"By the way," said she, "what has become of Anna Chlannach?—I thought you were to tell her to come to me, so that I could assure her she shouldn't be locked up in any asylum?"
"I'm afraid Anna has not got over her fear of you," said he, with a smile. "She seems to think you tried to entrap her into the garden, where Mr. Purdie was. And it isn't easy to reason with Anna Chlannach."
"Oh, then, you see her sometimes?" she asked.
"Sometimes—yes. If Anna catches sight of the Sirène coming across, she generally runs down to Camus Bheag, and waits for us, to ask for news from the island."
"Will you tell her that I am very angry with her for not coming to see me—when Barbara could quite easily be the interpreter between us?"
"I will. Good-bye!"
"Good-bye!" said she, as he left.
But she did not immediately go back to the drawing-room, and to Käthchen, and the dyed wools. She remained in the great, empty oak hall, slowly walking up and down—with visions before her eyes. She saw a name, too: it was New Heimra. And the actual Heimra out there—the actual Heimra would then be deserted, save, perhaps, for some old housekeeper, who would sit out in the summer evenings, and wonder whether Young Donald was ever coming back to his home. Or perhaps an English family would be in possession of that bungalow retreat: the children scampering about with their noisy games: would they be silent a little, when chance brought them to the lonely white grave, up there on the crest of the hill?
She was startled from her reverie by some sound on the steps outside, and, turning, found her brother and Frank Meredyth at the door.
"Now, Mamie, see what comes of all your coddling!" Fred Stanley exclaimed as he came forward, and he held a piece of paper in his hand. "This is a pretty state of affairs! But can you wonder? They easily find out where the place is ripe for them—where the people have been nursed into insolence and discontent—and on the Twelfth, too—oh, yes, the Twelfth!—when they expect the keepers to be up on the hill, so they'll be able to break a few of the drawing-room windows on their way by——"