But May did not concern herself greatly about this. If she saw the Queen, what matter would it be if she had a little trouble in finding Lucia and nurse again!
So she slowly wandered on, though the silence and stillness of the forest rather made her heart quake.
At length she came to a road, and this took off the feeling of loneliness to some extent.
She sat down in a shady place and looked yearningly along it, expecting every moment to see the cloud of dust approaching, and to live over again Lucia's old experience of so many years ago.
But no cloud of dust came; no footfall broke the intense quiet of the scene.
Once a stir among the bracken made her start; but it was only some of the deer who had not noticed the still little figure till they were quite close to it, and then had fled away, shy and frightened.
But still the Queen did not come!
As the hours passed away, and the sun began to shine with slanting rays through the trees, May began to cease to look so earnestly along the road. Her head turned first in one direction and then the other. Was it fancy that made her think the forest was full of voices calling her name?
How fast the sun was sinking! It would be night soon; that solemn, quiet night which she had never spent anywhere but in her own warm little bed!
The air played around her and made her shiver, and thoughts of tea and home began to haunt her.