They went out in a field opposite and picked great bunches of golden-rod, and the girls pinned them on their coats.

Edwin Shaw was lingering about the station when they returned, but he was too shy to speak to them.

When the train at last came in, Maria, with a duplicity which shamed her in thinking of it afterwards, managed to get away from Maud, and enter the car at the same time with Wollaston, who seated himself beside her as a matter of course.

It was still quite light, but it had grown cold.

Everything had a cold look--the clear cowslip sky, with its reefs of violet clouds; even the trees tossed crisply, as if stiffened with cold.
"Hope we won't have a frost," said Wollaston, as they got off at Edgham.
"I hope not," said Maria; and then Gladys Mann ran up to her, crying out: "Say, Maria, Maria, did you know your little sister was lost ?" Maria turned deadly white.