an ever now to be able to tell
her how sorry she was for all this, and resolved very earnestly that
when she got well she would never behave unkindly to her again.
Meanwhile, there was the collar--she would go and look for it at once,
so that on the first opportunity she might take it to Mademoiselle
Delphine. She could not give it to Monsieur, for his lessons had been
discontinued since Sophia Jane's illness.

She went up to the attic which she and Sophia Jane had made their
play-room, and where they had had such merry games together. How
deserted and cheerless it looked! Everything seemed to know that Sophia
Jane was ill. It was late in the afternoon, dark, and gloomy; there was
never too much light in the attic at the brightest of times, and now it
was so shadowy and dull that Susan shivered as she glanced round it.
There was the dusty roll of wall-paper leaning up in one corner; there
was the thin, bent, old poker, which had somehow a queer likeness to
Sophia Jane; there was the body of the poor doll, still headless and
forlorn, stretched on the floor; and there, under the cobwebby window,
was the big black box. Behind that was what she had come to seek--the
collar.

Susan knelt on the top of the box, and, peering down, could plainly see
the parcel jammed tightly between it and the wall. It was too far for
her to reach, but presently with the help of the poker she got it up,
and proceeded to examine it, quite breathless with excitement. The
newspaper had been partly torn away from it already, and soon the collar
itself was in her hands. She gave an exclamation of delight. It _was_
a pretty collar! Not only was it made of brass and lined with bright
scarlet leather, but at the side was fastened a little round bell which
gave a charming tinkle. The very present of all others which Susan
would have chosen herself for Monsieur--if she had thought of it. But
it was not her present at all; it was Sophia Jane who had thought of it,
and of course it was very good of her. And yet--she went on to think,
turning the collar round and round--Sophia Jane couldn't have bought it
if I hadn't given her that half-crown. It _really_ is as much my
present as hers, but Monsieur and Mademoiselle won't ever know anything
about that. It was not nice of Sophia Jane to keep it all to herself;
if she had told me I should have said, "Let me pay half," and then we
could have given it together. I liked Monsieur and Mademoiselle