Explore "Girls New and Old" by L.T. Meade on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
IT is a trite saying that the powers of evil help those who are on their side. That night, by a misadventure, Cecil dropped the letter which Miss Forester had written to her. By a more cruel misadventure Matilda picked it up. Cecil and Molly had both written to Miss Forester; their letters had reached the post in time to catch the London mail. Their minds were quite light and happy on the subject. To make all safe, Cecil intended to destroy Miss Forester's letter before she went to bed that night. Kate's bedroom was on the drawing-room floor, but Matilda, Molly, and Cecil slept on the floor above. Cecil carried her portfolio under her arm; it was packed with letters, slips of paper, and small documents of all kind. Miss Forester's letter, among others, had been crowded into this overfull receptacle; it slipped out, no one knew how. Quick as thought, Matilda put her foot on it. Cecil did not notice the circumstance. Matilda slipped the letter into her pocket, reached her bedroom, and danced about.
"Now I have it," she said to herself; "now I am safe; no one can accuse me now of having eavesdropped. I am safe; I know exactly what to do in the future."