"It will be madness if you do. You cannot possibly tell what it means,
Dumps."
"Why, is there anything very dreadful in it?"
"Dreadful? Why, the Baroness has all the letters put into a box in the
hall--I mean all the foreigners' letters--and she herself keeps the key.
She opens the box to take out the letters both for the post and when
they have arrived, and distributes them amongst the girls."
"And she doesn't do that for the English girls?"
"No--not for a few. With the consent of their parents, they are allowed
to have a free correspondence." I sat very still and quiet. One or two
things were being made plain to me. After a pause I said, "I can tell
you nothing, Rosalind, but I thank you very much."
On the next day I myself was seized with the first severe cold I had had
that winter; it was very bad and kept me in bed. I had been in bed all
day, not feeling exactly ill, but glad of the warmth and comfort of my
snug little room. Towards evening Augusta came in and asked me if I
would like any friends to visit me.
"Oh, I don't know," I answered. "Of course, Hermione or you; but the
others--I think not."
"There's that stupid girl, that pale-faced Comtesse--Riki, I think you
call her--she is very anxious to come and have a chat with you."
Now, to tell the truth, I had been feeling uncomfortable enough ever
since Rosalind had spoken to me about the rule with regard to the
foreign girls' letters. The Baroness von Gablestein had every right to
make what rules she liked in her own school, but I could not help
thinking that it was hardly wise that such a marked distinction should
be made between girls of one nationality and another. I now understood
that all foreign girls' letters were pot into the post-box in the hall,
and the Baroness looked them over before they were posted. But the
affair was not mine, and I should have forgotten all about it but for
the very uncomfortable feeling that I myself, unwittingly, had twice
broken this most solemn rule of the house, and had twice posted a letter
for Riki von Kronenfel.
Now, it seemed to me that this might be a good opportunity for me to
expostulate with her on the whole position, and to tell her that she had
done very wrong to allow me innocently to break the rule of the house,
and to assure her that under no circumstances should I be guilty of such
an indiscretion again.
Augusta meanwhile seated herself comfortably by my bedside.
"Horrible," she said--"horrible! but for the prospect of pleasing him--"