"She's gone," she exclaimed.
"Yes," said her cousin, feeling very much inclined to add, "You needn't have been so rude to her."
"I never felt or heard the coach stop to let her get out," added the elder girl.
"Nor did I," said Clodagh, "only——"
"Only what?"
"Nothing. I was dreaming, I suppose. But I have a misty recollection of hearing some one say, almost in a whisper, 'Good-bye for the present, my dear. We shall meet again.'"
"I hope not," said Paulina, with a slight shudder. "Clodagh, you don't think possibly she's a witch?"
Clodagh's spirit of mischief inclined her to frighten her cousin a little, but she refrained.
"No, of course not," she replied. "She's a very polite and harmless old woman, though, no doubt, there did seem something rather odd—mysterious almost—about her. But if I may say it, Paulina, I think, in travelling especially, it is best to be so—polite I mean—to everybody one is thrown into contact with."
Paulina muttered something which sounded like "rubbish" or "nonsense," but aloud she only said snappishly, "You know nothing about travelling, child. One has to keep up one's dignity."