He must be very ill, she felt sure, whatever Aunt Sarah might
say. His kind, gentle face came before her, as she made her way along--
always kind, never with any reproach in it. How could she have gone to
the picnic, and left him to ask for her in vain?

As she reached the place where the pony-cart waited for her, Isabel
Palmer came out of a shop. She looked at her with a sort of cold
surprise.

"Oh, Anna," she said, "how is Mr Goodwin? We only heard yesterday he
was ill. I was going to his house to ask after him."

"Dr Hunt says there is no cause for anxiety," said Anna, repeating the
sentence she had so often heard from Aunt Sarah.

"It was Mrs Winn who told mother he was ill," continued Isabel,
observing Anna's downcast face curiously, "and--she said another thing
which surprised us all very much. Why didn't you tell us long ago that
Mr Goodwin is your grandfather?"

Anna was silent.

"We can't understand it at all," continued Isabel. "Mother says it
might have caused great unpleasantness. She's quite vexed."

She waited a moment with her eyes fixed on Anna, and then said, with a
little toss of her head:

"Well--good-bye. I suppose we shan't meet again before we go to
Scotland. Mother has written to tell Mrs Forrest that we're not going
on with lessons."

They parted with a careless shake of the hands, and Anna was driven away
in the pony-cart. Her friendship with Isabel, her pleasant visits to
Pynes, were over now. She was humbled and disgraced before every one,
and Delia would know it too. It would have been a wounding thought
once, but now there was no room in her heart for any feeling but dread
of what might happen to Mr Goodwin.

"Oh, Aunt Sarah," she cried, when she reached Waverley, and found her
aunt in the garden, "I'm sure my grandfather is worse--I'm sure he's
very ill. I did not see him."

Mrs Forrest was tying up a rebellious creeper, which wished to climb in
its own way instead of hers. She finished binding down one of the
unruly tendrils before she turned to look at her niece. Anna was
flushed. Her eyelids were red and swollen.

"Why didn't you see him?" she asked. "Does Dr Hunt think him worse?"

"I don't know," said Anna. "I only saw Delia for a minute. He was
asleep. I am to go again. Oh, Aunt Sarah," with a burst of sobs, "I do
wish I had not gone to the picnic. I wish I had behaved better to my
grandfather. I wish--"

Mrs Forrest laid her hand kindly on