LOST.
Ingleby arrived at the Villa Lucia at the usual time, and went, as was
her custom, to the schoolroom door, and knocked.
She was generally answered by a rush to the door by Ella and Dorothy,
and a cry of--
"Grannie says she is to stay to luncheon to-day," or, "Don't take her
away yet."
But to-day silence reigned, and when Ingleby looked in, the schoolroom
was empty.
She turned away, and met the maid who waited on Constance with a tray in
her hand and a cup of cocoa, which she was taking upstairs.
"Where is Miss Dorothy, and where are the children?"
"All gone out on donkeys to Colla," was the answer. "Her ladyship was
glad to get the house quiet, for Miss Constance has had a very bad
night."
"Talk of bad nights!" exclaimed Ingleby; "my mistress has done nothing
but cough since four o'clock this morning. Well, I hope Miss Dorothy was
well wrapped up, for the wind is cold enough out of the sun, though
Stefano is angry if I say so. I wish we were back in England. I know,
what with the nasty wood fires, and the 'squitoes, and the draughts,
and----"
Ingleby was interrupted here by Lady Burnside, who came out of the
drawing-room.
"Good-morning, Ingleby; how is Mrs. Acheson?"
"But very poorly, my lady; she has had a bad night."
"Ah! that is why you have not gone to Colla with the party. But I am
sure Crawley will take care of Miss Dorothy, and Miss Irene is quite to
be trusted."
"I knew nothing of the party going to Colla, my lady. I hope it is not
one of those break-neck roads, like going up the side of a house."
"It is very steep in some parts, but the donkeys are well used to
climbing. Give my love to Mrs. Acheson, and say I will come and see
her to-morrow."
Ingleby walked back rather sadly. She wished she had known of the
expedition, for there was safety for her darling when she could walk
behind the donkey going uphill, and by its head coming down again. What
did it matter that the fatigue was great, and that she panted for breath
as she tried to keep up? She held Dorothy's safety before her own, and
all personal fatigue was as nothing to secure that.
If any little girls who read this story have kind, faithful nurses like
Ingleby, I hope they will never forget to be grateful to them for their
patience and kindness in their childish days when childhood has passed
away, and they no longer need their watchful care. Ingleby's love was
not, perhaps, wise love, but it was very true and real, and had very
deep roots in the attachment she felt for her mistress, whom she had
served so faithfully for many years.
Between Stefano and Ingleby no great friendship subsisted, and when she
returned alone from the Villa Lucia, he said,--
"Where's the little signora, then?"
"Where? you may well ask! gone up one of those steep mountains to Colla
on a donkey."
"_Si!_ well, and why not?"
"Why not? Because it is very dangerous, and I think fellows who take
other people's children from them ought at least to give notice of it."
"_Si!_ well," was Stefano's rejoinder, "that's a fine ride up to Colla,
and there are more books there than there are days in the year, and
pictures, and----"
"Come now, Stefano," his wife called, "it is time to stop thy talking,
and to get the luncheon ready. Gone to Colla, do you say, Mrs. Ingleby?--a
very pretty excursion; and there, high up in the heart of the hills, is
a wonderful library of books, and many fine pictures, collected by a
good priest, who starved himself to buy them and store them there."
But Ingleby was not to be interested in any details of the library at
Colla, which is visited with so much delight by many who spend a winter
at San Remo. She was anxious about Dorothy, and Stefano said,--
"It will be wonderful if they are home before sunset."
"Home before sunset!" exclaimed poor Ingleby; "well, I should think Mrs.
Crawley will have sense enough for _that_, though I don't think much of
her wisdom, spoiling that baby of three years old as she does."
Stefano chuckled.
"Ah, _si!_ but others are spoiled, as well as _Bambino Bobbo_."
Ingleby had now to go to Mrs. Acheson, and tell her that Dorothy was not
coming home to luncheon.
As this often happened when she stayed at Lady Burnside's, Mrs. Acheson
was not anxious. Ingleby kept back the expedition to Colla, and Mrs.
Acheson asked no questions then.
