me back--never mind about it now, child----"
But Mona was already in her own room tugging on her shoes and stockings.
Granny heard her come out and make her way stumbling down the stairs;
she tried to call again, but reaction had set in, and she lay panting,
exhausted, unable to do anything but listen. She heard Mona pulling back
the heavy wooden bolt of the front door, then she heard her footsteps
hurrying through the garden, growing more distant, then nearer as she went
up Mrs. Lane's path. Then came the noise of her knocking at Mrs. Lane's
door, first gently, then louder, and louder still--and then the exhausted,
over-excited old woman fainted, and knew no more.

Mona, standing in the dark at Mrs. Lane's door, was trembling all over.
Even her voice trembled. When Mrs. Lane at last opened her window and
called out "Who's there?" it shook so, she could not make herself heard
until she had spoken three times.

"It's me--Mona Carne. Oh, Mrs. Lane, I'm so frightened! Granny's very
ill, please will you--come in?--I--I don't know what to do for her."

"Mona Carne! Oh!" Mona heard the surprise in Mrs. Lane's voice,
and feared she was going to refuse her. Then "Wait a minute," she said,
"I'll come down."

Mona's tears stopped, but she still trembled. Help was coming to granny--
but she still had her confession to make, and it seemed such an awful
ordeal to face. All the time she stood waiting there under the stars,
with the scent of the flowers about her, she was wondering desperately how
she could begin, what she could say, and how excuse herself.

She was still absorbed, and still had not come to any decision, when the
door behind her opened, and a voice said kindly, "Come inside, Mona, and
tell me what is the matter," and Mona stepped from the starlit night into
the warm, dimly lighted kitchen, and found herself face to face with her
old kind friend.

"Now, tell me all about it," said Mrs. Lane again catching sight of Mona's
frightened, disfigured face. "Why, how you are trembling, child, have you
had a shock? Were you in bed?"

Mona nodded. "Yes, I'd been in bed a good while when I heard a cry,
such a funny kind of cry! At first I thought it must be the owl, but when
I heard it again and again I thought it must be granny, and I got up and
went to her. And, oh, I was frightened, she was lying all crumpled up in
the bed, and she was groaning something dreadful. She was very ill, she
said, and she must