"It is so unlike the Comtesse Riki to take up passionately with any one girl!" said Rosalind when this sort of thing had been going on for a few weeks and we were all talking of the Easter holidays. The great point of whether I was to go home or not had not yet been decided. Hermione knew she must remain at the school; Augusta would probably do likewise. Rosalind went on commenting on my friendship with Riki. After a pause she said, "Of course, she has been at the school for some time; she leaves in the summer." "Oh!" I answered; "she told me that she would be here for another year." "I think it has been changed. She is not contented; the Baroness will not keep a pupil in the school who shows discontent." "But surely she is quite a nice girl?" Rosalind was silent for a minute; then she said, "Perhaps I ought just to warn you, Dumps. I wouldn't trouble myself to do so--for I make a point of never interfering between one girl and another--but as you are Lilian St Leger's friend, and have been specially introduced to me through her, it is but fair to say that you ought to regard the German girl from a different standpoint from the English one." "Certainly the German girl is different," I said; and I laughingly repeated some of Riki's conversation with me in the Bois de Boulogne. "Think of any girl talking of _dots_, and being betrothed, and getting married at her age!" I said. "Oh, that isn't a bit strange," replied Rosalind; "they all do it. These German girls get married very young, and the marriages are arranged for them by their parents; they never have anything to say to them themselves." "Well, it is horrible," I said, "and I told her so." "Did you?" said Rosalind very slowly. "Well, perhaps that accounts." She looked very grave. After a minute she bent towards me and said in a low tone--too low even for Hermione to hear--"Whatever you do, don't post letters for her." I started and felt myself turning very white. "You won't, will you?" said Rosalind, giving my arm a little squeeze. I made no reply. "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."