ever, as she would, nowhere could she find Miss Drummond. She
called and called, but no sleepy voice replied. Susan, indeed, knew
better; she had curled herself up in a hammock which hung between the
boughs of a shady tree, and though Hester passed under her very head, she
was sucking lollipops and going off comfortably into the land of dreams,
and had no intention of replying. Hester wandered down the shady walk,
and at its farther end she was gratified by the sight of little Nan, who,
under her nurse's charge, was trying to string daisies on the grass.
Hester sat down by her side, and Nan climbed over and made fine havoc of
her neat print dress, and laughed, and was at her merriest and best.

"I hear say that that naughty Miss Forest has done something out-and-out
disgraceful," whispered the nurse.

"Oh, don't!" said Hester impatiently. "Why should every one throw mud at
a girl when she is down? If poor Annie is naughty and guilty, she is
suffering now."

"Annie _not_ naughty," said little Nan. "Me love my own Annie; me do, me
do."

"And you love your own poor old nurse, too?" responded the somewhat
jealous nurse.

Hester left the two playing happily together, the little one caressing
her nurse, and blowing one or two kisses after her sister's retreating
form. Hester returned to the house, and went up to her room to prepare
for dinner. She had washed her hands, and was standing before the
looking-glass re-plaiting her long hair, when Susan Drummond, looking
extremely wild and excited, and with her eyes almost starting out of her
head, rushed into the room.

"Oh, Hester, Hester!" she gasped, and she flung herself on Hester's bed,
with her face downward; she seemed absolutely deprived for the moment of
the power of any further speech.

"What is the matter, Susan?" inquired Hester half impatiently. "What have
you come into my room for? Are you going into a fit of hysterics? You had
better control yourself, for the dinner gong will sound directly."

Susan gasped two or three times, made a rush to Hester's wash-hand stand,
and, taking up a glass, poured some cold water into it, and gulped it
down.

"Now I can speak," she said. "I ran so fast that my breath quite left me.
Hester, put on your walking things or go without them, just as you
please--only go at once if you would save her."

"Save whom?" asked Hester.

"Your little sister--little Nan. I--I saw it all. I was in the hammock,
and nobody knew I was ther