But as the afternoon wore on, and Dorothy did not return, escorted as
usual by Willy and Irene Packingham, Mrs. Acheson told Ingleby she had
better go to Lady Burnside and bring Dorothy home with her.
"I have not seen the child to-day," she said, "except when I was half
asleep, when she came to wish me a 'Happy New Year!' And this present
has arrived for her from her uncle at Coldchester. Look, Ingleby; is
it not sweet? I could not resist peeping into the box. Won't she be
delighted!"
The box contained two little figures like dormice, with long tails and
bright eyes, in a cosy nest. The head of each little mouse opened, and
then inside one was the prettiest little scent-bottle you can imagine,
and inside the other a pair of scissors, with silver handles, and a tiny
thimble on a little crimson velvet cushion.
How Ingleby wished Dorothy Dormouse, whose name was written on the
card tied to the box, was there, I cannot tell you; but how little
did Ingleby or any one else guess _where_ she was at that moment!
Ingleby put off going to the Villa Lucia till the last moment, and
arrived at the gate just as the donkeys came merrily along the road.
Francesco could not resist the delight of sending them all at full trot
for the last quarter of a mile, and Crawley, grasping Baby Bob tightly
with one arm, and with her other hand holding the pommel of the saddle,
jogged up and down like any heavy dragoon soldier; while Irene, and
Willy, and Ella, and the Merediths came on urging their tired steeds,
and asking Crawley if it was not "jolly to canter," while poor Crawley,
breathless and angry gasped out that she had a dreadful stitch in her
side, and that she would never mount a donkey again.
Marietta came on behind, with the ends of her scarlet handkerchief
on her head flapping in the wind, and though apparently not hurrying
herself, she took such strides with her large, heavily-shod feet, that
she was soon at the gate.
There was the usual bustle of dismounting, and some scolding from
Crawley, and a few sharp raps administered by Marietta to Francesco for
making the donkeys canter; while poor Ingleby's excited questions were
not even noticed.
"Miss Dorothy--where is Miss Dorothy?--do you hear me, Miss Packingham?--do
you hear me, Master Willy?--speak, won't you?--has she fallen off one of
these brutes?--is she--is she--Master Willy--Miss Ella--Miss Irene!"
Then Ella turned from giving a parting pat to her donkey, and seeing
Ingleby's distressed face, said,--
"Dorothy did not come with us; she is not hurt?"
"Oh, Miss Ella, Miss Ella!" exclaimed poor Ingleby, holding up her hands
and sinking back against the wall. "Oh, Miss Ella, Miss Ella! oh, Miss
Irene!"
"Why, what is the matter, Mrs. Ingleby?" said Crawley, who had set down
Baby Bob to toddle into the house, and was settling the payment for the
donkeys with Marietta. "Why, you look like a ghost."
"Miss Dorothy! Miss Dorothy! Where can she be?"
"Well, she is safe enough, isn't she?"
"No," said Ingleby; "she is gone! she is lost! she is lost!--and oh,
what will become of me?"
"_Lost!_" the children all repeated; "she can't be lost."
And then they all ran into the house, and Lady Burnside, who was sitting
with Constance in the room upstairs came hurriedly down.
"What do you say?--little Dorothy has not been with you to Colla? She
must have gone home, then."
"No, no, my lady," Ingleby said. "No, no; I have been waiting for her
there till ten minutes ago. She is lost--lost--and oh! I wish we had
never, never come to these foreign places; and the mistress so ill!"
Lady Burnside was indeed greatly distressed, but she took immediate
action. She sent Willy to fetch Stefano, anxious that Mrs. Acheson
should not be alarmed and she despatched him at once to the Bureau of
Police, and told him to describe Dorothy, and to tell every one that she
was missing.
Ingleby tried to follow them, but her legs trembled, and she sat down on
a bench in the hall and burst into tears.
And this was the trouble which little Dorothy's self-will had brought
upon every one; this was the end of her determination to do as _she_
liked best, without thinking what it was right and best to do, and what
other people liked best--a sad end to a day that might have been so
happy; a hard lesson for her to learn!
[Illustration: Swallows]