She rose from her seat,
shaking her apron as she did so. But before she left the room she
cast a look of unutterable aversion on both the children.
Cecile now knew what she had before her. She, Maurice, and Toby had
just a month to prepare--just a month to get ready for the great task
of Cecile's life. At the end of a month they must set forth--three
pilgrims without a guide. Cecile felt that it was a pity this long
journey which they must take in secret should begin in the winter.
Had she the power of choice, she would have put off so weary a
pilgrimage until the days were long and the weather mild. But there
was no choice in the matter now; just when the days were shortest and
worst, just at Christmas time, they must set out. Cecile was a very
wise child for her years. Her father had called her dependable. She
was dependable. She had thought, and prudence, and foresight. She
made many schemes now. At night, as she lay awake in her attic
bedroom, in the daytime, as she walked by Maurice's side, she
pondered them. She had two great anxieties,--first, how to find the
way; second, how to make the money last. Fifteen pounds her
stepmother had given her to find Lovedy with. Fifteen pounds seemed
to such an inexperienced head as Cecile's a very large sum of money
--indeed, quite an inexhaustible sum. But Mrs. D'Albert had assured her
that it was not a large sum at all. It was not even a large sum for
one, she said, even for Cecile herself.
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