"Let me see," said Patience. "You, of course, Frederica, and you three Amberley girls will help me. There are five of us in all. Robina must not lose this chance: Harriet must not get the victory. The person to approach on the subject is Jane Bush." Book 2--CHAPTER FIFTEEN. ANXIOUS TIMES. The other girls started when Patience delivered herself of this last remark. "Jane Bush?" they said, looking at one another as though they thought Patience Chetwold--Patience, the most down-right, matter-of-fact, sensible girl on earth--had suddenly taken leave of her senses. "What do you mean, Patience?" they said, almost in chorus. "What can poor Jane have to do with it?" "Anyone can see," remarked Rose, "that Jane is terribly afraid of Harriet, but she herself, poor little thing, has done nothing." "Yes, she has," remarked Patience; "Jane has done a great deal more than any of the rest of you have the least idea of. And now, girls," she added, "I am going to prove my words." As Patience finished speaking, she abruptly left the room. She was only gone a few minutes, and when she came back, she was holding the unwilling hand of poor terrified looking Jane Bush. Jane had said good-night to Harriet, and had gone away to her own room. It so happened that the chamber in which she reposed was nowhere near Harriet's, which, as Patience remarked, was a good thing on the present occasion; and Harriet being certain that nothing could really happen further to damage her cause, had gone safely and comfortably to bed. Little did she guess that Jane, when in the very act of preparing for her own night's rest, was forcibly conducted to be cross-questioned by five very determined school-mothers. As soon as Patience got into the room, she quite calmly locked the door. "Now," she said, looking at the others, "we shall be quite undisturbed. Sit down, Jane," she said; "you need not be frightened, you have only just to tell the truth, and we, between us, will look after you. There is no possible way of shirking the truth, Jane Bush; you may as well out with it, sooner or later. If you tell it without difficulty and at once, you will suffer less than if you struggled to keep it to yourself: you will be less miserable afterwards than you are now, for it is only to look at your face, Jane, to know that you are a thoroughly wretched girl. Well, here you are, quite outside Harriet's influence for the time being, and here are we five of us, all full of suspicion with regard to you, and I think," continued Patience, glancing at the rest of the girls,--"that we have got quite as much brains as you, Jane Bush; so five sets of brains against one set of brains must win the victory, mustn't they? That's common-sense, isn't it, Jane? Now then; let us begin. Which amongst us girls will begin to question Jane first?"