“Here she is! Where have you been? Fraulein and Rice are still looking for you. Did you lose yourself? Did you tumble down? Have you been into the forbidden rooms?”
Fortunately for Mary it was impossible to answer all these questions, so she did not attempt to answer any of them.
“Anyhow you didn’t find me,” she managed to say as she threw herself on the ground near the fire.
“Oh, but isn’t Fraülein in a state of mind?” said Jackie. “She says she’s ‘out of herself’ with anxiety, and she’s been crying. Here she comes.”
Poor Fraülein now appeared with Rice. She was so greatly agitated, and yet so relieved to find that Mary had come back, that she could not express herself in English. For some moments she poured forth a torrent of German and French, half laughing and half crying, but Rice looked very cross, and said severely at once:
“You’ve given us all a deal of trouble and anxiety, Miss Mary, with them foolish pranks.”
Mary felt as though she must cry; it was hard to be scolded when she had just come through such a terrible trial. Her eyes filled with tears, and Jackie saw them; as usual, he was her comforter in distress, and drawing near, with a blackened potato and a roasted apple in his hand, he seated himself close to her in a friendly manner.
“I cooked ’em for you myself,” he said, as he made his offering; “they’re awfully good ones.”
This attention consoled Mary a little, and she managed to bear up, but a dulness had fallen over the whole party; Fraülein was still tearful, and Rice cross, so that none of the children were sorry when the wagonette arrived to take them back to Wensdale. To Mary it was the greatest possible relief; she never never wished to see Maskells again. When she found herself tightly squeezed in between Fraülein and Jackie, with friendly faces all round her, she began to feel safer, and very soon the last glimpse of the tall chimneys was lost to sight in a turn of the road. What a comfort it was to be with them all again! At another time she would have complained that Jackie was taking up too much room, and digging his elbow into her, but all that was altered. He could not possibly be too close, her only dread was to be left alone. She was so unusually meek, and looked so white, that presently Patrick, who was sitting opposite and staring at her with large round eyes, remarked:
“I expect Mary saw the ghost, only she won’t say so.”