dare to scorn Aunt Harriet again. Was this the way the poor woman felt
every night after the household were all at rest? Well, it was very
unpleasant, and she wasn't to be blamed for waking Goneril; if Missy
hadn't been ashamed, she'd have waked somebody.
It was not till dawn fairly came that she was able to go to sleep. From
this sleep she was confusedly wakened by a hurried knock at her door.
The sun was streaming into the room. She felt as if she hadn't been
asleep at all, and yet the misgivings of the night seemed endlessly far
off in time.
"Well, what is it?" she answered, sitting up and pushing back her
pillow, and feeling rather cross, it must be said.
"They've sent over from the other house to know if Jay is here," said
the waitress, out of breath, showing she had run up-stairs very fast.
"_Here!_" cried Missy, springing to the door and opening it. "How should
he be here? Do you mean to say they cannot find him?"
"Oh," gasped Ann, putting both hands on her heart, "Eliza's in a
dreadful way. She's just got in from spending the night at home, and
went up to the nursery to dress the children, and opened the door
softly, and there was Jay's crib empty, but Gabby sound asleep."
"He'd gone into his father's room, no doubt," said Missy, pale and
trembling.
"No," cried the woman, "she ran right off to Mr. Andrews' door, and he
called out the child wasn't there, and in a terrible fright, she came
over here. When I told her no, I knew he wasn't, she flew back."
"Go there, quick, and tell me if they find him in the kitchen or
dining-room; maybe he missed Eliza and crept down-stairs and fell asleep
on the sofa in the parlor."
This mission suited Ann exactly; she ran as her mistress bade her, but
failed to come back with news. Missy dressed in a moment of time. She
saw it all; she knew what she had heard in the night; she knew what the
boat had meant hovering about the harbor, shooting out of sight. She
knew what was the explanation of the fire, for which no one had ever
been able satisfactorily to account. She began to realize what it was
to have an enemy. The thought of that child's cry, so suddenly smothered
last night, sent a pang through her. She scarcely knew how she got her
clothes on; her hands shook as with an ague. When it came to opening the
front door to let herself out she found they were as weak as if she had
had a fever. Half-way across the lawn she met Ann, who shook her head
and wrung her hands, and turned back, and followed her. Ann liked to be
in the proscenium box when there was a tragedy on the boards; it would
be dull laying the breakfast table when all this excitement was going on
next door (though a trifle more useful). She ran after her mistress, who
did not stop till she reached the gate that led into the Andrews' yard.
There she found herself face to face with Mr. Andrews, who had come
hurriedly down the path with the confused air of one who had been waked
from sleep by a sudden and stunning blow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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