"But now I love my Father's voice,
I love my Father's home."
How happy she was! At that time to-morrow she would be in bed at Derby Haven, having seen Alick and arranged everything.
Next morning, when she awoke, she was startled to find the sun pouring into the room. She knew by the line it made on the wall that the first train must have gone. The chickens, too, were clucking at the kitchen door, and they never came round before breakfast.
She had risen on her elbow intending to call, when she heard the roll of a van-like vehicle drawing up in front of the house, and immediately afterwards, a man's husky, asthmatical voice in the kitchen, mingling with her mother's shrill treble.
"Go upstairs and tell her to make ready, ma'am."
"No, no; the girl's not fit for it, I tell thee."
"She's fit enough for the prison hospital, anyway."
"She has never been out of my door since she came into it."
"We'll lave that to the High Bailiff and the Dempster, if you plaze."
Bessie, supporting herself on her trembling arm, could scarcely restrain herself from screaming. One moment she sat and gasped, and then, grasping her head with both hands, she turned about and fell forward and buried her face in her pillow.