But they had walked a considerable bit, all the way to the parsonage, in fact, before they saw anything of Pauline. There, she met them at the gate. "Have you seen any trace of Patience—and Bedelia?" she asked eagerly.
"Patience and Bedelia?" Hilary repeated wonderingly.
"They're both missing, and it's pretty safe guessing they're together."
"But Patience would never dare—"
"Wouldn't she!" Pauline exclaimed. "Jim brought Bedelia 'round about
eleven and when I came out a few moments later, she was gone and so was
Patience. Jim's out looking for them. We traced them as far as the
Lake road."
"I'll go hunt, too," Tom offered. "Don't you worry, Paul; she'll turn up all right—couldn't down the Imp, if you tried."
"But she's never driven Bedelia alone; and Bedelia's not Fanny."
However, half an hour later, Patience drove calmly into the yard, Towser on the seat beside her, and if there was something very like anxiety in her glance, there was distinct triumph in the way she carried her small, bare head.
"We've had a beautiful drive!" she announced, smiling pleasantly from her high seat, at the worried, indignant group on the porch. "I tell you, there isn't any need to 'hi-yi' this horse!"
"My sakes!" Miranda declared. "Did you ever hear the beat of that!"