‘I do not want to go to bed,
Sleepy little Harry said.’
Nevertheless, this willingness excited no suspicion, till Miss Mohun came to the door to summon Valetta.
‘Is there anything wrong!’ exclaimed sister and niece together.
‘Gone to bed! Oh! I’ll tell you presently. Don’t you come, Gillian.’
She vanished again, leaving Gillian in no small alarm and vexation.
‘I wonder what it can be,’ mused Aunt Ada.
‘I shall go and find out!’ said Gillian, jumping up, as she heard a door shut upstairs.
‘No, don’t,’ said Aunt Ada, ‘you had much better not interfere.’
‘It is my business to see after my own sister,’ returned Gillian haughtily.
‘I see what you mean, my dear,’ said her aunt, stretching out her hand, kindly; ‘but I do not think you can do any good. If she is in a scrape, you have nothing to do with the High School management, and for you to burst in would only annoy Miss Leverett and confuse the affair. Oh, I know your impulse of defence, dear Gillian; but the time has not come yet, and you can’t have any reasonable doubt that Jane will be just, nor that your mother would wish that you should be quiet about it.’