That night as she lay in bed, she said to herself that that was the end of everything. And she feared that she was more relieved than disappointed. It would be cruelly hard to part with the baby and her heart leaped at the thought of keeping him always. And she owned to her innermost heart that she should be glad of a rest from going to the parsonage. She would have more time for Joe, Junior, and for Alice. She and Alice could enjoy him together, and--dear me, she had quite forgotten those absurd rumours about Alice! She must do something at once. She was sincerely sorry so far as Mr. Langley was concerned. But she had done her level best. She would have given him the baby though it had half killed her, but she had failed to ‘put it over’. She must always be sorry for that part of it, for most likely he would grow old with a vengeance now and she would be obliged to sit by and watch him going headlong down hill. Well, and she was sorry for Mrs. Langley, too. Somehow, she seemed to have a certain affection for her--a queer, maternal sort of affection as if a downy yellow chick wanted to mother and brood an ugly old hen. If only someone had taken her earlier! The next day was a day of profound discomfort. But on Wednesday, a note was brought to the Hollow from the parsonage asking Anna to come to see Mrs. Langley on Saturday week at two o’clock and bring the baby with her. Consternation seized upon her, and settled into despair. But she felt constrained, and before night sent back word that they would come. At first she was thankful for the ten days respite. Then she felt the suspense would kill her. But very shortly she had no time to worry over that or anything else except after she got into bed at night and then she was too tired. For suddenly Alice Lorraine began to seek and claim her companionship as she had never done before, and the girls became practically inseparable. Anna always enjoyed Alice, and with Alice and Joe together would have been blissfully happy but for the lurking apprehension with regard to the Saturday facing her. And when she forgot that, it was because she recollected the mystery connected with Alice, who had ceased her wandering and seemed to her mother and Miss Penny to be herself again. But Anna knew better: she wasn’t at all the same girl she had been before the day Anna had found her at the dark cottage in the lane. She had moments of high spirits, but they did not last. She clung to Anna, but she was still nervous and absent-minded. Anna was forced to guess that the reason she no longer went back and forth between the Hollow and the lane was because the person she met there or the occasion of her going was no longer thereabout. But although Alice was not happy nor at her ease, neither was she really unhappy as she must have been had it--whatever it had been--been over and the parting final.