"I saw Annie Forest rushing down the stairs with little Nan, and Nan had
her arms round her neck, and was laughing merrily. You need not be
anxious about Nan, Hester; she was quite content to go with Annie."
"I did not say I was anxious," replied Hester in a cold voice. "How
very beautiful that avenue of beech trees is, Cecil!"
"But Annie heard Miss Good say that you were to take Nan," persisted
Julia Morris. "She could not but have noticed it, for you did flush up
so, Hester, and looked so eager. I never saw anyone more in earnest
about a trifle in my life; it was impossible for Annie not to have
heard."
"The great thing is that Nan is happy," said Hester in a fretted voice.
"Do let us change the subject, girls."
Cecil instantly began talking about the coming plays, and soon the
conversation became of an absorbing character, and Hester's voice was
heard oftener than the others, and she laughed more frequently than her
companions.
For all this forced merriment, however, Cecil did not fail to observe
that when Hester got to the place of meeting at Burn Castle she looked
around her with a quick and eager glance. Then the colour faded from
her face, and her eyes grew dim.
That look of pain on Hester's face was quite enough for kind-hearted
Cecil. She had thrown herself on the grass with an exclamation of
delight, but in an instant she was on her feet.
"Now, of course, the first thing is to find little Nan," she said;
"she'll be missing you dreadful, Hetty."
Cecil held out her hand to Hester to run with her through the wood, but,
to her surprise, Hester drew back.
"I'm tired," she said; "I daresay we shall find Nan presently. She is
sure to be safe, as she is under Miss Danesbury's care."
Cecil made no remark, but set off by herself to find the little
children. Presently, standing on a little knoll, and putting her two
hands round her lips, so as to form a speaking trumpet, she shouted to
Hester. Hester came slowly and apparently unwillingly toward her, but
when she got to the foot of the knoll, Cecil flew down, and, taking her
by the hand, ran with her to the top.
"Oh, do come quick!" she exclaimed; "it is such a pretty sight."
Down in the valley about fifty yards away were the ten or twelve little
children who formed the infant portion of the school. Miss Danesbury
was sitting at some distance off quietly reading, and the children,
decked with flowers, and carrying tall grasses and reeds in their hands,
were flying round and round in a merry circle, while in their midst, and
the centre of attraction, stood Annie, whose hat was tossed aside, and
whose bright, curling hair was literally crowned with wild flowers. On
Annie's shoulder stood little Nan, carefully and beautifully poised, and
round Nan's wavy curls was a starry wreath of wood-anemones. Nan was
shouting gleefully and clapping her hands, while Annie balanced her
slightest movement with the greatest agility, and kept her little feet
steady on her shoulders with scarcely an effort. As the children ran
round and round Annie she waltzed gracefully backwards and forwards to
meet them, and they all sang snatches of nursery rhymes. When Cecil and
Hester appeared they had reached in their varied collection--
"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall."