"Flo, dear, are you feeling ill? You were crying out in your sleep."
Flo turned her face away. "I don't want anything," she said.
They thought she was asleep again; and as it was now late, Mrs. Eyre sent Hetty to bed, and said that she would sit up for a little while, just to see how the child slept.
Hetty went to the nursery and began to undress. Then came the discovery about the sixpence—a sixpence no longer.
"The cherries!" said she to herself, "what has become of them? Sure, they couldn't make the child ill, even if she ate them—and we put them in the basket. But I'll just run down and look. I never thought a few cherries could make a child ill; but if they have, the mistress ought to know."
She went down to the parlour. But she could not find the basket—that she did not find the cherries need scarcely be said.
While she was searching about, Mrs. Eyre came down. "I thought I heard you moving about—what made you come down again?"
"Well, ma'am, I'm looking for some cherries that I bought for Miss Flo, and she would not eat them until you were here to give her leave. I put them into Miss Lina's basket, but I can't find them."
"Cherries! why, Hetty, you know I refused to get any for her, just as you were going out! They always make her ill, and those the woman had were neither ripe nor freshly gathered."
"I did not know they made her ill, ma'am."