"Do you think she'd know the time, Elsa?" she said, as she ran back to the gate.
"You might ask her," replied the elder girl.
The next moment Amethyst returned with a look of incredulous horror on her little flushed face.
"It's actually four o'clock, Elsa! What shall we do?"
With a spring, Elsa was on the ground beside her, and the two girls gazed at each other in consternation.
"Why, they said they would not wait after half-past three, and they must have gone long before we came, and here we have been waiting ever so long for them. Oh, it is too bad!" cried Amethyst, nearly in tears.
"That clock must have been dreadfully slow," said Elsa. "Perhaps it was not even going. But cheer up, Thistle, we can get to Carson Rise in less than half an hour from here, and we shall be in time for tea. It wasn't our fault, dear; we couldn't help it, if we are late."
"I don't half like going by ourselves," said Amethyst, as they hurried along the hot, dusty road towards Mydenham; "you see, I've never been there yet."
"Oh! it will be all right," returned Elsa consolingly. "Mrs. Beauchamp is very kind, really, although Monica thinks she is strict. She will understand when we explain. I daresay the other two had only just left when we arrived."
CHAPTER IX.