Page:Georgie by Dorothea Deakin, 1906.djvu/38

"Georgie" also a poisoned shaft to rankle in my heart, and presently I got up and strolled over to the tumble-down old Rectory where Drusilla and Anne lived with their decrepit father.

Before I reached the front door I met Anne—a little brown mouse of a girl with quiet manners and calculating eyes. We did not like each other much, and she told me that her sister had gone to bed with a headache.

"I will go in and see the Rector," said I coolly, and walked on to the house. But I was glad to find that he was not in the library or the dining-room. The house seemed to be deserted, and the side door opening on to the tennis lawn stood open as usual. I went out and crossed the daisied and dandelioned lawn. I might as well go home this shorter way, I thought. Down the weedy path through the kitchen garden, and so into the orchard, and under the fruit trees to—ah! what was that?

A low sound of sobbing had suddenly 22