Mrs. Webb began to think that after all perhaps Meg might be speaking the truth.
"Are you sure it was Jem?" she asked doubtfully.
"Sure! How could I make a mistake? And he's forgiven me. I believe he's looking for me, and if so he'll find me. He found me last time."
The rest of the day passed like a dream to Meg. She lay out on the heath in the sunshine with a heart full of happiness.
"Jem will find me," she kept thinking, "and he's forgiven me."
[CHAPTER XXII]
REMORSE
MISS GREGSON'S knitting was a source of real comfort to her during this time.
It soothed her troubled mind, for not only did the thought of Meg sadden her, but also Sheila's extraordinary callousness.
While Mr. Fortescue was leaving no stone unturned in his efforts to get a clue to Meg's whereabouts, Sheila threw herself into every kind of gaiety, in apparent complete forgetfulness of her cruel behaviour towards her protégé. Miss Gregson watched her employer with surprise and concern. It would have consoled her to know that the girl passed many a restless miserable night, shedding tears of remorse when no one could see her. Her pride forbade her showing any anxiety before others, being determined that she would give them no excuse for thinking that she considered herself to blame in the matter.