Again Maddy was at fault, and her low-spoken "I don't know" sounded
like a wail of despair. Did she know anything, Guy wondered, and
feeling some curiosity now to ascertain that fact, he plied her with
questions philosophical, questions algebraical, and questions
geometrical, until in an agony of distress Maddy raised her hands
deprecatingly, as if she would ward off any similar questions, and
sobbed out: "Oh, sir, no more. It makes my head so dizzy. They don't teach that in
common schools. Ask me something I do know."
Suddenly it occurred to Guy that he had gone entirely wrong, and
mentally cursing himself for the blockhead the doctor had called him,
he asked, kindly: "What do they teach? Perhaps you can enlighten me?"
"Geography, arithmetic, grammar, history, and spelling-book," Madeline
replied, untying and throwing off her bonnet, in the vain hope that it
might bring relief to her poor, giddy head, which throbbed so
fearfully that all her ideas seemed for the time to have left her.
This was a natural consequence of the high excitement under which she
was laboring, and so, when Guy did ask her concerning the books
designated, she answered but little better than before, and Guy was
wondering what he should do next, when the doctor's welcome step was
heard, and leaving Madeline again, he repaired to the next room to
report his ill success.
"She does not seem to know anything. The veriest child ought to do
better than she has done. Why, she has scarcely answered half a dozen
questions correctly."
This was what poor Maddy heard, though it was spoken in a low whisper;
but every word was distinctly understood and burned into her heart's
core, drying her tears and hardening her into a block of marble. She
knew that Guy had not done her justice, and this helped to increase
the torpor stealing over her. Still she did not lose a syllable of
what was saying in the back office, and her lip curled scornfully when
she heard Guy remark: "I pity her; she is so young, and evidently
takes it so hard. Maybe she's as good as they average. Suppose we give
her the certificate."
Then Dr. Holbrook spoke, but to poor, dazed Maddy his words were all a
riddle. It was nothing to him--who was he that he should be dictating
thus? There seemed to be a difference of opinion between the young
men, Guy insisting that out of pity she should not be rejected; and
the doctor demurring on the ground that he ought to be more strict. As
usual, Guy overruled, and seating himself at the table, the doctor was
just commencing: "I hereby certify--" while Guy was bending over him,
when the latter was startled by a hand laid firmly on his arm, and
turning quickly he confronted Madeline Clyde, who, with her short hair
pushed from her blue-veined forehead, her face as pale as ashes, save
where a round spot of purplish red burned upon her cheeks, and her
eyes gleaming like coals of fire, stood before him.