rling,"
said Irene; and she kissed Rosamund several times.

The night passed, and early the next morning Rosamund, accompanied by
Miss Frost, took her departure. There was a certain loneliness felt in
the school, for Rosamund was exceedingly popular with every girl in the
place, with the sole exception of Lucy Merriman. Busy school-life,
however, gives little time for regrets or even for loneliness. Each
moment of time is carefully marked out, each hour has its appointed
task, and the girls were, to all appearance, as happy as usual. Little
Agnes did not in the very least miss Rosamund or her own sister Emily.
Her whole soul was set upon Irene, who helped her with her lessons,
walked with her, and hardly ever let her out of her sight.

In the course of the evening Lucy was seen to go up to Phyllis Flower.

"Now, Phyllis," she said, "here is your chance. I've got the very thing
that will do the business. We must get Agnes to bed, and a little later,
when she is asleep, you shall creep into the room and just slip this
thing under the bedclothes. She won't know who has done it. She will
wake out of her first sleep, and naturally think that it is Irene's
doing."

As Lucy spoke she drew Phyllis towards a corner of the playground, where
a large, rather ferocious-looking hedgehog was curled up in a ball.

"But that--that would almost kill the child," said Phyllis, starting
back.

"We must give her a good fright; it is the only way to effect our
purpose. Then one or other of us must be near, and intercept her, and
tell her that we will be her friends. Then you will have your week with
me in London; but you must do it."

"I almost think," said Phyllis, turning very white, "that I'd rather not
have my week. You can do it yourself if you like. It seems so cruel, and
they are very happy together, and she is a very timid little thing. And
just when her sister is not at home!"

"That is the very time. I am going to have a chat with little Agnes this
evening. I am going in a certain way to prepare her--not much. Now,
don't be a goose, Phyllis. Think what a jolly time you will have in
London. It will be quite impossible for us to be found out."

Lucy talked to Phyllis for some time, and finally persuaded her to act
as her accomplice in the matter.

It was a rule at Sunnyside that the smaller girls, consisting of Phyllis
Flower, Agnes Sparkes, and little Agnes Frost, should go to bed quite an
hour before the other girls. The