I thought it better to take my leave after this, hoping for better success next time.  I watched anxiously for Mr. Hamilton the next day, but unfortunately I missed him.  When I arrived at Janet’s he had just left the house, and I did not meet him in the village.  I was growing desperate at hearing no news of Gladys, and had determined to go up boldly to Gladwyn that very evening, when I saw Chatty coming in the direction of the cottage.  She looked very nicely dressed, and her round face broke into dimples as she told me that Miss Darrell had sent her to the station, and that she meant to call in and have a chat with Mrs. Hathaway on her way, as she need not hurry back.

Jem Hathaway was pretty Chatty’s sweetheart.  I knew him well.  He was a blacksmith, and lived with his mother in the little stone-coloured cottage that faced the green.  He was an honest, steady young fellow, a great friend of Nathaniel, and Mrs. Barton often told me that she considered Chatty a lucky girl to have Jem for a sweetheart.

‘And if you please, ma’am,’ went on Chatty, looking round-eyed and serious, ‘my mistress said that I was to give you this.’  And she produced a slip of paper with a pencilled message.  I knew Chatty always called Gladys her mistress:  so I opened the paper eagerly: 

’Why did you go away on Sunday evening without seeing me?  I implored Leah to bring you up when I heard your voice talking to Etta, and when the door closed I turned quite sick with disappointment.  Ursula, I must see you; they shall not keep you from me.  Come up this evening at half-past seven, while they are at dinner.  Chatty will let you in.’

‘Very well:  tell your mistress I will come,’ I observed; and Chatty dropped a rustic courtesy, and said, ’Thank you, ma’am; that will do my mistress good,’ and tripped on her way.

I went back into my parlour, feeling worried and excited.  Gladys had sent for me, and I must go; but the idea of slipping into the house in this surreptitious way was singularly repugnant to me.  I would rather have chosen a time when I knew Mr. Hamilton would be absent; but in that case I might find it impossible to obtain admittance to Gladys’s room.  No, I must put my own feelings aside, and follow her directions.  But, in spite of this resolve, I found it impossible to settle to anything until the time came for keeping my appointment.

I arrived at Gladwyn just as the half-hour was chiming from the church clock.  As I walked quickly through the shrubbery I glanced nervously up at the windows.  Happily, the dining-room was at the back of the house, but Leah might be sewing in her mistress’s room and see me.  As this alarming thought occurred to my mind, I walked still more rapidly, but before I could raise my hand to the bell the door opened noiselessly, and Chatty’s smiling face welcomed me.

‘I was watching for you,’ she whispered.  ’Leah is in the housekeeper’s room, and master and Miss Darrell are at dinner.  You can go up to my mistress at once.’