"Can you go faster?" asked Mr. Haveloc, who was urging the pony as fast as he could walk.
"No; my head swims," said Aveline. She could not bear anything like agitation or hurry.
Mrs. Grant, who had just arrived from church by a path across the fields, was all astonishment when she saw the party coming briskly towards the cottage door. She stepped out of the little garden gate to meet them.
"Why, Miss Aveline, my dear young lady, what brings you out so far from home?" she asked.
Aveline was too flurried to speak.
Mrs. Fitzpatrick began her explanations, but they were interrupted in the midst, for Aveline, after a vain attempt to get off the poney, sank into Mr. Haveloc's arms, and fainted away.
Mrs. Grant was terribly frightened. She thought at first that Aveline was dead. Mrs. Fitzpatrick, as usual, calm and prompt.
"Don't go away," were her first words when she recovered, turning her eyes in search of Mr. Haveloc. "Tell me when you are quite restored, that I may have the pleasure of scolding you," he said, coming up to her chair. "I do not know what business you have to frighten us in this way."
"I will tell you what, dear Mrs. Grant," said Aveline, "we will send for our dinner to add to yours, and we will all dine together. It will be something like a pic-nic."
Mrs. Fitzpatrick agreed. Aveline could not move at present, and she must not be kept waiting for her dinner.