"We were thinkin' maybe we'd be so bold as to ask wud ye come down to the kitchen and have a drop av coffee and a bit av toast wid us. It's bitter cold the mornin' to be goin' out to an eatin'-house, and there's a grand foire in the stove."
The invitation was accepted, and the guest stayed in the warm kitchen until Rosie's young man materialised. Then Belinda retreated to her own room, made her bed, tucked herself up snugly in the big chair, and once more turned to the consolations of literature.
She was still grimly reading when, at eleven o'clock, Ellen tapped on the door.
"If ye plaze, Miss, there's a man wud loike to be spakin' wid yez."
Belinda looked blankly incredulous. Then a gleam of hope flashed across her face. By a miracle, Jack's boat might have come back—or somebody from home——
"Yis; he sez his name's Ryder."
"Ryder?" echoed Belinda.
"He wuz afther askin' fer Miss Ryder and Miss Emmiline furrst, and he luked queer loike when I told him they wuz gone away.
"'Who's here, onyway,' sez he, sort o' grinnin' as if it hurt him.
"'There's Miss Carewe,' sez Oi, 'wan av th' tachers.'