Then she turned sorrowfully away from him, and pursued her way alone to look for Bet.
CHAPTER XII.
THE SPIRIT OF PEACE.
Bet had been sent on an errand for her grandmother, and when Patience came up to her she was laden with a heavy basket of market produce. She was bending under the weight she carried, and as Patience joined her she set down the basket and wiped her hot face with her handkerchief.
"Is little Miss Joy worse?" she asked eagerly, "I couldn't come early, for grandmother wanted me to scrub out the room Joe uses, and the passage; and then I had to change my frock and go to the market. I met the girls going to Miss Bayliff's, and they laughed at me, and said they supposed I was so clever I had left school because there was no more to learn; and they laughed and jeered at me as they daren't have done if little Miss Joy had been there. But as she loves me a little, and never laughs at me, I don't mind."
"I thought I should meet you, Bet, and I came along to tell you some news."
"Not that Jack is come? Oh my!"
"No; my wanderer is not come home; but another has—your Aunt Maggie."
Bet stared in Mrs. Harrison's face with open mouth.