She helped Miss Lydia to open her front door, and the two entered the cottage together.
What would Molly’s feelings have been had she looked out into the garden a moment later, and seen the crouching figure that rose, and emerged from behind a clump of bushes as soon as the door was shut? It was an old woman with little darting eyes and a red scarf wound round her head. Creeping along, the old woman pushed her way through a broken fence at the end of the garden, and, darting behind a group of trees close by, began to signal wildly to some one at the bottom of the hill.
CHAPTER XIX
Molly Looks Through Miss Lydia’s Window
Molly led Miss Lydia into the cottage parlour—a dainty, fresh little room—and brought a chair forward into which Miss Lydia sank gratefully.
“Can I get you anything? Shall I make you some tea?” suggested Molly cheerfully.
There was no answer, and then she saw that Miss Lydia was crying softly to herself.
“Oh, dear! I’m so sorry, Miss Lydia,” said Molly, distressed. “Oh, what can I do? Is there anything you’d like me to do?”
“I don’t know what to do,” said Miss Lydia. “I feel so helpless here alone. If only I could get a message through to my sister in the City, she’d come to me immediately—if she knew. What shall I do?... You have been so good to me—it’s a shame to bother you with my troubles, though.”