But at first she went rather sadly. In spite of all her good
resolves and wishes, everything that day had gone wrong; and
Ellen felt that the root of the evil was in her own heart.
Some tears fell as she walked. Further from her aunt's house,
however, her spirits began to rise; her foot fell lighter on
the greensward. Hope and expectation quickened her steps; and
when at length she passed the little wood-path, it was almost
on a run. Not very far beyond that, her glad eyes saw the
house she was in quest of.
It was a large white house; not very white either, for its
last dress of paint had grown old long ago. It stood close by
the road, and the trees of the wood seemed to throng round it
on every side. Ellen mounted the few steps that led to the
front door, and knocked; but as she could only just reach the
high knocker, she was not likely to alarm anybody with the
noise she made. After a great many little faint raps, which,
if anybody heard them, might easily have been mistaken for the
attacks of some rat's teeth upon the wainscot, Ellen grew
weary of her fruitless toil, and of standing on tiptoe, and
resolved, though doubtfully, to go round the house and see if
there was any other way of getting in. Turning the far corner,
she saw a long, low out-building or shed, jutting out from the
side of the house. On the further side of this, Ellen found an
elderly woman, standing in front of the shed, which was there
open and paved, and wringing some clothes out of a tub of
water.
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