[Sidenote: An Afternoon Call]
It was a glorious afternoon, and when Mrs. Erldon settled down for a
rest, Hepsie asked if she might go out for a run, to which her mother at
once agreed. In this quiet little peaceful spot in Somersetshire there
was no reason why a girl of Hepsie's age should not run about freely,
and so, warmly wrapped up, the child trotted off--but any one watching
her small determined face would have seen that this was not an ordinary
walk upon her part.
She left the old lane and turned towards a different part of
Sunnycoombe. She approached the big Manor House through its wide gates,
and along broad paths of well-trimmed trees. As she did so Hepsie
breathed a little more quickly than usual, while a brilliant colour
stole into her fair young cheeks.
"When one does wrong," she murmured determinedly, "there is only one
thing to follow--and that is to put the wrong right, if one can. I spoke
rudely to my darling little mother's own father, and though he's a
terrible old man, he's got to have an apology, which is a wretched thing
to have to give; and he's got to hear that his daughter never would and
never did teach her little girl to be rude, no, not even to a
cantankerous old grandfather, who won't speak to a lovely sweet woman
like my mother."
She reached the porch, and pulled fiercely at the old-fashioned bell,
then fairly jumped at the loud clanging noise that woke the silence of
the quiet afternoon.
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