Now that very morning Mrs. Macintosh had been talking kindly to
Annie--as kindly, that is, as her abominable condescension would
permit--and, what to Annie was of far greater consequence, had paid her
her wages, rather more than she had expected, so that nothing now lay
between her and the fall of her burden from her heavy-laden conscience,
except, indeed, her preliminary confession. Dinner, therefore, being
over, her mistress gone to the drawing room to prepare the coffee, and
her master to his room to write a letter suddenly remembered, Hector was
left alone with Annie. Whereupon followed an amusing succession of
disconnected attempt and frustration. For no sooner had Mr. Macintosh
left the room than Annie darted from it after him, and Hector darted
after Annie, determined at length to speak to her. When Annie, however,
reached the foot of the stair, her master was already up the first
flight, and Annie's courage failing her, she, turning sharply round,
almost ran against Hector, who was close behind her. The look of
disappointment on her face, to the meaning of which he had no clew,
quenching his courage next, he returned in silence to the dining room,
where Annie was now hovering aimlessly about the table, until, upon his
re-entrance, she settled herself behind Hector's chair. He turned
half-round, and would have said something to her, but, seeing her pale
and troubled, he lapsed into a fit of brooding, and no longer dared
speak to her. Besides, his mother might come to the dining room at any
moment!

Then Annie, thinking she heard her master's re-descending step, hurried
again from the room; but only at once to return afresh, which set Hector
wondering yet more. Why on earth should she be lying in ambush for his
father? He did not know that she was equally anxious to avoid the eyes
of her mistress. And while Annie was anxious to keep her secret from the
tongue of Mrs. Macintosh, Hector was as anxious to keep his from the