SECOND PART.
"FINDING THE GUIDE."
"As often the helpless wanderer,
Alone in a desert land,
Asks the guide his destined place of rest,
And leaves all else in his hand."
CHAPTER I.
"LOOKING FOR THE OLD COURT."
When Jane Parsons left the children, and they found themselves in
that comfortable first-class railway carriage on their way to London,
Maurice and Toby, with contented sighs, settled themselves to resume
their much-disturbed sleep. But Cecile, on whom the responsibility
devolved, sat upright without even thinking of slumbering. She was a
little pilgrim beginning a very long pilgrimage. What right had she
to think of repose? It was perfectly natural for Maurice and Toby to
shut their eyes and go off into the land of dreams; they were only
following in her footsteps, doing trustfully just what she told them.
But for the head of the pilgrim band, the "Great Heart" of the little
party, such a pleasant and, under other circumstances, desirable
course was impossible.
When the train had first moved off she had taken the precious purse,
which hitherto she had held in her hand, and restored it to its
old hiding place in the bosom of her frock. Had she but known it,
her treasure was safe enough there, for no one could suspect so
poor-looking a child of possessing so large a sum of money. After
doing this Cecile sat very upright, gravely watching, with her sweet
wide-open blue eyes, the darkness they rushed through, and the occasional
lights of the sleepy little stations which they passed.
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