"I'll bring it out to thee at once, Herbert, if I can," she hastily said. "If not, I will give it thee to-morrow evening."
"Not so fast, young lady," said Herbert, laughing, and detaining her. "You may not come back again. I'll wish you good night now."
"Nay, please thee let me go! What will Hester say to me?"
Scarcely giving a moment to the adieu, Anna sped with swift feet to the garden gate. But the moment she was within the barrier, and had turned the key, she began—little dissembler that she was!—to step on slowly, in a careless, nonchalant manner, looking up at the sky, turning her head to the trees, in no more hurry apparently than if bedtime were three hours off. She had seen Hester Dell standing at the house door.
"Child," said Hester gravely, "thee shouldst not stay out so late as this."
"It is so warm a night, Hester!"
"But thee shouldst not be beyond the premises. Patience would not like it. It is past thy bedtime, too. Patience's sleeping-draught has not come," she added, turning to another subject.
"Her sleeping-draught not come!" repeated Anna in surprise.
"It has not. I have been expecting the boy to knock every minute, or I should have come to see after thee. Friend Parry may have forgotten it."
"Why, of course he must have forgotten it," said Anna, inwardly promising the boy a sixpence for his forgetfulness. "The medicine always comes in the morning. Will Patience sleep without it?"