"Yes," was all Elsa said, and the next moment she had slipped up to the old woman, and with a pitiful look in her eyes had taken one of the knotted, wrinkled hands in her own, while she said gently: "We are very sorry, really we are. We wouldn’t have let Hero frighten you for anything, if we had known you were here. But people hardly ever come along this path." "Ah! little lady, you’ve got a kind heart, I can see," said the old granny, as she looked up into the bright, young face, which evinced real sympathy for her; "not like them two yonder, a-makin’ sport o’ an old body like me. They’ll be rewarded one of these days, though." She clutched her stick tightly and prepared to pick up her bundle; but Amethyst stooped for her and gave it to her with a smile. "Thank you, my pretty dear. God bless you both for helpin’ me. And now I’ll get on a bit, if that there beast ’ll let me." But even as she spoke, she tottered and would have fallen, but for a helping-hand from Elsa. "’Tis the rheumatizzy, missy; it ketches me all of a heap like, nows and thens." "Let us go a little way with her, Thistle," suggested Elsa, and Amethyst agreed readily, although their companions tried to persuade them not to go. "Whereabouts are you going?" asked Elsa. "To my darter’s, missy; Joe Hodges’ wife she be as lives over agin Disbrowe House." "Oh! I know Mrs. Hodges, Elsa," cried Amethyst; "she comes to the mothers’ meeting. Her husband works for Sir Tudor Disbrowe." "So he do, missy, and they has a cottage on the estate, so they’ve a-told me. But I be a stranger to these parts, and I must have mistook my way a-crossin’ the copse. I tried to foller the ’rections they gave me at the station, but I made sure I’d took a wrong turn just as that there animal a-bounced at me." "It’s more than a mile from here to Mrs. Hodges’ cottage," said Amethyst, somewhat dubiously. She was not quite sure that her good nature was equal to traversing all that distance with the comical old woman. "Can you walk so far as that, if we help you, do you think?" asked Elsa. "Oh, my dear young lady," expostulated Granny Wood (as she was generally called), "I don’t like to let you do it. I really don’t." "Oh, we don’t mind, do we, Elsa?" said Amethyst, a little grandiloquently. "Just look after our baskets and books till we come back, you girls." This she called out to Monica and Olive, who had retreated to a little distance and were watching the proceedings with amusement and contempt. "You won’t find us here when you get back, you needn’t fear," retorted Olive. "It’s likely to be a lengthy affair! If you’re both determined to go, you’d better take your things with you and meet us at the white gate in West Lane. What is the time now, Monica?" "Two o’clock," replied the only owner of a watch among the quartette. "Well, we’ll meet you about three o’clock, and mind you are not late."