AFTER dinner we helped Mrs. M’Bride and Emma to pack the baskets, and then mother said that if we liked we might take a walk along the shore. About a mile farther on there was the little rocky path which led up through Miss Howard’s park to her house, and mother said she thought it would be nice for us to go to Langholme that way.
Mother could not come with us, for she was obliged to go back to Ravenscliffe before she went to Langholme. So she said she would stay by the sea with Mrs. M’Bride and the children for about an hour, and then she would drive them home, before it began to grow chilly, and come to Langholme by the high road soon after.
Just as Melville and I were starting, Charlie begged very hard to come just a little, way with us, and mother said he might come if I would see that he turned back in time to get to her and Mrs. M’Bride before they left the shore.
We had a very happy afternoon. About half a mile farther on we found a flat, rocky piece of the shore, full of beautiful little pools of salt water. These pools were quite alive with different kinds of creatures, sea anemones spreading out their pretty pink arms, tiny fishes darting in and out of the seaweed, and funny little crabs running backwards and forwards and sideways from one pool to another.
Melville and Charlie and I each chose a pool for ourselves, and then began to stock it with as many creatures as we could find, and filled it with all the most lovely bits of green and pink and yellow and black seaweed which we could gather on the shore.
But as we were doing this, and were all so happy, Charlie slipped upon a rock which was covered with slippery green seaweed, and grazed his knee and cut his hand. He cried a little and seemed very miserable, so I said I would take him back to mother at once.
‘It’s a long way for you to go, Olive, and then to come back alone,’ said Melville ; ‘I’ll come with you.’
‘Oh no,’ I said, ‘don’t do that,’ for I wanted Him so much to have a happy birthday, and he was just getting his pool to look so pretty. ‘I’ll take Charlie back to mother, Melville, and then I can go to Ravenscliffe with them, and drive to Langholme with mother.’
Melville thanked me very much, and said that would be very nice; he would stop on the shore about an hour longer, and then go up to Langholme by the rocky path, and meet us there at teatime.
So I turned back with Charlie, and we arrived just as Mrs. M’Bride was putting Stella into the carriage. Mother was very glad that I had brought Charlie back, and thought that Melville and I had arranged it very well.
We drove back to Ravenscliffe, and then, after mother had written one or two letters, we off for Langholme. Miss Howard seemed very glad to see us, and asked us if we were too tired to walk around the garden before we took off our hats.
But we were not at all tired, and were very pleased to go. Two nice ladies who were staying there came with us, and we enjoyed it very much ; it was such a lovely afternoon, and though the flowers were not quite so fine as they were a fortnight before, still they were very beautiful.
When we came back to the house, we asked if Melville had come, but no one had seen him; so mother told me to run down the rocky path to the sea, and to tell him that it was time to come in.
I ran down very quickly, and was soon on the shore, but I could not see Melville. Then I went a long way down the shore, calling ‘Melville, Melville, Melville!’ at the top of my voice, but no one answered me, and though I peeped behind every rock, and looked into every little cave, I could not see anything of him.
The tide was coming in fast, so I was obliged to turn back.
‘Melville must be somewhere in the park, mother,’ I said, when I got back to Langholme; ‘I can’t find him anywhere on the shore.’
It was beginning to get dark now, and I could see that mother was becoming anxious about Melville. She went all over the park and garden and field looking for him, and Miss Howard went with her.
‘Don’t you think he must be on the shore still?’ said Miss Howard, as we came back to the house.
‘Oh no,’ said mother, ‘I don’t think so; you looked for him there, didn’t you, Olive ?’ But mother turned very white as she said it ‘I’m not afraid of the rocks,’ she went on; ‘Melville always does what I tell him, and I told him never to go that way.’
‘Oh yes, mother,’ I said; ‘I’m quite, quite sure Melville has not gone the Ravenscliffe way.’
‘There are no rocks the other way, are there, Miss Howard?’ asked mother.
‘Oh no,’ said Miss Howard ; ‘at least they are not at all dangerous, for they are so high and steep that Melville could not possibly climb to the top of them, and there is no way of getting to the top from the seashore ; he would be obliged to keep underneath them.’
‘Then I suppose that way is quite safe,’ said mother. ‘I told the children that they might go as far as they liked in that direction.’
Miss Howard did not answer her; I thought she had not heard what mother said. She walked on very fast, and run upstairs as soon as she got into the house, as if she did not want to speak to mother just then.
Mother went into the dining room to see if Melville could possibly be there, but I waited in the hall.
Presently Miss Howard came downstairs, and went quickly out of the house, and several of the servants and of the people who were staying in the house went with her. I was just going to follow them, when I saw mother coming out of the dining room.
‘Where are they going, Olive ?’ mother asked me, ‘Do you know what they are afraid of? Did you hear them say?’
‘No, mother,’ I said, ‘Miss Howard did not speak to me; she only went past with those other people.’
‘Let us go with them, Olive,’ said mother. She was very white, and I could feel that she was trembling very much as I took hold of her arm, but her voice was calm and quiet.
It was quite dark now, there was no moon, and the sky was very cloudy, and it was so dark under the trees that we could not find the rocky path for some time, and even when we found it was very difficult to keep in it.
We stumbled along for some time, and then we got into the bushes, and could not find our way at all.
‘We must go back, Olive, I think,’ said mother at last. But just then I saw a light.
‘Look, mother,’ I said, ‘what is that?’
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘it is a light; let us go in that direction!’
So we went on together, feeling our way from one tree to another, and keeping the light in view. When we got nearer, we found that the light was in a cottage window.
‘It’s the cottage near the sea, mother,’ I said ‘Now we shall find our way; I saw it this afternoon. There is a gate somewhere here.’
We had come up to a stone wall, which stopped us from going any farther, and for a long time we walked up and down, and could not find the gate.
At last mother called out that she had found It, so we opened it and went up the path to the cottage, to ask if they knew whether Miss Howard and the other people were down on the shore.