Now, Fanny knew well that inquiries would be made; for the favorite must not be ill if anything could be done to save her, nor must a stone be left unturned to effect her recovery.
Fanny awoke the next morning with a genuine headache, fearing she knew not what. The great gong which always awoke the school was not sounded that day; but a servant came in and brought Fanny’s hot water, waking her at the same time. Fanny rubbed her eyes, tried to recall where she was, and then asked the woman how Miss Vivian was.
“I don’t know, miss. It’s a little late, but if you are quick you’ll be down in hall at the usual time.”
Fanny felt that she hated the woman. As she dressed, however, she forgot all about her, so intensely anxious was she to recover the packet from its hiding-place in her own bedroom. She wondered much if she could accomplish this, and presently, prompted by the motto, “Nothing venture, nothing win,” tidied her dress, smoothed back her hair, washed her face, tried to look as she might have looked on an ordinary morning, and finding that she had quite ten minutes to spare before she must appear in hall, ran swiftly in the direction of her own room.
She was sufficiently early to know that there was very little chance of her meeting another girl en route, and even if she did she could easily explain that she was going to her room to fetch some article of wardrobe which had been forgotten.
She reached the room. The door was shut. Very softly she turned the handle; it yielded to her pressure, and she went in.
The nurse turned at once to confront her. “You mustn’t come in here, miss.”
“I just want to fetch something from one of my drawers; I won’t make the slightest noise,” said Fanny. “Please let me in.”
Sister Helen said nothing further. Fanny softly opened one of the drawers. She knew the exact spot where the packet lay hidden. A moment later she had folded it up in some of her under-linen and conveyed it outside the room without Sister Helen suspecting anything. As soon as she found herself in the corridor she removed the packet from its wrappings and slipped it into her inner pocket. It must stay on her person for the present, for in no other place could it possibly be safe. When she regained Miss Symes’s room she found that lady already there. She was making her toilet.
“Why, Fanny,” she said, “what have you been doing? You haven’t, surely, been to your own room! Did Sister Helen let you in?”