pe
walking on in front, Esther behind dodging and hiding and loitering so
that Penelope might not see her, until at last she knew the cottage was
almost reached, and stopped altogether.

She had had to lead Guard all the way, for he, catching sight of another
of his mistresses before him, was full of eagerness to tear on and greet
her; but Penelope, still quite ignorant of what was behind her, reached
the cottage safely, knocked, and was admitted. Esther, from her
hiding-place behind a rock, saw the door opened by Laura, Anne's smiling
wife, and closed again, and resentment against her sister grew hotter than
ever.

"She gets everything," she muttered, "and if I have a friend or a chance
she takes them away; but she doesn't share hers with me." She had told
herself all this so often she really believed it by this time.
Poor Esther! poor unhappy Esther! Guard sat by her watching her with
wistful, wondering eyes. He felt that something was wrong, poor old
doggie.

She seated herself behind the rock to await Penelope's return. It would
be no use to conceal her presence any longer, for Cousin Charlotte would
certainly speak of it; so she must join Penelope on the way home, and
make some sort of explanation. That, though, would be nothing compared
with the mortification of having to go into the cottage with her.

Esther in her nook, cut off from every view but the moor in the direction
from which she had just come, sat and dreamed troubled dreams, and brooded
over her grievances, but never once gave a thought to the danger she had
been sent to protect Penelope from. And all the time that danger was
drawing nearer and nearer.

In the distance, just over the horizon behind her, on her left, there
appeared a shaggy brown form, followed closely by another and another and
another until a whole herd was descending the slope towards her, sniffing
the air and the strange ground, cropping the turf a little here and there,
or gazing about them with curiosity. Closer and closer they came,
the soft turf deadening the noise of their coming.

"It must be nearly time for her to come out," said Esther at last, taking
out her watch. Guard, at the sound of her voice, rose on his long legs
and, stretching himself, wandered away a little. The foremost of the
shaggy brown creatures looked up sharply, looked again, suspiciously, at
this other occupant of this strange land who had so unexpectedly appeared,
and his eyes wore a new