Harriet, although she liked Jane, had a secret sort of contempt for her. She could be naughty, of course, but she was not clever. Harriet admired nothing but talent. She believed herself to be a sort of genius. "I don't suppose you have anything to tell me," she repeated; "but I'll come if you want me to. See, I'll race you--one, two, three! I'll get first to that tall tree at the end of the glade." In a race with Harriet, Jane was nowhere, for Harriet's legs were so long and she was so light that she flew almost like the wind over the ground. She easily reached the meeting-place first, and Jane followed her, panting, red in the face, and a little cross. "You did take the wind out of me," she said. "Oh, oh, oh!" She pressed her hand to her side. "I cannot speak at all for a minute--I--I--can't--tell you my news. Oh, you have winded me--you have!" "Don't talk, then," said Harriet, who was leaning comfortably with her back against a tree; while Jane, round as a ball and crimson in the face, panted a little way off. By-and-by, however, Jane got back her voice. "I've found out something about the new 'un," she said, "that bird thing, who will be here to-night. I was hiding down in the brushwood, just by the big oak, and you were all looking for me; but I buried myself under a holly tree, and no one could see even a squint of me, however hard one looked. _They_--didn't know I was there." "Who do you mean by `they'?" interrupted Harriet. "Sparke and Devigny," said Jane. "Oh, of course I am fond of Miss Devigny, but I can't be bothered to `Miss' her when I'm in no end of a hurry. Well, they talked, and it was all about the new 'un. _She_ is not a model; that's one comfort. She is so desperately naughty she has been sent from home--sort of expelled, you know--sort of disgraced for life; a nice sort of creature to come here! And we're to mould her. What is to `mould' a body, Harriet?" "To make them like ourselves, I suppose," said Harriet, whose eyes sparkled over this intelligence. "That is what Sparke said; she hopes everything for the bird from our influence. Isn't it fun? Isn't it great? I am quite excited! See here now: think what larks we'll have with a squint-eyed, hunchbacked, very naughty girl. Oh, won't it be larks!" "She may be a nuisance, there is no saying," remarked Harriet. "Why, aren't you delighted, Harriet? I am." "Can't say," answered Harriet. "I only hope," she added, "that whatever else she is, she is stupid. I don't want any clever girls in the same form with me. Now, let's go back, Jane." "You don't seem at all obliged to me for telling you such a wonderful piece of news," said Jane. "I am not. We'd have found it all out for ourselves in no time, and you should _never_ listen--you know you shouldn't." "Oh, Harriet, you won't tell on me--you promise you won't?"