'Only one, mammie dear, a big house in a garden; but I can't see it very well, there are so many trees in front of it.'
'Ask Toby to put you down, Rosalie, and run and have a look at it as we pass.'
So Rosalie was lifted down from the caravan, and ran up to the vicarage gate, whilst her mother raised herself on her elbow to see as much as she could through the open window. But she could only see the spire of the church and the chimneys of the house, and she was too exhausted to get up.
Presently Rosalie overtook them, panting with her running. Toby never dared to wait for her, lest his master should find fault with him for stopping; but Rosalie often got down from the caravan, to gather wild flowers, or to drink at a wayside spring, and, as she was very fleet of foot, she was always able to overtake them.
'What was it like, Rosalie?' asked her mother, when she was seated on the box beside her bed.
'Oh, ever so pretty, mammie dear; such soft grass and such lovely roses, and a broad gravel walk all up to the door. And in the garden there was a lady; such a pretty, kind-looking lady! and she and her little girl were gathering some of the flowers.'
'Did they see you, Rosalie?'
'Yes; the little girl saw me, mammie, peeping through the gate, and she said, "Who is that little girl, mamma? I never saw her before." And then her mamma looked up and smiled at me; and she was just coming to speak to me when I turned frightened, and I saw the caravan had gone out of sight; so I ran away, and I've been running ever since to get up to you.'
The mother listened to her child's account with a pale and restless face.
Then she lay back on her pillow and sighed several times.
At last they heard a rumbling sound behind them, and Toby announced, 'It's master; he's soon overtaken us.'