating that he had met with an accident.

The young man hesitated for a moment, and then said,—

"If I'd done my duty, I shouldn't have been hurt. I ought not to make her suffer for my fault. No, I'll try and do without her, though I never was sick without her being by me."

Miss Salsbury was much affected by this account, and sighed as she remembered that her pupil had, as yet, manifested no penitence. Indeed, she replied to any question that was asked her only in monosyllables, whispering that it hurt her to talk.

The physician pronounced her free from fever, and, ordering that the bandages on the arm should not be disturbed and that the patient should live on gruel for a day or two, he took his leave.

On his departure, the preceptress sat down to her desk, and wrote as follows:

"MR. SAUNDERS.

"Dear Sir:— When you confided your daughter to my care, you mentioned that she was addicted to falsehood. I, therefore, placed her in the room with my niece, and thought that if she did not receive good impressions from the influences around her, she certainly could do no harm to my other pupils; but I was mistaken. Alice, beautiful and accomplished, soon acquired an influence with her schoolmates which, I am deeply pained to tell you, she has used for evil. She has set her will in defiance of the rules of the school, and brought pain and sorrow, not only upon herself, but upon others.

"Yesterday she was thrown from a carriage while riding stealthily with a young man, a member of an academy near us. She induced the sister of this youth to be the medium of communication between them, and what was far worse, to tell repeated falsehoods when questioned on the subject.

"Your daughter was fortunate to escape with a broken arm and two broken ribs. The doctor reports her this morning as doing well; and I have provided a nurse to take the exclusive care of her.

"Under these circumstances, it is my wish that she should be removed as soon as she is able to bear the journey. I will instantly report to you if there is an unfavorable change, unless you should wish to visit your daughter immediately.

"Yours respectfully, "M. A. SALSBURY."