"I shall go to bed. Our work begins to-morrow. What are you sitting up for, Rosamund?"
"I am going out again in a few minutes," said Rosamund.
"Are you indeed?" cried Jane. "Then may I come with you? I shan't be a bit sleepy if I am walking out in the moonlight. But I thought——However, I suppose rules don't begin to-day."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I heard Miss Archer say that we were not to go out after half-past nine unless by special permission."
"Oh, well, as you remarked, rules don't begin until to-morrow, so I can go out at any hour I like to-night."
"I wonder why?" said Jane, and she looked up with a languid curiosity, which was all she could ever rise to, in her light-blue eyes.
Rosamund knelt by the window-sill; she put her arms on it and gazed out into the summer night. She heard people talking below her in the shrubbery. A few words fell distinctly on her ears, "I hate her, and I shall never be her friend!" and then the voices died away in the distance.
Jane had risen at that moment to fetch a novel which she was reading, so she did not hear what Rosamund had heard.
Rosamund's young face was now very white. There was a steady, pursed-up expression about her mouth. She suddenly slammed down the window with some force.