"Here's Vivian!" said Chatty. "I'm afraid she's come to call us in."

"What a nuisance! I don't want to go to bed."

Chatty had accurately guessed the monitress's errand.

"It's nearly nine o'clock," proclaimed Vivian. "Didn't you hear the
bell? I rang it at the side door."

"We didn't hear a sound," replied Lettice. "But then, we were all
laughing so much. Honor Fitzgerald has just been climbing the lime
tree, and she went right through the window into the study."

"Honor Fitzgerald is a hoyden, then," said Vivian. "And what business
had she to go inside Miss Maitland's room? It was a piece of great
impertinence."

"I'm sorry I told you," said Lettice ruefully.

"I wish Vivian could have heard the verse you made about her!"
whispered Pauline to Honor. "Is hoyden a dictionary word, or not? I'm
afraid I should have said 'cheek' instead of impertinence, but I'm not
a monitress."

The girls had entered the dressing-room, and were putting away books
and sewing materials in their lockers, when Maisie exclaimed:

"Oh, what a bother! I've left my work-basket on the grass. It was open,
too, and if there's a heavy dew my scissors and crewel needles will be
covered with rust. Lettice, do go and fetch it for me!--there's just
time."

Lettice was so accustomed to wait upon her elder sister that she did
not even remonstrate, but turned straightway and ran into the garden to
fetch the lost property. It had grown suddenly very dusk, almost dark.
The lime tree stood out tall and black by the side of the house, and
the bushes were dense masses of shadow. Lettice had to grope for the
basket, but found it at last, and began to retrace her steps along the
hardly-discernible path. She was about twenty yards away from the lime
tree when a slight noise made her look back, and she noticed the figure
of a girl swinging herself down by the branches in the same way as
Honor had done. Whoever it was alighted on the ground gently, and
rushed off into the bushes before Lettice could see her face, though it
would have been too dark, in any case, to distinguish her features. It
was all done very quickly, and so silently that, except for the first
sound, there was scarcely a rustle.

Lettice was in a great hurry, and did not stop to make any
investigation; indeed, she did not trouble to give the matter a
thought. It seemed a trifling little incident, not even worth
mentioning to the others; yet it was one that she was to remember
after