Part 46 (1/2)

”So they will, I am sure,” said Annie. ”Did you say Mrs. Willis was here, Hester?”

”Yes, she came an hour ago. She is in her room. She says she will take you and Nan back with her to Lavender House the day after to-morrow.”

Annie's face, which had been very bright a moment before, grew suddenly grave. She murmured something half aloud.

”I won't be outdone by Antonia,” she said.

”Really, really, Annie,” exclaimed Hester, ”I shall get to hate Antonia, if you allude to her in that sphinx-like way any longer.”

Annie looked hard at Hester with dilating eyes and paling cheeks.

”Do you remember,” she said, suddenly coming up to her friend, ”the old Annie of Lavender House?”

”How can I forget her,” said Hester; ”when she is my dearest friend?”

”Do you remember,” continued Annie, ”the heaps and heaps of sc.r.a.pes she used to get into, and how there was no peace for her, and no way out of them at all except by confession?”

”Yes, I remember,” said Hester, gravely.

”Well, I am going to confess now.”

”To confess! But you have done nothing wrong, Annie darling.”

”Oh, haven't I; I've been just at my old pranks--just as heedless, as impetuous, as mad, as I have ever been. Hester, I have done wrong, but as it does not concern you, I won't tell you, dear. Only before I go to Mrs. Willis, I should like to congratulate you.”

”To congratulate me? On what?” asked poor Hester.

”On having the chance of such a girl as Antonia for your sister.”

”Now, really, I wont listen to another word,” said Hester. ”I have quite made up my mind to _endure_ Antonia, and to be patient with her, but if, in addition, I am to congratulate myself, I'm just afraid I can't rise to it. Run away if you want to, Annie, and when you cease to be mysterious I will talk to you again.”

Annie left the room and went slowly upstairs to Mrs. Willis's bedroom.

She knocked and was admitted. What she said--what words pa.s.sed between the two were never known, but when Annie left that room there was a look on her face which reminded those who saw her of the best of Annie in the old days, and Mrs. Willis was more affectionate than ever to her dear pupil that evening.

The next day dawned bright and splendid. The trees were beginning to put on their autumn tints, but the air was still full of summer. The Lorrimers at the Towers were busy making preparations to come over to the Grange. They had been invited to the festival by no less a personage than Sir John Thornton himself, and he had couched his epistle in gay and pleasant words.

”As if we had any heart for it,” murmured Molly to herself.

”It is over a week now since we have had even a line from father,”

whispered Nell to her own heart; ”how can we care to go and laugh at the Grange?”

”We are going from the dear old place in a week,” thought Guy. ”I don't believe anyone can draw a smile out of me to-day.”

But Boris was happy enough to go, for he was so young that any change was delightful; and as his pets were also leaving the Towers, and he and Kitty had just thought of a splendid way to prepare them for their journey, he felt quite light-hearted once again, and that he would be happy in his new home.

When Jane Macalister heard of the invitation, she flatly refused to accept it.

”Go, if you choose to,” she said, with a wave of her hand to the a.s.sembled children; ”you are young, and it's good for the young to forget. But I shall take the opportunity of sewing up the feather beds in their brown-holland cases. I vowed and declared that when this move had to be made no outsider should come in to pack, so my hands are full, and I have neither time nor heart for frivolity.”