to you, you are not to repeat things. I
may possibly want to talk to you again, and then there'll be more
chocolates and--and--other things; and as you are in the upper school,
and are really quite a nice girl, I shouldn't be at all surprised if I
invited you to have tea with me in my bedroom some night--oh, not quite
yet, but some evening not far off. Now, off with you, and let me see how
well you can keep an innocent little confidence between you and me!"

Sibyl ran off, munching her chocolates, wondering a good deal at Fanny's
manner, but in the excitement of her school-life, soon forgetting both
her and Betty Vivian. For, after all, there was no story worth thinking
about. There was nothing in the hollow of the old tree but the piece of
wood, and nothing--nothing in the wide world--could be made interesting
out of that.

Meanwhile, Fanny thought for a time. The first great entertainment of
the Specialities was over. Betty was now a full-blown member, and as
such must be treated in a manner which Fanny could not possibly have
assumed towards her before this event took place. Fanny blamed herself
for her weakness in consenting to keep Betty's secret. She had done so
on the spur of the moment, influenced by the curious look in the girl's
eyes, and wondering if she would turn to her with affection if she,
Fanny, were so magnanimous. But Betty had not turned to her with either
love or affection. Betty was precisely the Betty she had been before she
joined the club. It is true she was very much sought after and consulted
on all sorts of matters, and her name was whispered in varying notes of
admiration among the girls, and she was likely (unless a spoke were put
in her wheel) to rise to one of the highest positions in the great
school. Betty had committed one act of flagrant wickedness. Fanny was
not going to mince matters; she could not call it by any other name.
There were no extenuating circumstances, in her opinion, to excuse this
act of Betty's. The fact that she had first stolen the packet, and then
told Sir John Crawford a direct lie with regard to it, was the sort of
thing that Fanny could never get over.

"One act of wickedness leads to another," thought Fanny. "Contrary to my
advice, my beseechings, she has joined our club. She has taken a vow
which she cannot by any possibility keep, which she breaks every hour of
every day; for she holds a secret which, according to Rule No. I., the
other Specialities ought