Page:Cornelia Meigs--The Pool of Stars.djvu/64

 drying in the sun. The little house, also, seemed unusually quiet as she first rang at the bell, then went across the grass to knock at the kitchen door. She could hear Mr. Reynolds tinkering in the shop, she could see Michael's bent back where he was toiling alone in the garden. She saw, presently, when the door opened, the unattractive face of a totally strange woman who was apparently presiding over Miss Miranda's kitchen. In the fewest and shortest words possible the stranger explained to Betsey that Miss Miranda was gone.

"Gone? Gone where? For how long?" cried Elizabeth in unbearable disappointment.

But she received no answer for the woman had already closed the door.