CHAPTER XIII


For three months Anne had prayed constantly for Jane. Living alone in an
orderly and quiet house with one window open towards her Invisible
Friend, she had spoken with Him of her desire for Jane's recovery, until
it appeared to her that He too must yearn as she did for this definite
thing. Elizabeth Richardson had been removed to the Infirmary and was at
peace, so that Anne's thoughts were of little else than Jane and her
re-instatement in the country. It was not the chagrin of the failure of
her visit to Burton's house which troubled her, but her helplessness. If
she went again she could do no more than plead as she had done before.
But it might be that the girl had by this time felt her need of outside
friends. It was fully three months ago. As Anne was returning from the
nearest village one afternoon in the solemn winter sunshine, she
determined suddenly to pay a second visit to Jane. And she would try to
be less hard on Burton, which would perhaps draw Jane to her. It might
be that she needed a friend by now. Half a mile from her own cottage she
came to a three-cornered patch of the way where several roads met. By
one side was a pond with two posts painted white as a mark for drivers
at night-time. The sloping edge of the pond was trodden into mud by the
feet of horses stopping to drink, and as Anne, crossing the road to
avoid the mud, arrived opposite one of the posts, she saw a bill posted
upon it announcing a sale.

"I must see what it is," she said. "Perhaps it's something for Mary."
She read the heading. "Sale of Bankrupt Stock."

"It seems to be nothing but horses," she said as she read the list. Two
men carrying forks on their shoulders came at that moment from the