“I’ll see and make some hot-cakes then, Miss,” she said; “them as Miss Pennie likes.”
“And I want you,” added Miss Unity, “to let Keturah bring up the tea-things. The young ladies don’t know she is here, and it will be a nice surprise for them.”
Betty entering heart and soul into the plot, which Miss Unity had been considering for some days, a letter was despatched to Easney, the cakes made, and Keturah carefully drilled as to her behaviour.
Pennie and Nancy had been expecting the invitation, and were quite ready for it when it came, with Kettles’ new boots and stockings made into a parcel. Andrew might drive them into Nearminster and leave them at Miss Unity’s for an hour, Miss Grey said, and she hoped they would be sure to start back punctually.
“How funny it seems,” said Pennie as the cathedral towers came in sight, “to be going back to Nearminster!”
“Would you like to be going to stop there again?” asked Nancy.
“Well of course I like being at home best,” answered Pennie, “but there were some things I liked at Nearminster. Let me see,” counting on her fingers, “there were Miss Unity, and old. Nurse, and Betty, and Sabine Merridew, and Kettles, and the Cathedral, and the market, and the College. That’s five people and three things. And what I didn’t like were needlework and dancing, and the dean, and Monsieur Deville, and all the other Merridews.”
“I hope Betty’s made hot-cakes for tea,” said Nancy as the carriage stopped at Miss Unity’s door.
“How can she, with only one hand?” said Pennie; and then the door opened and there was Betty herself, with her arm still in a sling, and a face shining with welcome.
“Lor’, Miss Pennie, it do seem natural to see you again, to be sure,” she said with a giggle of delight. “And Miss Nancy’s rosy cheeks too. The mistress is expecting you; run upstairs to her, my dears.”