But that was all she could manage. She hurried over the last words; then, bursting into tears, she rushed out of the room.
"Poor darling!" said Aunt Edith. "Lillias, are you sure we can do nothing? Couldn't one of her white dresses be done up somehow?"
"No," said Mrs. Vincent. "It would only draw attention to her if she was to go dressed differently from the others, and I should not wish that. Besides—oh no—it is much better not."
She had hardly said the words when she felt something gently pulling her, and, looking down, there was Bee beside her, trying to whisper something.
"Auntie," she said, "would you, oh! would you let Rosy go instead of me, wearing my dress? It would fit her almost as well as her own. And, do you know, I wouldn't care to go alone. It wouldn't be any happiness to me, and it would be such happiness to know that Rosy could go. And I'm afraid I've got a little cold or something, for I've still got a headache, and I'm not sure that it will be better by Wednesday."
She looked up entreatingly in Mrs. Vincent's face, and then Rosy's mother noticed how pale and ill she seemed.
"My dear little Bee," she said, "you must try to be better by Wednesday. And, you know, dear, though we are all very sorry for Rosy, it is only what she has brought on herself. I hope she has learnt a lesson—more than one lesson—but, if she were to have the pleasure of going to Summerlands, she might not remember it so well."
Beata said no more—she could not oppose Rosy's mother—but she shook her head a little sadly.
"I don't think Rosy's like that, Aunt Lillias," she said; "I don't think it would make her forget."
Beata's headache was not better the next day; and, as the day went on, it grew so much worse that Mrs. Vincent at last sent for the doctor. He said that she was ill, much in the same way that Fixie had been. Not that it was anything she could have caught from him—it was not that kind of illness at all—but it was the first spring either of them had been in England, and he thought that very likely the change of climate had caused it with them both. He was not, he said, anxious about Bee, but still he looked a little grave. She was not strong, and she should not be overworked with lessons, or have anything to trouble or distress her.