I never could find out what that cause was;
but the servants spread some reports. They said they had found Maggie
and Annabel together; Annabel had fainted; and Maggie was in an awful
state of misery-- in quite an unnatural state, they said; she went
into hysterics, and Miss Heath was sent for, and was a long time
soothing her. There was no apparent reason for this, although, somehow
or other, little whispers got abroad that the mystery of Annabel's
illness and Maggie's distress was connected with Geoffrey Hammond. Of
course, nothing was known, and nothing is known; but, certainly, the
little whisper got into the air. Dear me, Rosalind, you need not eat
me with your eyes. I am repeating mere conjectures, and it is highly
probable that not the slightest notice would have been taken of this
little rumor but for the tragedy which immediately followed. Annabel,
who had been as gay and well as any one at breakfast that morning, was
never seen in the college again. She was unconscious, the servants
said, for a long time, and when she awoke was in high fever. She was
removed to the hospital, and Maggie had seen the last of her friend.
Poor Annabel died in two days, and afterward Maggie took the fever.
Yes, she has been quite changed since then.
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