Page:Cornelia Meigs--The Pool of Stars.djvu/163

 did not see him. The far corners of the room were so very dim that he might be there among the shadows, but she did not like to go in to make sure. Miss Miranda called her for something at that moment and kept her longer than she expected. Later, when she went back to make sure of his absence before she mentioned it, she saw that he was at work again by the bench and she began to believe that she must have been mistaken. He was standing beneath the light, putting away a great array of tools in a drawer.

David, returning from his errand, came whistling up to the door.

"Are you sure you do not need a doctor?" he inquired anxiously.

Miss Miranda was certain that a doctor would only disturb and upset her father. She had broached the subject to him earlier and had found the idea so distressed him, that she had given it up.

"I met Michael when I came through the garden," David told Betsey, "and when I let him know what had happened he seemed dreadfully upset. He just sat down on the bench and groaned out, 'I knew that fellow would be coming here to make some mischief, but I never knew quite what it would be. And with me watching and watching for him, he slipped in just the same. I was certain just some such unlucky thing would happen, I have been