I think I was a little disappointed in the note; but it was all the better, as I could repeat in quite a careless way what it said; and then, just as I was wondering whether I should tear it up to show that I did not care, I saw that there was something written on the inside leaf, and I put it back into the envelope as if I did not notice what I was doing, and slipped it into my pocket. Dinner was long that day; when it was over, I went into the schoolroom and drew out my letter again. The words on the inside leaf were-- “Why were you so unkind on Sunday?” I had no way of sending back an answer; I could only wait till next day at a quarter-past two. But I think I could have sung through the lessons like the heroine of an opera that afternoon. I had not thought it necessary to mention to Mr. Rayner the time at which Mr. Reade had said he should bring the work; at a quarter-past two we were always in the drawing-room all together. But the next day, the day of all others when it was important that I should stay and hear the explanations about the work I had to do, Mrs. Rayner asked me, directly after dinner, if I would mind writing some letters for her, to go by that afternoon’s post. I should have sat down to write them in the drawing-room, but Mrs. Rayner said-- “You would like to be undisturbed, I know. Shall I send your coffee to your room or to the schoolroom?” I said, “To my room, if you please,” and went upstairs trying to swallow the lump in my throat. It was silly of me; but I liked that half-hour in the drawing-room after dinner, and reading the papers over my coffee, and Mr. Rayner’s amusing comments on the news--it was such a pleasant rest. I had got through one stupid letter--they were not at all important--when there was a knock at the door, and Jane came in, giggling and excited. “Oh, miss, I’ve brought you a parcel, and I have made Sarah so wild!”--and she laughed delightedly. “I answered the bell, and there was Mr. Reade on his horse with this; and he said, ‘Take it to the schoolroom, please; it’s for Miss Christie;’ and then he got off, and I showed him into the drawing-room. And I saw you wasn’t in there, nor yet in the schoolroom. So when I got into the hall, thinks I, ‘I’ll be beforehand with old Sally this time!’ when out she comes and says, ‘Give that to me. I’ll give it to Miss Christie.’ ‘Never mind,’ says I, half-way up the stairs--‘don’t you trouble.’ And she made a grab at me, but I was too quick for her, and up I run; and here it is, miss.” And she slapped the parcel down upon the table triumphantly. “Thank you, Jane,” I said quietly. “It is only some work for the church from Miss Reade.”