"I don't want her to, miss. Oh, Miss Ermengarde, you are treated 'ard."
"Yes, Susy, I am treated very hard. Well, as you can't come and keep me company, you had better go away."
"But I can come to you, miss. A locked door won't keep me out. I'll hide my basket of eggs behind that laurel bush, and then I'll be with you in a jiffy."
"Can you really come? What fun! You are a clever girl, Susy."
"You wait and see, miss."
Susan Collins rushed off, adroitly hid her basket, and returning, climbed up an elm tree which happened to grow a few feet from the window, with the lightness and agility of a cat. When she reached a certain bough she lay along it, and propelled herself very gently forward in the direction of the window.
"Now stretch out your two hands, miss."
Ermengarde did so, and in a moment Susy was standing by her side in Miss Nelson's pretty little room.
"My word!" she exclaimed. "I never see'd such a lot of grand things before. Tell me, Miss Ermengarde, do all these fine books and pictures belong to the governess?"
"Oh, yes; those are pictures of Miss Nelson's friends."