both children; she has kindly offered to give you a lift, and will drop you at the rectory. I have sent Jim off on a bicycle, with a note to your father which will explain matters; he has probably reached the rectory by this time.”
“May I go, too?” inquired Gretta, her eyes turned appealingly towards Mrs. Fleming.
“No, Gretta, I think not,” answered the head mistress. “Stella’s father, when he reads my note, will probably want to join Mrs. Fleming and go with her; it will be more sensible and useful for you to stay where you are!”
It was no time to grumble, the child knew. She watched until the car turned the corner, and then made her way to the dining-hall, at Miss Slater’s suggestion, to find Josy. The latter, roaming round, was as restless as Gretta herself, and equally in need of some employment that would keep her thoughts busily engaged until the return of the wanderers.
“I couldn’t have believed that to-day would have turned out like this,” said Josy despondently. “We’ve not half watched the match, and now who knows what mayn’t be happening in that ‘Little House’?”
“Look here!” said Gretta, feeling certainly as miserable with anxiety as anyone could feel, and not daring to think the horrid thoughts that would come crowding into her mind. “Let’s go back to the field and watch for auntie’s car; it won’t come for ages yet, of course, but it’ll be something to do.”
Accordingly, while the fun of the hockey-tea waxed fast and furious, the two children paced the playground exchanging comforting remarks concerning the subject most near to their hearts, and listening anxiously for any sound that might herald the return of Mrs. Fleming.
“There!” said Josy suddenly, for about the tenth time. “What’s that?”
“Why!” answered Gretta, half-amused. “That! Why, it’s only the click of the school gate! It’s an errand boy with parcels, I think. I can see him, but it’s getting so dark that I can hardly tell. We’d better be going in, I think, Josy; we could watch from one of the windows.”
The figure by the gate crouched down as the girls drew near on their way to the cloak-room; it seemed to try to hide itself in the shadows.