"Oh! mamma, how good you are," said Bell, as the two girls came in,
only just in time to make themselves ready for returning to dinner.

"Mamma is always good," said Lily. "I wish, mamma, I could do the
same for you oftener," and then she kissed her mother. But the squire
was exact about dinner, so they dressed themselves in haste, and went
off again through the garden, their mother accompanying them to the
little bridge.

"Your uncle did not seem vexed at my not coming?" said Mrs Dale.

"We have not seen him, mamma," said Lily. "We have been ever so far
down the fields, and forgot altogether what o'clock it was."

"I don't think Uncle Christopher was about the place, or we should
have met him," said Bell.

"But I am vexed with you, mamma. Are not you, Bell? It is very bad of
you to stay here all alone, and not come."

"I suppose mamma likes being at home better than up at the Great
House," said Bell, very gently; and as she spoke she was holding her
mother's hand.

"Well; good-bye, dears. I shall expect you between ten and eleven.
But don't hurry yourselves if anything is going on." And so they
went, and the widow was again alone. The path from the bridge ran
straight up towards the back of the Great House, so that for a moment
or two she could see them as they tripped on almost in a run. And