"Well, good-bye for the present. You mustn't keep me now, as I am in a great hurry." Mrs Martin moved aside, and once more Annie pursued her way up the dusty road. The postern door presented no hindrance when she reached it, and by-and-by, with a sigh of relief, she found herself in the cool shade of the grounds. How inviting looked that hammock under the trees! But she had not a moment of time to indulge in rest just then. Unperceived by any one, she managed to reach her room. She locked the door. She made a quick selection from poor Susan's verses. She then calmly dressed, washed her face and hands, and when early dinner was announced, took her place at table. The girls were all pleased to see her, and when she assured them that she was as well as ever they all congratulated her. Priscilla Weir sat at table near Annie. Priscilla was not looking well. The headache which Annie pretended to have was in reality possessed by poor Priscilla. She was easily startled, too, and changed colour when any one addressed her in a hurry. Towards the end of the meal, as the girls were about to leave the room, she bent towards Annie and said: "Is it really true that Mabel Lushington is going to read some poems at four o'clock this afternoon?" "She is going to read some of her _own_ poems. Why not?" said Annie. She spoke defiantly. "Her own poems?" echoed Priscilla, a world of scorn in her voice. "Yes. Why not?" said Annie. Priscilla was silent for a minute. Then she said in a very low voice: "I know how clever you are; but even your genius cannot rise to this. I have seen you struggle to make even the slightest rhyme when we have been playing at making up verses. You can't manage this." "Never mind," said Annie. She jumped up almost rudely. The next minute she had seized Mabel by the arm. "We have half-an-hour. Come with me at once to my room." Mabel did so. When they reached the room Annie locked the door. "Now then," she said, "who's a genius? I said I would find a way out. Sit down immediately before my desk and write what I tell you." "Oh Annie, what do you mean?" "I mean exactly what I say, and the fewer questions you ask the better. I will dictate the poem, and you shall copy it." "But--but," said Mabel, turning from red to white--"it isn't, I hope, from a printed book. I have thought of that I have been so frightfully miserable that I've thought of everything; but that would be so terribly unsafe." "This is not unsafe at any rate," said Annie, "Now you begin. Write what I tell you." Annie's look of triumph and her absolutely fearless manner impressed Mabel. She wrote as best she could to Annie's dictation, and soon two of poor Susan Martin's attempts at verse were copied in Mabel's writing. "There you are!" said Annie. "That `sunset' one will take the cake, and that pretty little one about `my favourite cat' will come home to every one."