[247]
]“But what am I to do with you?” he said in dismay.
He was anxious to get in, and now here was this poor, trembling, wild-eyed girl on his hands.
[“Oh, let me] come!” she implored. There was a sob rising in her throat.
Then he did scold her a little. Surely she was not going to trouble them on this terrible night? Meg was all courage, and quite calm, and so relieved to know the children were being well looked after,—she must not fail them all now at the crisis.
The sob was strangled instantly.
“I’ll stay,” she said,—“only—oh, Alan, come out and tell me soon!”
He promised he would. He drew her just within the gate and wrapped his overcoat round her, for she was jacketless, of course.
“I trust you not to come past the hedge,” he said. “See, stand here, and I can find you easily. There now, dear, I must go.”
“A minute—is she in—real danger, Alan? Is she going to die?”
Oh the wide, beseeching eyes, full of moonlight and misery!