Leucha sat in the audience, rather far back, nearly stunned with horror. Oh, the cruelty of the whole thing! Of course she recognised Daisy; of course she recognised the caricature of herself. Oh! it was a wicked, wicked thing to do, and she had no sympathy, and no friend anywhere. She sat, it is true, amongst the girls, but she was not one of them. They were absolutely yelling with laughter over the pranks of the cat and the terror of the dog. They had never seen so fine a piece of acting in their lives before.
One girl was heard to say distinctly to another, 'Why, if that wee doggie is not Leucha to the life, I 'm very much mistaken;' and Leucha heard the words and knew that the mongrel dog was meant for her, and yet she dared not do anything. She clung to her seat in abject misery.
Suddenly the lights on the stage were lowered. They were made strangely, weirdly dim; a kind of blue light pervaded the scene; the different animals crouched together; and ghostie, very tall, very skeleton-like, very fearsome, with his jet-black eyes, walked calmly on. Oh, but he was a gruesome thing to see! There was a look of horror on his face, and when he spoke, his words were awful.
'I have come from the bottom of the cold lake. Dry my wet locks. Which of you all will dry my locks? The poor beasties cannot. I must jump over the enclosure and walk among the lassies and see which of them will dry my dripping locks!'
The blue light now pervaded all parts of the room, and the ghost went straight up to Leucha.
'You are brave; do this favour for poor ghostie. See how my black eyes glitter into yours! Will not one of you come forward and dry my sleekit locks? I thought the bravest lass in the school would do it, so I came straight to wee Leuchy; but she has turned her head aside. What ails the lassie? What can be coming over her, and she so brave and so noble?'
The intense sarcasm in these words caused the entire school to shriek with laughter, in the midst of which Leucha flew to her room, vowing that even the Duke's locket and crest would not keep her another day in this fearful school.
Now the forgiving nature of Hollyhock Lennox has been often mentioned; but just now she felt very nearly as angry with Leucha as Leucha was with her. It was a strange sort of anger, an anger mingled with love, for had Leucha said the slightest word, that warm, warm heart of the Scots girl would have been hers once again.