the child
with them, and that she had never come to the kitchen, as I had bidden
her, when she was tired of behaving pretty in the drawing-room. So I
took off my things and went to find her, and bring her to her supper in
the nursery. But when I went into the best drawing-room, there sat the
two old ladies, very still and quiet, dropping out a word now and then,
but looking as if nothing so bright and merry as Miss Rosamond had ever
been near them. Still I thought she might be hiding from me; it was one
of her pretty ways,--and that she had persuaded them to look as if they
knew nothing about her; so I went softly peeping under this sofa, and
behind that chair, making believe I was sadly frightened at not finding
her.

'What's the matter, Hester?' said Mrs. Stark, sharply. I don't know if
Miss Furnivall had seen me, for, as I told you, she was very deaf, and
she sat quite still, idly staring into the fire, with her hopeless
face. 'I'm only looking for my little Rosy Posy,' replied I, still
thinking that the child was there, and near me, though I could not see
her.

'Miss Rosamond is not here,' said Mrs. Stark. 'She went away, more than
an hour ago, to find Dorothy.' And she, too, turned and went on looking
into the fire.

My heart sank at this, and I began to wish I had never left my darling.
I went back to Dorothy and told her. James was gone out for the day,
but she, and me, and Bessy took lights, and went up into the nursery
first; and then we roamed over the great, large house, calling and
entreating Miss Rosamond to come out of her hiding-place, and not
frighten us to death in that way. But there was no answer; no sound.

'Oh!' said I, at last, 'can she have got into the east wing and hidden
there?'

But Dorothy said it was not possible, for that she herself had never
been in there; that the doors were always locked, and my lord's steward
had the keys, she believed; at any rate, neither she nor James had ever
seen them: so I said I would go back, and see if, after all, she was
not hidden in the drawing-room, unknown to the old ladies; and if I
found her there, I said, I would whip her well for the fright she had
given me; but I never meant to do it. Well, I went back to the west
drawing-room, and I told Mrs. Stark we could not find her anywhere, and
asked for leave to look all about the furniture there, for I thought
now that she might have fallen asleep in some warm, hidden corner; but
no! we looked--Miss