"Certainly not. It is not yours."
"What will you do with it?"
"Give it back to Miss Nelson, of course."
"Then I am lost." Ermengarde gave a bitter cry, and rushed to the door. Before she could reach it, Basil stepped before her.
"Don't go into hysterics," he said. "Go up to your room and keep quiet. You have done mischief enough, and caused suffering enough. Don't add to it all by making a fuss and waking the house. I have got some feeling, and I can not speak to you to-night. This has somehow taken the—the courage out of me. I'll think it over to-night, and I'll see you again in the morning."
"O Basil! And you won't tell anyone till you have seen me again?"
Basil put his hand up to his forehead. He considered for a moment. "I think I may promise that," he said then slowly.
"And where am I to meet you, Basil?"
"Meet me in the shrubbery after morning school. Now go to bed."
He took up the lamp and left the schoolroom. Ermengarde watched him as he slowly ascended the stairs and turned down the corridor which led to the boys' bedrooms. He took the light away with him in more senses than one, but Ermengarde little recked of darkness just then. She threw herself on the floor in the old schoolroom, and gave vent to a passion of weeping, shedding tears which not even her mother's death had wrung from her.