"You can never be _my_ friend."

"Why not?"

"Let me go!"

Emily's sense of self-respect forbade her to persist any longer.
"I beg your pardon for having kept you here against your will,"
she said--and dropped her hold on the dress.

Miss Jethro instantly yielded on her side. "I am sorry to have
been obstinate," she answered. "If you do despise me, it is after
all no more than I have deserved." Her hot breath beat on Emily's
face: the unhappy woman must have bent over the bed as she made
her confession. "I am not a fit person for you to associate
with."

"I don't believe it!"

Miss Jethro sighed bitterly. "Young and warm hearted--I was once
like you!" She controlled that outburst of despair. Her next
words were spoken in steadier tones. "You _will_ have it--you
_shall_ have it!" she said. "Some one (in this house or out of
it; I don't know which) has betrayed me to the mistress of the
school. A wretch in my situation suspects everybody, and worse
still, does it without reason or excuse. I heard you girls
talking when you ought to have been asleep. You all dislike me.
How did I know it mightn't be one of you? Absurd, to a person
with a well-balanced mind! I went halfway up the stairs, and felt