"In acknowledgment of thirty pounds, I, Mabel Lushington, faithfully promise to invite Annie Brooke to spend the summer holidays with Lady Lushington and myself in Paris." "But, Annie," cried poor Mabel, "I am terrified at having to write this." "Don't write it, and the thing is off," said Annie. She moved to the other end of the room. Mabel sat the very picture of misery by the little table where the one candle burned. Some minutes went by. After a time Annie said: "You may as well go on, for I hold your letter to Mrs Priestley in my pocket." "Oh, oh!" said Mabel, "I get more frightened of you, Annie, each moment. Well, what am I to say? I forget." "Darling, it is so easy," said Annie in her gentlest tone. "Now then, I will dictate once more." She did so. The words were put down. Annie herself folded up this precious piece of paper, and put it for safety into the bosom of her dress. "Now we are all right," she said; "and I've got some chocolates to give you, and we can both curl up on the sofa and go to sleep until it's time to wake Pris." Mabel and Annie were about to retire to the comfortable old lounge which occupied a place of honour in the sitting-room, when they were at once frightened and rejoiced by hearing a voice say very distinctly outside the schoolroom door: "It is I--Priscie. Let me in." Annie immediately flew to the door, drew back the bolt, and admitted Priscilla. Priscilla was wearing a long, ugly, grey dressing-gown; her face looked nearly as grey. She came swiftly forward and put her manuscript on the table. "Sign it," she said to Mabel. "Be quick. Don't hesitate, or I will draw back. I have lived through the most awful night; but there's no use in waiting until five o'clock. I was up, and saw you two run across the lawn. I guessed you would come here, and I made up my mind. Be quick, Mabel Lushington--sign." "Here is your pen," said Annie.--"Pris, you are a plucky girl. You'll never repent of this." "You promise," said Priscilla, "to pay me a year's schooling?" She did not glance at Annie; her eyes were fixed on Mabel. "Yes," said Mabel, nodding to her and speaking with difficulty. "You will get your money to-morrow evening, dear, at latest," said Annie; "I mean the money for the autumn term." Still Priscilla did not look at Annie. "Where is your paper?" she asked, her eyes still glued on Mabel's face. Annie supplied it. "It is a very good paper," she said. "You won't be at all ashamed to read it. I only trust," she added, "that it is not too good." One very bitter smile crossed Priscilla's face for a moment. Then, going on her knees, she deliberately wrote with a defiant air her own signature at the foot of the essay which Annie had dictated and Mabel had written. Mabel's weaker handwriting signed Priscilla's paper. Then Priscilla, gathering up the false essay, folded it within her dressing-gown, and, without glancing at either girl, left the room.