The four girls walked rapidly. At last they found a little summer-house which was built high up on the very top of a rising mound. From here you could get a good view of the surrounding country; and very beautiful it was—at least, for those whose eyes were trained to observe the rich beauty of cultivated land, of flowing rivers, of forests, of carefully kept trees. Very lonely indeed was the scene from Haddo Court summer-house; for, in addition to every scrap of land being made to yield its abundance, there were pretty cottages dotted here and there—each cottage possessing its own gay flower-garden, and, in most cases, its own happy little band of pretty boys and girls.
As soon as the four girls found themselves in the summer-house, Margaret began to praise the view to Sylvia.
Sylvia looked round to right and to left. “We don’t admire that sort of thing,” she said. “Do we, Hetty?”
Hetty shook her head with vehemence. “Oh no, no,” she said. Then, coming a little closer to Margaret, she looked into her face and continued, “Are you the sort of kind girl who will keep a secret?”
Margaret thought of the Speciality Club. But surely this poor little secret belonging solely to the Vivians need not be related to any one who was not in sympathy with them. “I never tell tales, if that is what you mean,” she said.
“Then that is all right,” remarked Sylvia. “And are you the same sort of girl, Olive? You look very kind.”
“It wouldn’t be hard to be kind to one like you,” was Olive’s response.
Whereupon Sylvia smiled, and Hetty came close to Olive and looked into her face.
“Then we want you,” continued Sylvia, “never, never to tell about the burnt sacrifice of the Scotch heather, nor about the flight of the fairies back to Scotland. It tortured Betty to have to do it; but she thought it right, therefore it was done. There are some people, however, who would not understand her; and we would much rather be able to tell our own Betty that you will never speak of it, when she has come back to herself and has got over her howling.”
“Of course we’ll never tell,” said Olive; and Margaret nodded her head without speaking.