“Oh, what are they going to do with her, poor thing?”
“She will not be dismissed; that would be too disgraceful; but she is for a whole week to be confined to her own room, and no girl in the school will be allowed to speak to her. At the end of that time she will be restored to a certain amount of liberty; but her actions will be most carefully watched.”
“And Heinrich?” I said.
“Heinrich?” said Mademoiselle, with a start. “You are not interested in him, I hope?”
“Oh no, no!”
“He will receive one short letter from the Baroness, and his master at the school will receive another. I do not think anybody in the future need trouble themselves about Heinrich.”
Nothing could exceed the contempt which she threw into the word. After a time she left me.
The scene of the morning had certainly not made my cold better; but when Hermione came up I confided my troubles to her. She said she thought that I was lucky to have got off as cheaply as I had.
“Rosalind has been telling me of another girl, an English girl, who helped some Russians to get their communications into the post, and she was dismissed—sent back to England within twenty-four hours. The only reason you are not treated as harshly is because the Baroness really believes that you did what you did unwittingly.”
“I did,” I said. “Oh, I hate this school! I was never meant to be a French or German girl. I have lived such a free life, I shall die in this cage.”