PART TWO, CHAPTER ELEVEN. CONSEQUENCES. The next day I did not see Comtesse Riki at all. My cold was rather worse; but the day after I was able to sit up in my room, and she came to me with two or three other girls in the evening. She was shy, however, and had none of her old warm manner. Baroness Elfreda made herself more agreeable on that occasion, and a plump little German girl of the name of Fraulein Schott took my fancy by her blunt, good-humoured, pleasant manner. There were also some Dutch girls and a French girl, who all crowded into our sitting-room to congratulate me, to chatter to one another, to flock to the window and gaze longingly at the balcony. "You are what is called of the lucky," said Elfreda presently. "But why?" I asked. "I don't think I am specially lucky; I have been two whole days in my room with this horrid cold." "I make no thought for the cold," said Elfreda. "I do consider that you are of the lucky type because your room looks upon this so gay street." On further questioning, I found that both she and the Comtesse had rooms at the back of the house. After a time Hermione came in and chased my visitors away. When they were gone she sat down near me. She looked very grave. "Did you," she said, "notice anything special about Riki?" "No," I answered; "except, perhaps, that she was more silent than usual." "I do not like what is going on," said Hermione after a pause. "I did not want to worry you when you were ill, but Riki came to me on that evening and asked me if I was going out; and then she begged me to post a letter for her." "Oh yes," I said. I trembled slightly. "And you--what did you do?" "Do?" said Hermione--"do? I asked her to read the rules in her bedroom." "The rules in her bedroom?" I said. "My dear Dumps, wherever are your eyes? There are rules written in four languages in every bedroom in the house. Have you never read those in your room?" "I have glanced at them." "Well, in the German and French and Italian sections the very strictest rule of all is that no letters of any sort whatsoever are to be posted by girls of those nationalities except in the post-box in the hall, and any girl helping another to get letters in any other fashion into the post will be most severely punished." "I did not notice it." "Well, notice it the next time you go into your bedroom. But don't look so white; it doesn't matter to us, surely!" "Of course not," I said in a faint voice. After a pause I said, "But why are you anxious about her now?" "She is underhand; she is not quite open. Now, Elfreda is a dull girl; I never could get anything amusing out of her; but she is quite different from Riki. Riki is supposed to be pretty, and will probably be much admired when she leaves school; but it is her want of openness that I cannot stand." "The whole system is wrong," I said with some vigour. "I cannot imagine how any German girl grows up really nice."