Part 4
OME half an hour or so afterwards, all the party, the children included, assembled on the lawn for tea. Nurse had seized the opportunity of Helena's running in with Leigh, to "tidy her up a bit," and Freda too had not objected to a little setting to rights, so that both the girls looked quite in order. And Willie and Hugh had also removed all traces of their adventures; only Maggie was still rather rumpled and crumpled, but as she was counted a tom-boy at all times, it did not so much matter. |
"What became of you all, this afternoon?" asked Mrs. Frere. "We walked down to the bridge to look for you, as one of the men said he had seen you going that way. And I am sure I heard one of you 'cooeying'—did I not? Yet when I called, no one replied."
The children looked at each other. Mrs. Frere felt surprised.
"What is the mystery?" she said, though with a smile.
"Oh," began Freda, "there wasn't any mystery—we were only——" She stopped, for she felt that Helena's eyes were fixed on her, and Freda was not by nature an untruthful child. It was through her heedlessness and wildness that she often got into what she would have called "scrapes," from which there seemed often no escape but by telling falsehoods, or at least allowing what was not the case to be believed.
She grew red, and Mrs. Frere, feeling that it was not very kind to cross-question a guest, finished her sentence for her.
"Hiding?" she said. "Were you hiding?" though she wondered why Freda should blush and hesitate about so simple a thing.
"Yes," said Helena quickly, replying instead of Freda, "yes, Mamma, we were hiding—under the bridge."