She really began to feel half frightened. The instructions were so very odd—to pretend to be in the sulks, and to hide her face! Where _could_ be the good of that? How could that get her out of the room? She had tried the sulks ever since yesterday evening, and she was not a bit nearer the other side of the door than when she was first locked up, she was sure. However, as that was all the Count required her to do, and she felt just in the humour to carry out that part of the instructions to the letter—for she had declared from the very beginning that she wouldn’t be the first to make advances, and she wasn’t going either—why, she didn’t mind acting as the Count desired, if it was only just to see what would come of it all. Shortly after Miss Chutney had come to the above determination, she heard the key turned in the door; and immediately, in compliance with the Frenchman’s directions, she threw her black silk apron over her head, and buried her face in her hands. Miss Wewitz, as she saw the girl’s figure bent down, her head almost resting on her knees, apparently overcome with sorrow, smiled with satisfaction, regarding the assumed attitude as evidence of that penitence which she was so anxious to bring about. Finding that her presence was unheeded by her pupil, the schoolmistress gave one or two slight coughs, to apprise the young lady that she was in the room, and fidgeted rather noisily about the “presses,” pretending she had come up to put out some linen. Miss Wewitz, however, was too gratified with what she was pleased to call a great alteration for the better, to think of interfering with the natural workings of Miss Chutney’s better nature, as she termed it; and accordingly stole out of the room again, satisfied that everything was going on so well, that when she again visited her pupil, she would find the piece of dry bread had been eaten, and the young lady dissolved in tears of shame and repentance. Immediately the schoolmistress had quitted the apartment, Miss Chutney burst into as loud a titter as she felt it safe to give vent to under the circumstances, and again began wondering whatever would come of it all. Then, to relieve her tedium and appease her hunger, came another packet from the Count, filled with affection and “goodies,” in the shape of a slice of a German sausage, a _petit pain_, and a small dab of mortar-like _Pâte de Guimauve_, accompanied by a tender epistle, informing her that all was progressing most favourably; that he and his friends had come to terms with Miss Wewitz, and had consented to take £20 as a small compensation for the inconvenience they would be put to in leaving, and that they intended to quit the establishment early the next morning: concluding by entreating her to be discreet, and carry out to the letter the instructions he had given her.