It was all the more difficult for her to do so, that she was in few regular classes in the school. It was quite true as she had told her father, she had gone through and through all the books generally used by Mrs Glencairn's pupils. This was not saying much, for few of the girls stayed in school so long as they ought to have done--none had been so long as Frederica. Under the guidance of Miss Robina Glencairn, a clever and cultivated woman, she had gone far beyond the usual routine of school lessons, and had taken much pleasure in her reading, though she had read alone, but she could not interest herself in it now. It seemed foolish and wrong for her to be at school, learning things that she could very well do without, when her mother and Selina needed her so much at home. They _did_ need her, she was sure; and she grew irritable and impatient under the restraint that kept her from them, till she was in danger, her sister told her, of losing the reputation for politeness and amiability, which she had been all those years acquiring. "And where is the good of fretting? If you can end it at the summer holidays, you may be very glad. You may be sure that Prickly Polly will not hear of your coming home just now. If I were you, I would learn the dictionary from the beginning to the end, or do something else to pass the time. Or you might ask Miss Robina for a story-book. She will give you one--you are such a pet of hers, I'm sure." "It wouldn't be a bad idea," said Frederica. There was to be no walking that day, because of the rain, and her book would have been little pleasure to her in the large schoolroom, where the girls usually passed the recreation hour on rainy days. But she knew where to find a refuge, to which, without special permission, even Tessie could not follow her. Frederica, because of Miss Robina's favour, and for some other reasons, was permitted to go to it if she chose, provided her presence was not required elsewhere. So she was soon knocking at the door of a room at the head of a dim staircase that led to no other room in the house. "May I come in, Mistress Campbell?" said she, pausing on the threshold. "Is it you, missy?" said a voice from behind a great basket of clothes that was standing on the floor. "Who would have expected to see you at this hour? Have you no' got the play? It canna be that you have a lesson to get over again!" "No," said Frederica. "This is not a lesson book. But I have got a headache, and I am cross, and I can't be bothered with the girls; but I shall be very quiet and good, and not be in the way, if you will let me stay." "Well, if you'll promise no' to fash me with your foolish talk while I am busy, you may stay." "Shall I fash you here?" said Frederica, laughing, and springing up into the wide seat of one of the large dormer windows by which the room was lighted. "Whisht now, and no' put me out of my count," said Mistress Campbell.