"It doesn't ache now," said Fanny; "your conduct has frightened all the aches away. Sibyl, you really are the very queerest girl! I came here to-night full of the kindest feelings towards you. You can ask Martha West how I spoke of you at the club." "But she won't tell me. Anything that you say in the club isn't allowed to be breathed outside it." "I know that. Anyhow, I have been doing my utmost to get the school to see you in your true light. I have taken great notice of you, and you have been proud to receive my notice. It is certainly true that I have failed to get you what I hoped I could manage; but there are other things----" "Other things!" said Sibyl. She stood in a defiant attitude quite foreign to her usual manner. "Oh yes, my dear child, lots and lots of other things! For instance, in the Christmas holidays I can have you to stay with me at Brighton. What do you say to that? Don't you think that would be a feather in your cap? I have an aunt who lives there, Aunt Amelia Crawford; and she generally allows me--that is, when father cannot have me--to bring one of my school-friends with me to stay in her lovely house. I had a letter from her only yesterday, asking me which girl I would like to bring with me this year. I thought of Olive--Olive is such fun; but I'd just as soon have you--that is, if you would like to come." Alas for poor Sibyl! She was not proof against such a tempting bait. "As far as you are concerned," continued Fanny, who saw that she was making way with Sibyl, and breaking down, as she expressed it, her silly little defences, "you would gain far more prestige in being Aunt Amelia's guest than if you belonged to twenty Speciality Clubs. Aunt Amelia is good to the girls who come to stay with her as my friends. And I'd help you, Sib; I'd make the best of your dresses. We'd go to the theatre, and the pantomime, and all kinds of jolly things. We'd have a rattling fine time." "Do you really mean it?" said Sibyl. "Yes--that is, if you will give me your solemn word that you will refer no more to that silly matter about Betty Vivian. Betty Vivian had no right to that packet. It belonged to my father, and I have got it back for him. Don't think of it any more, Sibyl, and you shall be my guest this Christmas. But if you prefer to make a fuss, and drag me into an unpleasant position, and get yourself, in all probability, expelled from the school, then you must do as you please." "But if I were expelled, you'd be expelled too," said Sibyl. Fanny laughed. "I think not," she said. "I think, without any undue pride, that my position in the school is sufficiently strong to prevent such a catastrophe. No; you would be cutting off your nose to spite your face--that is all you would be doing with this nice little scheme of yours. Give it up, Sibyl, and you shall come to Brighton."