"I'm very sorry, aunt," she answered. "I was talking to Delia Hunt in
the field, and until we heard the bell, we didn't know how late it was."

"If you must be unpunctual at all," said Mrs Forrest--"and I suppose
young people will be thoughtless sometimes--I must beg that you will at
least be careful not to let it occur at church time. Nothing displeases
your uncle more than the irreverence of coming in late as you did
to-day. It is a bad example to the whole village, besides being very
wrong in itself. As a whole," she continued, after a pause, "I have
very little fault to find with your behaviour; you try to please me, I
think, in every respect, but in this matter of punctuality, Anna, there
is room for improvement. Now, you were a quarter of an hour late for
dinner one night. You had been with Delia Hunt then too. I begin to
think you run about too much with her: it seems to make you forgetful
and careless."

"But," said Anna, impulsively, "my being late had nothing at all to do
with Delia this time. I was with Daisy Oswald."

"Daisy Oswald!" repeated Mrs Forrest, in a tone of surprise. "When did
you make Daisy Oswald's acquaintance?"

She turned sharply to her niece with a searching glance. Anna blushed
and hesitated a little.

"I--we--Delia and I met her father as we were walking home from Dornton.
He asked me to go and see his cows; and then, after Delia had left me,
I met his little girl in the lane just near the farm."

Mrs Forrest was silent. She could not exactly say that there was
anything wrong in all this, but she highly disapproved of it. It was
most undesirable that her niece should be running about the fields and
lanes, and picking up acquaintances in this way. Daisy Oswald was a
very nice little girl, and there was no harm done at present, but it
must not continue. The thing to do, she silently concluded, was to
provide Anna with suitable occupations and companions which would make
so much liberty impossible for the future.

To her relief, Anna heard no more of the matter, but it was easy to see
that Aunt Sarah had not liked the idea of her being with Daisy. It was
uncomfortable to remember that she had not been quite open about it.
Somehow, since that first foolish concealment, she had constantly been
forced into little crooked paths where she could not walk quite
straight, but she consoled herself by the reflection that she had not
told any untruth.

A few days later Mrs For