a good deal. You know how matters stand now, and you
can't say you've not been openly dealt with. So we'll shake hands, and
bear no malice."

Anna went with her visitor as far as the garden door, and watched her
until she was hidden from sight by the great walnut tree on the lawn.
What a tiresome, interfering old lady she was, and how angry Aunt Sarah
would be! Her head really ached now. It felt as though some one had
been battering it on each side with large, strong hands, and she was
quite confused and giddy; but through it all one triumphant thought came
uppermost. She could go to the picnic! Presently she strolled out into
the garden, fanning her hot face with her hat, as she turned things over
in her mind. On the whole, she would not mention Mrs Winn's visit to
her aunt, and, of course, she must not know that Mr Goodwin had not
been asked to the picnic. It was very near now, and as Mrs Forrest was
not fond of listening to Dornton gossip, she was not likely to hear of
it in any other way. To go to the picnic had now taken such full
possession of Anna's mind that nothing else seemed of much importance.
She was ready to bend and twist everything that came in her way to make
the road to it straight. A small reproving voice, which still sounded
sometimes, was getting less and less troublesome. "Afterwards," Anna
said to it, "after the picnic, I will behave differently. I will never
conceal anything, and I will go often to see grandfather--but I _must_
go to the picnic."

The stable clock sounding five disturbed her reflections. Aunt Sarah
would be home soon without fail, for at a quarter past there would be a
mothers' meeting at the schoolroom, at which she always presided. Anna
went too, sometimes, and helped to measure out calico and flannel, but
she hoped she should be excused this afternoon. The schoolroom was hot,
and she did not find the books Aunt Sarah read aloud to the mothers very
interesting.

There was the pony-cart in the distance! But who was the second figure
sitting beside Mrs Forrest? Could it be Delia? Anna ran through the
house and into the porch, from which she could see the long approach to
the Rectory gate. There had been a time when Delia's coming had meant
unmixed rejoicing, but that was over. She seemed to come now not so
much as a friend as a severe young judge, whose looks condemned, even
when she did not speak.

Mrs Winn had only put into words what Delia's face had s