to act dumb
charades in the hall, and Miss Drummond and the teachers are all there
to watch. Come along! We've thought of some most lovely words, which I'm
sure they'll never think of guessing."

So another opportunity was lost, and Aldred's secret was still untold.
She dared not run the risk of breaking the friendship. If she was blamed
for such a small fault, could she ever be forgiven for so much greater a
deception? It was so sweet to be the very centre of Mabel's adoration,
to be placed on a pinnacle, and loved with such rapturous devotion.
Could she bear to see all this fade utterly, or even partially, away?
No! She was glad and thankful that the letter had been burnt; she felt
as if she had escaped from a great danger. She told Miss Bardsley about
her "English communication", and took her bad mark with resignation; it
was a small evil, compared with what she had avoided. There seemed no
retreat now from the course she had taken; she could not in future plead
the excuse that she was ignorant of her identification with the heroine
of the fire. The affair had been mentioned so plainly that it was
impossible for the most dense and obtuse person not to have understood
the allusion. Had Mabel on the first occasion questioned her
point-blank, I think she would probably have owned up immediately; but
every wrongdoing bears its own ill harvest, and the second slip from the
straight path is always easier than the first. Aldred persuaded herself
that she had not told any deliberate lies, though she was fully aware
that her silence made her equally guilty of falsehood. Finally, she
tried to dismiss the whole thing from her thoughts. Mabel had promised
not to speak of it again; surely it was finished with, and there was no
need to trouble further? Yet it was a trouble. Deep down in her heart
lay always the consciousness that she was sailing under false colours;
every now and then Mabel would impute to her some better motive than
really actuated her, or some virtue that she did not possess, and
Aldred's inward monitor would give her an uneasy twinge, and remind her
how very far she was below that high standard. There was also constantly
present the dread that Mabel might learn the truth from some outside
source; perhaps the cousin who had written to her before might hear more
details, and write again, or some other friend might have been staying
at Seaforth, and might know full particulars. The horror of the thought
would mak