darling. Do turn into bed and go to sleep."

Verena kissed her sister and left the room.

Pauline stood by the attic window. The window was a French one, and was
wide open. The night was warm; the sky was without a cloud; stars like
diamonds dotted the firmament; the sky itself looked darkly blue. Pauline
felt a sudden thrill going through her. It was a thrill from the nobler
part of her being. The whole day, and all that happened in the day, had
wrought her up to her present state of feeling. A touch now and she would
have confessed all. A touch, a look, would have done it--for the child,
with her many faults, was capable of noble deeds; but the touch was not
there, nor the word of gentle advice given. Had her mother been alive,
Pauline would have certainly gone to her and confessed what she had done.
As it was, she only felt that, in order to save herself from the past,
she must do something much more wicked in the future.

She waited until she was quite certain that Verena was in bed; then she
gently unfastened the door of her room and stole out on to the landing.
There was not a light in the house. All the tired people had gone to bed.
She reached the room, at the farther end of the same wing, where Briar
and Patty slept. The sleeping attics occupied two wings of the old house,
the centre part of the house being without rooms in the roof. Pauline,
Verena, Briar, and Patty slept in one of the wings, the rest of the girls
and the nursery children in the other. Mr. Dale had the room exactly
under the large attic occupied by Briar and Patty. Miss Tredgold's room
was under the nursery wing.

Pauline now very gently opened the door of the room where her two little
sisters slept. They were not asleep; they were sitting up in their beds
waiting for her.

"We thought you would come, Paulie," said Briar. "We are so excited! What
is it you want us to do for you, darling Paulie?"

"To save me! To save me!" said Pauline.

Her tone was dramatic; her action was more so. She fell on her knees by
Briar's bed; she clasped her arms round the little girl's neck; she laid
her head on her shoulder and burst into tears. The birthday queen was
weeping. Could emotion go beyond that fact? Patty bounded out of her bed
and knelt by Pauline's other side. The two little girls clasped their
arms round her. She had exercised a glamour over them all day, which now
became greater than ever. Was she not their queen? Oh, yes, until
midnight she