But she came back and sat beside her mother utterly unconscious of what might have happened if Stamboul had once got beyond earshot, galloping along the trail towards the disused vault at the back of the church.

Mrs.
Goddard had started at the sounds and had put her hand to her forehead, but Nellie's explanation was enough to quiet her, and she smiled faintly and closed her eyes again.

Then, half an hour later, Mrs.Ambrose came, and would not be denied.

She wanted to make Mrs.Goddard comfortable, she said, when she found she was ill, and she did her best, being a kind and motherly woman when not hardened by the presence of strangers.

She told her that John was coming on the next day, speaking with vast pride of his success and omitting to look sternly at Mrs.Goddard as she had formerly been accustomed to do when she spoke of the young scholar.