“Well, there’s one thing more,” continued Sibyl, who felt much elated at being allowed to talk to one of the most supercilious of all the Specialities. “I couldn’t get out of my head about Betty and the oak-tree; so just now—a few minutes ago—I got some of my friends to come with me, and we went to the oak-tree, and I stood on Mabel Lee’s shoulder, and I poked and poked amongst the débris and rubbish in the hollow of the trunk, and there was nothing there at all—nothing except just a piece of wood. So, of course, Betty spoke the truth—it was wood.”
“How many chocolates would you like?” was Fanny’s rejoinder.
“Oh Fanny, are you going to give me some?”
“Yes, if you are a good girl, and don’t tell any one that you repeated this very harmless and uninteresting little story to me about my Cousin Betty. Of course she is my cousin, and I don’t like anything said against her.”
“But I wasn’t speaking against darling Betty!” Sibyl’s eyes filled with tears.
“Of course not, monkey; but you were telling me a little tale which might be construed in different ways.”
“Yes, yes; only I don’t understand. Betty had a perfect right to poke her hand into the hollow of the tree, and to bring up a piece of wood, and look at it, and put it back again; and I don’t understand your expression, Fanny, that it all depends on the point of view.”
“Keep this to yourself, and I will give you some more chocolates sometime,” was Fanny’s answer. “I can be your friend as well as Martha—that is, if you are nice, and don’t repeat every single thing you hear. The worst sin in a schoolgirl—at least, the worst minor sin—is to be breaking confidences. No schoolgirl with a shade of honor in her composition would ever do that, and certainly no girl trained at Haddo Court ought to be noted for such a characteristic. Now, Sibyl, you are no fool; and, when I talk to you, you are not to repeat things. I may possibly want to talk to you again, and then there’ll be more chocolates and—and—other things; and as you are in the upper school, and are really quite a nice girl, I shouldn’t be at all surprised if I invited you to have tea with me in my bedroom some night—oh, not quite yet, but some evening not far off. Now, off with you, and let me see how well you can keep an innocent little confidence between you and me!”
Sibyl ran off, munching her chocolates, wondering a good deal at Fanny’s manner, but in the excitement of her school-life, soon forgetting both her and Betty Vivian. For, after all, there was no story worth thinking about. There was nothing in the hollow of the old tree but the piece of wood, and nothing—nothing in the wide world—could be made interesting out of that.