"THIS is winter at last!" said Miss Warren, as she stood at the sitting-room window on the afternoon subsequent to Ruth and Dick's boating experience, and looked out on the driving rain which was flooding the gutters in the deserted street. "I thought this morning the weather was going to change again; one seldom has two days following as fine as yesterday, at this time of the year."
Dick, who had been sitting by the fire, gazing thoughtfully into the glowing coals, jumped up from his chair, and ran to the window to look out.
"I had no idea it was raining like this!" he exclaimed. "Oh, Aunt Mary Ann, I wonder if grandfather has found out yet whether it was really the secret passage we discovered? We told him about it last night, and he said he'd see to it! I do think he's much nicer and better-tempered than he used to be!"
"I believe you gave him a terrible fright," Miss Warren said gravely.
"I believe we did," Dick answered, "but we did not mean to! I told him how sorry we were, and—I suppose we were very foolish—it was all on account of Ruth's losing her oar! And if it had not been for dear old Nero, grandfather would never have seen us at all!"
"How was that?" Miss Warren enquired. "I thought Sir Richard saw you from the cliff path?"
"Yes; he told us all about it as the fishermen rowed us home. Aunt Arabella was worried because she did not know where Ruth had gone, and grandfather remembered what she had told them about the donkey at luncheon, and thought perhaps she had gone to try and ride Neddy again. So he went to look for her; and when he found she wasn't with the donkey he walked a little way on the cliff path till he heard a dog howling. He felt quite certain it was Nero, because he knew his voice, so he looked over the cliffs, and saw us in the boat drifting out to sea. Then he hurried down to the village, got a boat, and found us!" —Dick concluded, with a sob at the remembrance of the terrible position he and his little cousin had been in.
"Oh, Dick!" Miss Warren cried, "I shudder to think of what might have been! Thank God I did not know of your danger!"
"You went to look for me, didn't you, Aunt Mary Ann?"
"Yes, my dear, when it became quite dark and you had not come home I naturally grew anxious. I made enquiries for you in the village first, and by the time I reached the beach you were on the point of landing. Sir Richard asked me not to scold you, and I gave him my word I would not. I hope you will never be so foolhardy again!"