She went and stood on the hearthrug and gazed around her; then she walked over to the bureau.  Some Greek books were lying open here—­ also a pile of manuscript, several note-books, a few envelopes and sheets of letter-paper.  Still, scarcely knowing why, Rose lifted the note-paper and looked under it.  The heap of paper concealed a purse.

A sealskin purse with gold clasps.  Rose snatched her hands away, flung down the note-paper as if she had been stung and walked back again to the hearthrug.  Once more the color rushed into her cheeks, once more it retreated, leaving her small, young, pretty face white as marble.

She was assailed by a frightful temptation and she was scarcely the girl to resist it long.  In cold blood she might have shrunk from the siren voice which bade her release herself from all her present troubles by theft, but at this moment she was excited, worried, scarcely capable of calm thought.  Here was her unexpected opportunity.  It lay in her power now to revenge herself on Miss Oliphant, on Prissie, on Polly Singleton and also to get out of her own difficulties.

How tempting was Maggie’s purse! how rich its contents were likely to prove!  Maggie was so rich and so careless that it was quite possible she might never miss the small sum which Rose meant to take.  If she did, it would be absolutely impossible for her to trace the theft to innocent baby Rose Merton.  No; if Maggie missed her money and suspected any one, she would be almost forced to lay the crime to the door of the girl she no longer, in her heart, cared about—­ Priscilla Peel.

A very rich flood of crimson covered Rose’s cheeks as this consequence of her sin flashed before her vision.  Less even than before was she capable of seeing right from wrong.  The opportunity was far too good to lose; by one small act she would not only free herself, but accomplish the object on which she had set her mean little heart:  she would effectually destroy the friendship of Maggie and Priscilla.

Stealthily, with her cheeks burning and her eyes bright with agitation, she once more approached the bureau, took from under the pile of papers the little sealskin purse, opened it, removed a five-pound note, clasped the purse again and restored it to its hiding-place, then flew on the wings of the wind from the room.

A moment or two later Priscilla came back, sat calmly down in one of Maggie’s comfortable chairs, and, taking up her Greek edition of Euripides, began to read and translate with eagerness.

As Prissie read she made notes with a pencil in a small book which lay in her lap.  The splendid thoughts appealed to her powerfully; her face glowed with pleasure.  She lived in the noble past; she was a Greek with the old Greeks; she forgot the nineteenth century, with its smallness, its money worries—­ above all, she forgot her own cares.