“Oh, she is not worse than usual,” put in Hetty, in the shrill piping tone which she chose to give to Mrs. Crawford.  “Don’t be alarmed.”

Miss Davis did not easily recover from her first shock of alarm.  She remained quite pale, and Hetty wondered to see so much feeling in a person whom she had often thought to be almost a mere teaching-machine.

“The news is about your uncle,” went on Mark.  “Perhaps you have not heard that he is married.”

“No, I had not heard,” murmured Miss Davis; and she looked as if this indeed was a terrible blow to her.  Hetty was immediately annoyed at her and disappointed in her.  Was Mark right in his estimate of her character?  Hetty had thought her a wonder of high-mindedness and independence of spirit, if very formal and cold.  Was she now going to be proved mercenary and mean?

“Your mother did not write to you about it, fearing it would be a disappointment to you.”

“My uncle has a right to do as he pleases,” said Miss Davis, “and I hope he will be happy”; but her lips were trembling and she looked pained and anxious.  “I thank you very much for your trouble in coming to tell me.  I daresay my mother will write immediately.”

Now Mark was not satisfied with the result of his trick.  He had hoped that Miss Davis would have got very angry, and have said some amusing things.  Her quiet dignity disappointed him, and with an impulse of wild boyish mischief he resolved to try if he could not startle her.

“I am sorry to say I have not told you everything,” he blurted out suddenly.  “I ought to prepare you for the worst, but I don’t know how.”

“Speak, I beg of you,” faltered Miss Davis.

“Your uncle is dead, and has left all his fortune, every penny, to his wife.”

A look came over Miss Davis’s face which the children could not understand.

“My brother!” she said, “can you tell me what has become of my little brother?”

“Run away,” said Mark, who had not known till this moment that she had a brother.

Miss Davis gasped and leaned her face forward on the table.  The next moment they saw her slip away off her chair to the floor.  She had fainted.

Mark was greatly alarmed, and struck with sudden remorse.  Hetty sprang up crying, “Oh, Mark, how could you?”

“What are we to do?” said Mark in despair.

“Here,” said Hetty, “take away all this rubbish of clothes, and hide them.”  And she pulled off her disguise and flew to raise Miss Davis from the floor.

“No, lay her flat,” said Mark; “and here is some water, dash it on her well.  I will come back in a few moments.”

He cast off his own disguise and vanished with his arms full of the articles he and Hetty had worn.  When he returned he found Miss Davis beginning to breathe again, and Hetty crying over her.

“Oh!  Mark, I will never play a trick again as long as I live,” whispered Hetty; “we were near killing her.  How could we dare to meddle with her affairs?”