“Well, but then the brightest thing would look dull if you compared it with the sun. How am I to find out really what it is?”
“Take it to my master.”
“I can’t open the gate.”
“The gate will open of itself, if you’ve anything to take to him.”
Rosalie turned about to run off at once, but the other said:
“Wait and have tea first. He is never at liberty till six, and now it’s only five.”
So after tea, Rosalie, having previously changed her heavy boots and generally tidied herself, set off in the direction of the house.
The gate this time responded easily enough to her hand, and soon she was walking through the garden, holding her stone the tighter, in that she was quite sure, from the fact of the gate opening so readily, it must be worth something very considerable.
The door leading into the garden was open, and after knocking she passed through, and went at once to the study.
The curious thing about the sun here was that it always set at the same time of day, and that between five and half-past, so that now twilight had fallen, and the lamps were lit, though the blinds remained undrawn.