To be quite frank, Betty did not like this rule. She was willing to give a certain amount of affection to most of the girls who belonged to the Specialities; but as to considering even nice girls like the Bertrams as her own sisters, and Susie Rushworth (who was quite agreeable and gay and kind) in that relationship, and Olive Repton also, as she would Sylvia and Hetty, she did not think she could do it. She could be kind to them--she would love to be kind to them; she would love to help each and all in times of trouble, and to rejoice with them in periods of joy; but to feel that they were her sisters--that certainly _was_ difficult. She believed it possible that she could admit Margaret Grant into a special and close relationship; into a deep friendship which partook neither of sisterhood nor of anything else, but stood apart and alone--the sort of friendship that a young, enthusiastic girl will give to a friend of strong character a little older than herself. But as to Fanny--she could never love Fanny. From the very first moment she had set eyes on her--away, far away, in Scotland--she had disliked her, she had pronounced her at once in her own mind as "niminy-priminy." She had told her sisters frankly what she felt about Fanny. She had said in her bold, independent way, "Fanny is too good for the likes of me. She is the sort of girl who would turn me into a bad un. I don't want to have anything to do with her." Fanny, however, had taken no notice of Betty's all too evident antagonism. Fanny was, in her heart of hearts, essentially good-natured; but Betty was as impossible for her to understand as it was impossible for the moon to comprehend the brightness of the sun. Fanny had been shocked at what she had witnessed when she saw Betty take the sealed packet from the drawer. She remembered the whole thing with great distress of mind, and had felt a sense of shock when she heard that the Vivian girls were coming to the school. But her feelings were very much worse when her father had informed her that the packet could nowhere be found--that he had specially mentioned it to Betty, who declared that she knew nothing about it. Oh yes, Fanny and Betty were as the poles apart; and Betty knew now that were she to take the vows of the Specialities fifty times over she could never keep them, as far as Fanny Crawford was concerned. Then there was another unpleasant part of the same rule: "Each girl gives perfect confidence to her fellow-members, keeps no secret to herself which those members ought to know." Betty undoubtedly had a secret--a very precious one. She had even told a lie in order to hug that secret to her breast. She had brought it away with her to the school, and now it was safe--only Betty knew where.