‘If Etta knows, we should be lost,’ she
repeated drearily.
‘She shall not know, then,’ I returned,
pretending cheerfulness, though I was inwardly dismayed.
’You and I will watch and wait, Gladys.
Do not be so cast down, dear. Remember it is
never so dark as just before the dawn.’
‘No,’ she replied, with a faint smile,
’you are right there; but it is growing dark
in earnest, Ursula, and I must go home, or Leah will
be coming in search of me.’
‘Very well; I will walk with you,’ I replied;
and in five minutes more we had left the cottage.
We walked almost in silence, for who could tell if
eaves-droppers might not lurk in the dark hedgerows?
I know this feeling was strong in both our minds.
At the gate of Gladwyn we kissed each other and parted.
‘I am happier, Ursula,’ she whispered.
’You must not think I am ungrateful for the
news you have given me, only it has made me restless.’
‘Hush! there is some one coming down the shrubbery,’
I returned, dropping her hand, and going quickly into
the road. As I did so, I heard Leah’s smooth
voice address Gladys:
’You were so, late, ma’am, that I thought
I had better step down to the cottage, for fear you
might be waiting for me.’
‘It is all right, Leah,’ was Gladys’s
answer. ’Miss Garston walked back with
me. Thank you for your thoughtfulness.’
And then I heard their footsteps dying away in the
distance.
NIGHTINGALES AND ROSES
I was very busy the next morning. I went round
to the Marshalls’ cottage to see Peggy, and
then I paid Phoebe a long visit, and afterwards I went
to Robert Stokes.
They seemed all glad to welcome me back, especially
Phoebe, who lay and looked at me as though she never
wished to lose sight of me again.
When I had left her room I sat a little while with
Susan. She still looked delicate, but at my first
pitying word she stopped me.
’Please don’t say that, Miss Garston.
If you knew how I thank God for that illness! it has
opened poor Phoebe’s heart to me as nothing else
could have opened it.’
‘She does indeed seem a different creature,’
I returned, full of thankfulness to hear this.
’Different,—nay, that is not the
word: the heart of a little child has come back
to her. It rests me now, if I am ever so tired,
to go into her room. It is always “Sit
down, Susan, my woman, and talk to me a bit,”
or she will beg me to do something for her, just as
though she were asking a favour. I read the Bible
to her now morning and evening, and Kitty sings her
sweet hymns to us. It is more like home now, with
Phoebe to smile a welcome whenever she sees me.
I do not miss father and mother half so much now.’
’If you only knew how happy it makes me to hear
you say all this, Miss Locke!’
