"Come, Miss Hecla—come!" she kept calling.
And presently Hecla rushed back, scrambling up the steep path in great haste.
"I've got them! I've got them!" she cried, radiant with delight. "Look! Three lovely little snowdrops! Won't Auntie Anne be glad!"
"I can't stop one moment, Miss Hecla. We're late. It was downright naughty of you to run off there without leave. And you knowed I'd got to get back."
Good-natured Elisabeth was for once really vexed. She took firm hold of Hecla's hand, and they ran together till they were breathless, slackening then for a minute, only to run again.
But their efforts were in vain. As they entered the front door, panting and red-checked, and Hecla all over muddy marks, Mrs. Prue, with a particularly grim face, was seen carrying an empty tray from the dining-room. And Miss Anne came out and said—
"Elisabeth, you are not in time. You should have brought Miss Hecla home earlier. I thought I could depend upon you. It is ten minutes past one."
"I'm sorry, ma'am," Elisabeth answered, and not one word did she utter in self-defence.
But, though Hecla could be forgetful and careless, she could not stand by and see Elisabeth blamed for what was her fault.
"It was me, auntie," she said. "It wasn't Elisabeth. I wanted to get these snowdrops, and I ran into the quarry. They're for you, auntie—because I love you."