"Me no fall, Annie," and the small children on the ground clapped their
hands and blew kisses to her.
"Isn't it pretty? Isn't Annie sweet with children?" said Cecil, looking
round to Hester with all the admiration she felt for her friend shining
in her face. The expression, however, which Hester wore at that moment
really startled Cecil: she was absolutely colourless, and presently she
called aloud in a harsh, strained voice--
"Be careful of her! How wicked of you to put her like that on your
shoulder! She will fall--yes, I know she will fall; oh, do be careful!"
Hester's voice startled the children, who ceased sinking and dancing:
Annie made a hasty step forward, and one little voice alone kept singing
out the words--
"Humpty Dumpty got a great fall!" when there was a crash and a cry, and
Nan, in some inexplicable way, had fallen backwards from Annie's
shoulders.
In one instant Hester was in the midst of the group.
"Don't touch her," she said, as Annie flew to pick up the child, who,
falling with some force on her head, had been stunned; "don't touch
her--don't dare! It was your doing; you did it on purpose--you wished
to do it!"
"You are unjust," said Annie, in a low tone. "Nan was perfectly safe
until you startled her. Like all the rest you are unjust. Nan would
have come to no harm if you had not spoken."
Hester did not vouchsafe another word. She sat on the ground with the
unconscious and pretty little flower-crowned figure laid across her lap;
she was terrified, and thought in her inexperience that Nan must be
dead.
At the first mention of the accident Cecil had flown to fetch some
water, and when she and Miss Danesbury applied it to little Nan's
temples, she presently sighed, and opened her brown eyes wide.
"I hope--I trust she is not much hurt," said Miss Danesbury; "but I
think it safest to take her home at once. Cecil, dear, can you do
anything about fetching a waggonette round to the stile at the entrance
of the wood? Now the puzzle is, who is to take care of the rest of the
little children? If only they were under Miss Good's care, I should
breathe more easily."
"I am going home with Nan," said Hester, in a hard voice.
"Of course, my love: no one would think of parting you from your little
sister," said the governess soothingly.
"If you please, Miss Danesbury," said Annie, whose face was quite as
pale as Hester's, and her eyes heavy as though she longed to cry, "will
you trust me with the little ones? If you do, I will promise to take
them straight to Miss Good, and to be most careful of them."
Miss Danesbury's gentle and kind face looked relieved.
"Thank you, Annie--of course I trust you, dear. Take the children at
once to the meeting-place under the great oak, and wait there until Miss
Good appears."
Annie suddenly sprang forward, and threw her arms round Miss Danesbury's
neck.
"Miss Danesbury, you comfort me," she said, in a kind of stifled voice,
and then she ran off with the children.