"I think you are justified, if you can get anything out of her. She'd tell you better than anybody else in the whole school."
"I'll try my luck then."
"I'll stand in the garden below and shout 'Cave!' if I hear anyone coming."
To help her unfortunate room-mate seemed the first consideration to Ulyth, and she thought the end certainly justified the means. She waited until after the tea interval, when most of the girls would be playing tennis or walking in the glade; then, making sure that Lizzie was watching in the garden below, she stole upstairs to the linen-room. It was quite easy to drop from the window on to the top of the veranda, and not very difficult, in spite of the slope, to walk along to the end of the roof. Here an angle of the old part of the house jutted out, and the open window of Rona's prison faced her only a couple of yards away. She could not reach across the gap, but conversation would be perfectly possible.
"Rona!" she called cautiously. "Rona!"
There was a movement inside the room, and a face appeared at the window. Rona's eyes were red and swollen with crying, and her hair hung in wild disorder. At the sight of Ulyth she started, and stared rather defiantly.
"Rona! Rona, dear! I've been longing to see you. [ I felt I must speak to you."]
No reply. Rona, in fact, turned her back.
"I'm so dreadfully sorry," continued Ulyth. "I've been thinking about you all day. It's no use keeping this up. Do confess and have done with it."
Rona twisted round suddenly and faced Ulyth.