Nurse’s news astonished the Doctor very much. He was not a man, however, to show all he felt. He saw that Nurse was on the verge of hysterics, and he knew that if he did not take this startling and unpleasant piece of information in the most matter-of-fact way, he would get nothing out of her.

“I hope matters are not as bad as you fear,” he said. “Sit[Pg 65] down in this chair, and tell me what has occurred. Don’t hurry yourself; a few moments more or less don’t signify. Tell your tale quietly, in your own way.”

Thus administered, Nurse gasped once or twice, looked up at the Doctor with eyes which plainly declared “there never was your equal for blessedness and goodness under the sun,” and commenced her story in the long-winded manner of her class.

The Doctor heard a garbled account of the supper in the attic, of the arrival of Mrs. Cameron, of the prompt measures which that good lady took to crush Polly, of Firefly’s grief, of the state of confusion into which the old house was thrown. She then went on to tell him further that Polly, having refused to submit or repent in any way, Mrs. Cameron had insisted on her remaining in her own room, and had at last, notwithstanding all Helen’s entreaties, forbidden her to go near her sister. The housekeeping keys were taken away from Polly, and Mrs. Cameron had further taken upon herself to dismiss Maggie. She had sent a telegram to Mrs. Power, who had returned in triumph to Sleepy Hollow on Saturday night.

“Miserable is no word for what this household has been,” said Nurse. “There was Miss Polly—naughty she may have been, dear lamb, but vicious she ain’t—there was Miss Polly shut up in her room, and nobody allowed to go near her; and Mrs. Cameron poking her nose into this corner and into that, and ordering me about what I was to do with the babe; and poor Miss Helen following her about, for all the world like a ghost herself, so still and quiet and pitiful looking, but like a dear angel in her efforts to keep the peace; and there was Alice giving warning, and fit to fly out of the house with rage, and Mrs. Power coming back, and lording it over us all, more than is proper for a cook to do. Oh, sir, we has been unhappy! and for the first time we really knew what we had lost in our blessed mistress, and for the first time the children, poor darlings, found out what it was to be really motherless. The meals she’d give ’em, and the way she’d order them—oh, dear! oh, dear! it makes me shiver to think of it!”

“Yes, Nurse,” interrupted the Doctor. “It was unfortunate Mrs. Cameron arriving when I was absent. I have come back now, however, and all the troubles you have just mentioned are, of course, at an end. Still you have not explained the extraordinary statement you made to me when I came into the room. Why is it that the children have run away?”

“I’m a-coming to that, sir; that’s, so to speak, the crisis—and all brought about by Mrs. Cameron. I said that Miss Polly was kept in her room, and after the first day no one allowed to go near her. Mrs. Cameron herself would take her up her meals, and take the tray away again, and very little the poor dear would eat, for I often saw what come out. It would go to your heart, sir, that it would, for a healthier appetite than Miss Polly’s there ain’t in the family.[Pg 66] Well, sir, Miss Helen had a letter from you this morning, saying as how you’d be back by six o’clock, and after dinner she went up to Miss Polly’s door, and I heard her, for I was walking with baby up and down the passage. It was beautiful to hear the loving way Miss Helen spoke, Doctor; she was kneeling down and singing her words through the keyhole. ‘Father’ll be home to-night, Polly,’ she said—‘keep up heart, Poll dear—father’ll be home to-night, and he’ll make everything happy again.’ Nothing could have been more tender than Miss Helen’s voice, it would have moved anybody. But there was never a sound nor an answer from inside the room, and just then Miss Firefly and Master Bunny came rushing up the stairs as if they were half mad. ‘O Nell, come, come quick!’ they said, ‘there’s the step-ladder outside Poll’s window, and a bit of rope and two towels fastened together hanging to the sill, and the window is wide open!’ Miss Helen ran downstairs with a face like a sheet, and by and by Alice came up and told me the rest. Master Bunny got up on the stepladder, and by means of the rope and the bedroom towels managed to climb on to the window sill, and then he saw there wasn’t ever a Miss Polly at all in the room. Oh, poor dear! he might have broke his own neck searching for her, but—well, there’s a Providence over children, and no mistake. Miss Polly had run away, that was plain. When Miss Helen heard it, and knew that it was true, she turned to Alice with her face like a bit of chalk, and tears in her eyes, and, ‘Alice,’ she said, ‘I’m going to look for Polly. You can tell Nurse I’ll be back when I have found Polly.’ With that she walked down the path as fast as she could, and every one of the others followed her. Alice watched them getting over the little turnstile, and down by the broad meado............