uddenly
know that to be shut in would be intolerable to her. Why was that? She
now knew that lately, while she had been walking in the garden, she had
been straining her ears to hear the sound of wheels in the Green Court.
She knew she would be able to hear them in the garden. In the house
that would be impossible. Therefore she could not go into the house till
Robin came back.

All her fear was for Robin. He was so young, so tiny. Perhaps she ought
not to have allowed him to go. Perhaps nurse was right, and such an
expedition ought to have been ruled out as soon as it was suggested.
Perhaps Dion and she had been altogether too Doric. She began to think
so. But then she thought: "Robin's with his father. What harm could come
to him with his father, and such a competent father too?" That thought
of Dion's strength, coolness, competency reassured her; she dwelt on it.
Of course with Dion Robin must be all right.

Presently, leaving the path in front of the house, she went again to the
seat hidden away behind the shrubs against the wall which separated the
garden from the Dark Entry. This dark entry was an arched corridor of
stone which led directly from the Green Court to the passage-way on
which the main door of the garden opened. It was paved with worn slabs
of stone upon which the feet of any one passing rang with a mournful and
hollow sound. A tiny path skirted the garden wall, running between the
hidden seat and the small belt of shrubs which shut out a view of the
house. Just before she turned into this path Rosamund looked back at the
old house, and saw a lamp gleaming in the lattice window of the nursery.
She did not sit down on the seat. She had thought to do that and to
listen. But the mist had made the wood very wet, and she had left the
rug in the house. If she walked softly up and down the little path she
would be sure to hear the hoofs of Harrington's horse, the wheels of the
dogcart directly the wanderers drove into the Green Court. There they
would get down, and would walk home through the Dark Entry. She intended
to call out to them when she heard their footsteps ringing on the old
stones. That would surprise them. She tried to enjoy the thought of
their surprise when they heard her voice coming out of the darkness. How
Robin would jump at the sound of mummy!

She stood just in front of the seat for two or three minutes, listening
intently in the misty darkness. She heard nothing except for a moment a