hed herself
luxuriously.

"I shall go to bed. Our work begins to-morrow. What are you sitting up
for, Rosamund?"

"I am going out again in a few minutes," said Rosamund.

"Are you indeed?" cried Jane. "Then may I come with you? I shan't
be a bit sleepy if I am walking out in the moonlight. But I
thought----However, I suppose rules don't begin to-day."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I heard Miss Archer say that we were not to go out after half-past nine
unless by special permission."

"Oh, well, as you remarked, rules don't begin until to-morrow, so I can
go out at any hour I like to-night."

"I wonder why?" said Jane, and she looked up with a languid curiosity,
which was all she could ever rise to, in her light-blue eyes.

Rosamund knelt by the window-sill; she put her arms on it and gazed out
into the summer night. She heard people talking below her in the
shrubbery. A few words fell distinctly on her ears, "I hate her, and I
shall never be her friend!" and then the voices died away in the
distance.

Jane had risen at that moment to fetch a novel which she was reading, so
she did not hear what Rosamund had heard.

Rosamund's young face was now very white. There was a steady, pursed-up
expression about her mouth. She suddenly slammed down the window with
some force.

"What is it, Rose? What is the matter? Why shouldn't we have the window
open on a hot night like, this?"

"Because I like it to be shut. You must put up with me as I am," said
Rosamund. "I will open it if you wish in a few minutes. I have changed
my mind, I am not going out. I shall go to bed. I have a severe
headache."

"But wouldn't a walk in the moonlight with me, on our very last evening
of freedom, take your headache away?" said Jane in a coaxing voice.

"No; I would rather not go out. You can do as you please. Only, creep in
quietly when I am asleep. Don't wake me; that's all I ask."

"Oh, I'll just get into bed, dear, if you have a headache. But how
suddenly it has come on!"

"This room is so stifling," she said. "After all, this is a small sort
of school, and the rooms are low and by no means airy."

Jane could not help laughing.

"I never heard you talk in such a silly way before. Why, it was you who
shut the window just now. How can you expect, on a hot summer's evening,
the room to be cool with the window shut?"

"Well, fling it open--fling it open!" said Rosamund. "I don't mind."

Jane quickly did so. There was a crunc