"Very well, I'll search for her right away; and shall I send Molly to you?"
"Dear Molly; yes, I'd rather see her than anyone."
"I'll fly round and tell her you're here," replied Annie.
She had now a reason for joining the group on the lawn, which not even Nora's frantic wavings of the hand to her to keep away could prevent her attending to.
"Molly," she said, not coming too near, but shouting from a little distance; "Hester is on the lawn at the back of the house and wants particularly to see you for a minute or two."
Molly stood up and shook out her crumpled holland frock.
"Very well," she said, "I'll go to her."
"Stay here, Guy," she continued, laying her hand on her brother's shoulder. "I won't stay long with Hetty, but she would think it unkind if I did not tell her. I wonder if she has heard anything. I won't be long away, for we must go back to the Towers before lunch, in order to be sure to be in time to meet mother."
Molly went slowly away, her poor dejected little figure showing only too plainly the weight of sad care which filled her heart.
Hester Thornton was, however, for once so self-centred that she could think of no sorrow but her own. She noticed nothing particular in Molly's lagging step, and guessed of no special sorrow in her tear-dimmed brown eyes.