Maud's words had roused her at last.
"Oh, dear! if I thought you were going against me—I don't know what sort of a school this is, but to have my own friends going against me—you and Mary Hillary and Janet—although somehow Janet doesn't count for much—I believe I shall go mad. I'm awfully unhappy, and I'm not at all well."
"You look anything but well, poor Sukey; your nose is so red and your eyes so swollen. I expect you have a bad cold."
"I have. I am going to be ill myself; I have shivers down my back."
"You'd best go to bed and get Jessie to cosset you up."
"I hate Jessie; I won't let her come near me."
"Well, shall I go and ask her if you may have a fire in your room? And I'll give you a hot drink. I can, you know, if they allow a fire in your room. I have got a pot of that black-currant jelly; I'll make you a smoking tumbler of black-currant tea. You'll soon be better."
"You are very kind, Maud," said Susan, who was intensely greedy, and to whom the thought of hot black-currant tea appealed most pleasantly. "But there!" she added, "that is not the worst; and that is not the way you can really help me."
"Well, tell me; I really am distressed to see you look so bad. Of course, Christian may soon get better; perhaps we needn't think about her at all."
"We must think about something else, but she's the cause. You know, of course, what Star said on Wednesday night."