“Oh, my lesson: that’s all,” returned Florence, quietly. She rose, and, beckoning to Carrie to follow her, passed out of the room. Carrie obeyed the signal, and found her friend waiting for her in the hall.
“Come with me,” she said, leading the way out of the house, and through winding paths away to a secluded spot at the very extremity of the grounds. Here she stopped.
“Well, what now?” asked Carrie, who had followed her guide in silence.
“Do you suppose it is possible that any one else should be here?” said her companion, without replying to her question.
She peered round behind the trees, and, having satisfied herself that there were no listeners, she proceeded in a low voice to tell Caroline that she had at last hit on a plan for paying what they owed to Miss Forester.
“That was what you meant, then, when you called out, ‘I have it!’”
“Certainly it was; and it is a capital idea. I am going to get a bowl and fill it with water and set it on the top of the door of her room, so that, when she opens it, splash—will come all the water over her.”
“But how can you fix it so that it will stay till she comes?”
“Oh, leave the door a little ajar; and I sha’n’t put it there till just before she goes in, when it is a little dark. You know she always retires to her room just before tea, to arrange those beautiful curls of her’s so as to look her prettiest at the supper-table. I’ll save her the trouble of wetting her hair for once.”
“But, Flora, where will you get a bowl?”