"Well, then; if that is the case, you could not be so mean as to subject Ralph to her influence. But come along to bed; you are tired, you poor little thing." Patience hardly glanced at the other school-mothers but, taking Jane's hand, went upstairs with her, and popped her into her own bed at once and presently lay down by her side, wondering what the morrow would bring forth, but feeling on the whole that the odds were marvellously once again in favour of Robina. Now Robina herself little guessed what her school-fellows were doing, for she slept the sleep of one who is tired out and who owns herself defeated. She slept heavily for several hours and when she awoke the sun was shining into the room. She sprang up in bed, and looked at her little watch, which proclaimed the hour of six. So the night had gone by, and the morning had come. Robina pressed her hand to her forehead. Her own future was quite clear to her; but she was not exactly sorry for herself just then; she was thinking all the time of Ralph. Within her heart there had awakened a love, so passionate, so deep, so true, for that little brown-eyed, brown haired boy that her agony at leaving him was the one and sole thought within her. She had no time just then to spare for thoughts of personal loss: she was only thinking of Ralph. She could not betray Harriet: _noblesse oblige_ forbade. She must go, and Ralph must suffer. But she felt that she could not endure to be present when Mr Durrant made his decision. She would tell him in advance that she withdrew from the conflict. He would be home early that morning. Robina sprang out of bed and dressed. She ran downstairs. There was a servant up who told her that a carriage had been sent to meet Mr Durrant at the railway station, and that he would, in all probability, be back at Sunshine Lodge a little before eight o'clock. "Then I will go to meet him," thought Robina. "He must see me alone, for he must make arrangements to send me home to-day. I will just see him and tell him, and then there will be an end, as far as I am concerned. I will ask him to let me go by the very first train, so that I need not say good-bye to the other girls; only I should like just to see Ralph once again."