176 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. [rv.

 

her ear in perfectly audible tones— ‘Molly Good-
child!’

"Utterly confounded, astonished, and not a little
alarmed, the good woman could for an instant say or
do nothing. Almost immediately afterwards, another
voice in tones as loud as a trumpet calling to battle,
shouted her name again, apparently from the farther
end of the passage to which she was advancing—
‘Molly Goodchild!’ and with scarcely the interval of a
second, another voice sounded in tones equally loud
and clear from the entrance which she had left behind
her, ‘Molly Goodchild !’ and immediately afterwards
other voices joined in, and the bewildered woman heard
the whole place reverberating with the sound of her
own name, shouted forth again and again as if it had
been a war-cry, or a chorus, or something to which
everybody else had a right, instead of being, as she
considered it, her own private property.

Under these extraordinary circumstances there was
in Mrs. Goodchild’s opinion nothing for it but to go on
as fast as she could, inasmuch as between voices before,
voices behind, and voices on both sides of her, she
had not the remotest conception which way any of
the speakers wished her to go. So without more ado
(though trembling considerably as she did so) she
hurried forward again with the utmost possible
speed, whilst the same sounds still continued to ring
in her ears until she reached the farther end of the
passage, and with a sigh of joy came out once more
into the open air.

Ata little distance from the passage, the road bore
upwards and passed between two great masses of rock