Beth said to herself with a grin. "The fairy folk
are calling me, and I must go out and dance on the grass in that
lovely moonlight."

But how to get out was the difficulty. The hall door was bolted and
barred. She went into the first and second. There were two large
windows in the room which looked into the great conservatory, and one
of them was open a crack. She pushed it up higher, and got through
into the conservatory. There she found a large side window on the left
of the first and second also open a little. The shelf in front of the
window had flower-pots on it, which she moved aside, then got up
herself, and with a tug, managed to raise the heavy sash. Then she sat
on the sill and looked down. It was too far to jump, but a sort of
dado of ornamental stonework came right up to the window, and by the
help of this she managed to descend to the ground, and found herself
free. For a moment she stood stretching herself like one just released
from a cramped position, drawing in deep draughts of the delicious
night air the while; then she bounded off over the dewy grass, and
ran, and jumped, and waved her arms, every muscle of her rejoicing in
an ecstasy of liberty. She ran round to the front of the house,
regardless of the chance of some one seeing her from one of the
windows, and danced round and round the magnolia, and buried her face
in the big white flowers one after the other, and bathed it in the dew
on their petals. Then she went to the path by the river and hung over
the railing, and after that she visited the orchard, and every other
forbidden place in the grounds. In the orchard she found some
half-ripe fruit under the trees, and gathered it; and finding that she
could not climb into the conservatory again with the fruit in her
hands, she amused herself by throwing it through the open window.

It was harder to climb up than it had been to get down, but she
accomplished the feat at last with sundry abrasions, shut the window,
replaced the flower pots, got into the first and second, and went back
to bed. Her night-dress was wet with dew, and her feet were scratched
and dirty; but she was too much exhilarated by the exercise and
adventure to feel any discomfort. She was sitting up in bed, hungrily
munching some of her spoils, when Janey North, the girl in the next
bed, awoke.

"What are you eating, Beth?" she asked in a cautious voice,
whispering, fearful of awaking a monitress and being reported for
talkin