“Cooking,” said I with alarmed conviction. “For goodness’ sake, don’t say a word to frighten them, Julia! Do make up your mind there is nothing wrong, and go to sleep at night like a sensible girl. Lock your door, and if you hear anything, just remember that it is Mrs. McNab’s house and she has a perfect right to prowl round it at any hour of the night.”
“ ’Tis great sense you have, an’ you only a shlip of a gerrl yourself, miss,” said Julia, looking at me respectfully—from which I gathered that I sounded more impressive than I felt. “Well, I will try so. But I’ll be believin’ all me days that it’s a quare house, entirely!”
Somehow, I thought so myself, after I had gone to bed—the picnickers had come in, laughing and chattering, and then the house settled down to quiet. I lay awake, thinking of what the Irish girl had said: and, so thinking, it seemed to me that, gradually, queer, muffled sounds came to me: furtive, stealthy movements, and the creaking of a stair. Once I got up, and, opening my door very softly, peered out: but all was in darkness, and there was no sound as I listened, except the thumping of my own heart. I told myself, angrily, all the wise things I had said to Julia, as I crept back to bed. But I will confess that I switched on my light and looked under the bed before I got back into its friendly shelter.
CHAPTER IX
I BECOME A MEMBER OF THE BAND
‟MISS EARLE—do you know where the children are?”
My employer’s voice made me jump. I had slipped away from the drawing-room, where I had been playing accompaniments since dinner. It was a still hot night, following upon a day of breathless heat, and I was tired—in no mood for the dance for which Harry and his friends were now energetically preparing the room. Like Cinderella, whom I often felt that I resembled, I was hoping to make good my escape before my absence was discovered.
Mrs. McNab stood on the landing above me, looking annoyed.
“Are they not in bed?” I asked. “They said good night an hour ago.”
“No; their beds are empty. And I cannot find them anywhere in the house. I—I have just come in from a—from a little stroll”—she stammered slightly, with a trace of confusion—“and I thought I heard voices in the shrubbery. I wonder can they have gone out on some prank.”
“It’s quite likely,” I answered, feeling dismally certain that anything might be expected of my charges. “I’ll go out and look for them, Mrs. McNab.”