re going to tell stories with the lights down. I'm going to wear a
green dress; it's a gauzy sort of stuff that my aunt has just sent me,
and I think it will suit me very well indeed. Oh, it is fun to think of
this evening!"

"Yes, of course it's fun," said Betty. "Now, I tell you what. Why don't
you go into the front garden and ask the gardener for permission to get
a few small marguerite daisies, and then make them into a very simple
wreath to twine round your hair? The daisies would suit you so well; you
don't know how nice they'll make you look."

"Will they?" said Sibyl, her eyes sparkling. "Do you really think so?"

"Of course I think so. I have pictures of all the girls in my mind; and
I often shut my eyes and think how such a girl would look if she were
dressed in such a way, and how such another girl would look if she wore
something else."

"And when you think of me?" said Sibyl.

But Betty had never thought of Sibyl. She was silent.

"And when you think of me?" repeated Sibyl, her face beaming all over
with delight. "You think of me, do you, darling Betty, as wearing green,
with a wreath of marguerites in my hair?"

"Yes, that is how I think of you," said Betty.

"Very well, I'll go and find the gardener. Mrs. Haddo always allows us
to have cut flowers that the gardener gives us."

"Don't have the wreath too big," said Betty; "and be sure you get the
gardener to choose small marguerites. Now, be off--won't you?--for I
want to continue my walk."

Sibyl, in wild delight, rushed into one of the flower-gardens. Betty
watched her till she was quite out of sight. Then, quick as thought, she
retraced her steps. She must find another hiding-place for the packet.
With Sibyl's knowledge, her present position was one of absolute danger.
Sibyl would tell every girl she knew all about Betty's action when she
stood by the broken stump of the old tree. She would describe how Betty
thrust in her hand and took something out, looked at it, and put it back
again. The girls would go in a body, and poke, and examine, and try to
discover for themselves what Betty had taken out of the trunk of the old
oak-tree. Betty must remove the sealed packet at once, or it would be
discovered.

"What a horrible danger!" thought the girl. "But I am equal to it."

She ran with all her might and main, and presently, reaching the tree,
thrust her hand in, found the brown packet carefully tied up and sealed,
and slipped it into her poc