Gerry was nothing loath to do that. The strain of the past week, indeed of the whole term, culminating in the excitement of the afternoon, had told upon her considerably. She looked so white and tired that it was no wonder Sister had been moved into forbidding any more visitors. But in spite of her tiredness, and her natural sorrow at poor Bruno's untimely fate, the girl was very happy. She curled herself up under the rug, and lay gazing into the fire with her book in her hand and a little smile on her lips. She had made good now in the eyes of the school. Nobody would ever be able to call her a coward again. And—best of everything, perhaps—Jack was to be her friend. Gerry knew well enough what that impulsive squeeze of her hand had meant without any explanations. Her first term at Wakehurst Priory was nearly over. It had been rather a terrible term—Gerry gave a little shudder as she looked back over some of its incidents. But many more terms lay in front of her, and though they might bring troubles and trials, yet somehow Gerry felt quite sure that none of them would be quite so bad as the one she had just come through.
She stayed up in the sick-room all the evening, and was served by Sister with a dainty little supper, sent from Miss Oakley's own table—soup and chicken and jelly and cream, with a cup of delicious coffee to finish with. Sister had intended that her patient should go straight to the Pink Dormitory when bed-time came, and not descend to the lower regions again that night.
"I'd send you there at once, but it isn't much good my letting you go until the others are up," she said. "They'll only go waking you up with their noise just as you've got to sleep, and you'd be better lying quietly here. I've a good mind to fetch your things along and let you sleep in the sick-ward to-night. Only you'll probably be all right in the morning, and it hardly seems worth while."
"Oh, no! Please let me go back to the dormitory to-night!" pleaded Gerry in alarm. In spite of her newborn courage, the prospect of spending a night alone in the sick-ward was anything but pleasant. Gerry was not to outgrow all her old terrors just at once. That perhaps could hardly be expected.
"Very well," agreed Sister. "If you'll promise to lie quiet and not talk to the others, you shall go. There's the Chapel bell just ringing. We'll wait until we hear them come out from prayers, then we'll get you along to the dormitory and into your bed by the time they've done saying good-night to Miss Oakley."
It was the custom at Wakehurst Priory for the headmistress to stand by the doorway of the Great Hall, whither the girls were marshalled when they came out from Chapel, and smile a quiet good-night to them, as they filed by her on their way to bed.
Sister's programme, however, was slightly disarranged after all. She had just got Gerry to her feet, and was preparing to whisk her off to the Pink Dormitory, when Jack Pym burst into the sick-room, a little breathless with haste, and apparently labouring under some intense excitement, with a request from the headmistress that Gerry might be allowed to go down into the Great Hall and say good-night. Sister demurred at first, but a request from Miss Oakley was almost equivalent to a command. And as Gerry had really recovered, except for the tiredness which was a natural reaction from her excitement, she at last agreed to let her go.
"Mind you be quick up though when she's finished with you," she said. "I shall be waiting for you, to see that you get quickly into bed, so mind you don't dawdle once you've said good-night."
"What does Miss Oakley want me for, Jack?" Gerry inquired, as Jack hurried her through the passages. But Jack only mumbled something indistinctly under her breath, and Gerry was obliged to control her curiosity until the Great Hall was reached.
The girls were drawn up in the Hall as usual, but, rather to Gerry's surprise, Miss Oakley was not there. Instead, Muriel Paget occupied the post of honour by the door. Muriel had been making a speech, it seemed, though it was not until some time afterwards that Gerry learned what it was all about. Then it was Jack who told her.