“Yes, I suppose it has. I’m so glad, more glad than I can say, that I didn’t hurt you. It would have made me so unhappy, and I just hate to be unhappy.”
“Oh! you do, do you?”
“Yes’m. Well, if you think you’re all right now, Towsley and I’ll just take another try at it and see if we can’t keep our eyes right front next time. Good-by. I hope you’ll not feel shook up, afterward, as mother did the day she fell down-stairs. Didn’t appear to hurt her a mite, then, but she was all trembling and queer-headed for a week afterward. Come on, Tows! I didn’t have but fifteen minutes for play, to begin with, and a lot of that’s been wasted already. Good-by.”
Before the servant had opened the door to admit her mistress the two children and the one pair of skates had whisked away to the foot of the block; this time, however, keeping well to the asphalt in the centre of the Avenue, where they would not be apt to collide with anything smaller than a horse and wagon, which would be better able to resist their onslaught than Miss Lucy had been.
“Why, mistress! Whatever has happened? Your cloak is all dusty and your bonnet——”
Miss Armacost interrupted. She had not thought of any damage to her attire, and her servant’s exclamation revived unpleasant ideas. After all, the neighbors might have seen and commented; might even, at that moment, be gazing at her from behind their lace curtains. The thought was painful, and the lady retreated through her vestibule into the dimness of the hall beyond. There she paused and bade her maid:
“Wait where you are, Mary, till those two children come back up the Avenue. Then ask them to step inside.”
Much wondering, Mary remained. “Whatever does mistress want with such truck? Side Street, even Alley, kids they look to be. Pshaw! That’s the girl from the house in the rear. ‘Jolly Molly,’ the youngsters call her. She’s the smartest one I ever saw. Say, hello! Molly! Oh, Molly!”
It wasn’t so easy skating up hill, and the children approached more slowly than they had descended; yet as soon as the girl came within reach of Mary’s summons she let go her playmate’s hand and ran to the foot of the steps.
“What is it? Did she really get hurt?”