The next moment she was in the street.
III
The Bornholme clock struck four. Anna awoke and hearing no sound from Thora's room she went back to the nursery and busied herself noiselessly at the stove.
Presently the lace curtains in the bedroom were rustled by the wind from an open window and Anna cried through the door:
"Lie quiet, Thora--I'm making tea," and then she began to sing to herself in the voice of her youth.
A few minutes later she said, "That sleep must have made me stupid--I've actually put in the hot water before the tea-leaves."
Soon afterwards she sailed into Thora's room with the tea tray in both hands and a smile on her face, saying, "Here it is, but you'll thank your stars when Maria comes back in the morning."
She was setting down the tray on the round table by the bedside where the hand-bell should have been, when her eyes fell on the empty bed. Her breath jumped in her throat, and she turned her head slowly over her shoulder, calling, "Thora!"
There was no answer; the room was empty. Anna remembered the clothes which she had laid out on the chairs in the nursery. They were gone. "Thora! Thora!" she cried, in an agitated whisper.
Then the smile came back to her face. "I know," she thought. "Thora has dressed herself and gone down to the drawing-room, just to show me what she can do."