"Mary suddenly stood still in front of a toy-stall."
"Well, she is a naughty little thing!" said Mary to herself. "And John won't have her punished. Well, I do sometimes wish that child was back where she came from."
Here Mary was roused by the keeper of the toy-stall, who began bringing forward her best goods to tempt such a respectable-looking purchaser, and seemed a good deal injured when she shook her head and walked away.
She went on to the very end of the street, looking eagerly about among the women and children that crowded her path, but nowhere did she see the Alfrick children, or their mother, or Lily. They were not in the boats, or on the merry-go-rounds, they were not standing about listening to the band near the market-place, they were not to be seen among the ever-thickening crowd that made its way slowly along the line of booths. Mary began to feel lonely, as well as anxious. Some of the ruder people, the strangers, stared at her, and she felt that Carsham Fair was hardly the place for a girl of her age to be wandering about alone. Her presence there would not please John, she knew, any more than Lily's—and if he could see her there alone, he would certainly be angry. However, Mary had not time to think much of this. She must find Lily—that was her first work, her first duty; and then they would both turn their backs on Carsham Fair quickly enough—gladly enough too, as far as she was concerned, for she had seldom felt more anxious or more miserable.
She began to think that Mrs. Alfrick must have taken the children into one of the shows. Making her way slowly back down the street, towards the part of the town where these were, she now met a few neighbours from Markwood, who stared and grinned at the sight of her. Was this Miss Mary Alfrick, who generally treated common amusements with scorn? Mary stopped in spite of their looks, and asked if they had seen any of her people. "No." One woman had noticed Farmer Alfrick going into the Wheatsheaf Inn; but there was nobody else with him.
"Anything wrong at home, as you want him back in a hurry?" asked another.
"No, thank you," Mary answered civilly. "But they're all here, Mrs. Alfrick and the children and all—and I wanted to find them."
She went on down the street, instantly losing these acquaintances in the crowd.