my age, named Molly. She was my principal friend while we were living
there, as she was very nice and we suited each other very well. The
older people, both of her family and of mine, drove away in the
afternoon to a large garden party some way off, to which we were
thought too young to go, or very likely there was not room for us in the
carriages. But we were very happy to stay behind. We were to have tea
together, and then it was arranged that I was to take Molly half-way
home.

[Illustration: Off we set, in very good spirits,]

"Be sure you are not later in starting than half-past five," said my
mother, "so that you can be back before it begins to get dark," for it
was already September.

And Molly's mother repeated the warning, only adding, "I am not the
least anxious about Molly--she knows the way so well. But it might be
puzzling for Thecla, as our lanes are really a labyrinth after dark."

"Oh I am _sure_ I couldn't get lost between here and Three Corners," I
said, laughing. "Three Corner Court" was the quaint name of Molly's
home.

Well--we found the afternoon only too short--we enjoyed our nice tea
very much, and felt rather reluctant to set off as soon as it was over.

"It is barely half-past five," I said. But Molly was very determined.

"We must start," she said. "I feel responsible for you, Thecla, for you
will have to come back alone."

"As if I _could_ lose my way, when I have only to come straight back the
way you take me," I said, "and I have been a bit of that way before."

We were not going by the road but by a short cut, part of which was a
foot-path through the fields, and _generally_, I had driven to Three
Corners, so that there was some reason for Molly's carefulness.

"Don't be too sure," she said, "you don't know how like some of the
fields are to each other, as well as the lanes. We have regular
landmarks we depend upon."

Off we set, in very good spirits, laughing and talking. We laughed and
talked a little too much perhaps, for though the very first part of the
way was through our own grounds, where I could not of course have gone
astray, we soon came to a succession of fields--several of them ploughed
land--which certainly were very like each other. We crossed two or three
lanes, going a few steps in one direction or the other to get to the
gates, and keeping always in the same line ourselves. Suddenly Molly
stopped in the middle of a very interesting discussion of a book we had