“Nothing,” retorted Maggie. “I shall simply go to Miss Heath and Miss Eccleston and tell them the truth. There’s nothing else to be done. No hope whatever of getting out of the affair. I went to Polly Singleton’s auction because Rosalind Merton raised the demon in me. I tried to become the possessor of the sealskin jacket because her heart was set on it. I won an eighty-guinea jacket for ten guineas. You see how ignoble my motives were, also how unworthy the results. I did worse even than that— for I will out with the truth to you, Nancy— I revenged myself still further upon that spiteful little gnat, Rosalind, and raised the price of her coveted coral to such an extent that I know by her face she is pounds in debt for it. Now, my dear, what have you to say to me? Nothing good, I know that. Let me read Aristotle for the next hour just to calm my mind.” Maggie turned away, seated herself by her writing bureau and tried to lose both the past and the present in her beloved Greek. “She will do it, too,” whispered Nancy as she left the room. “No one ever was made quite like Maggie. She can feel tortures and yet the next moment she can be in ecstasy. She is so tantalizing that at times you are almost brought to believe her own stories about herself. You are almost sure that she has got the black self as well as the white self. But through it all, yes, through it all, you love her. Dear Maggie! Whatever happens, I must always— always love her.” Nancy was walking slowly down the corridor when a room-door was gently opened and the sweet, childish, innocent face of Rosalind peeped out. “Nancy, is that you? Do, for Heaven’s sake, come in and speak to me for a moment.” “What about, Rosalind? I have only a minute or two to spare. My German lecture is to begin immediately.” “Oh, what does that signify? You don’t know the awful trouble we’ve got into.” “You mean about the auction?” “Yes— yes; so you have heard?” “Of course I’ve heard. If that is all, Rosalind, I cannot wait to discuss the matter now. I am very sorry for you, of course, but as I said to Maggie, why did you do it?” “Oh, you’ve been talking to Miss Oliphant? Thank goodness she’ll have to answer for her sins as well as the rest of us.” “Maggie is my friend, so you need not abuse her, Rosalind.” “Lucky for her that she has got one true friend!” retorted Rosalind. “What do you mean?” “I mean what I say. Maggie is making such a fool of herself that we are all laughing at her behind her back.” “Indeed? I fail to understand you.” “You are being made a fool of, too, Nancy. Oh, I did think you’d have had more sense.” “How? Speak. Say at once what you want to say, Rosalind, and stop talking riddles, for I must fly to my work.”