Chapter 53A quarter of an hour, twenty minutes passed, and Esther still thought of Edmund, Miss Dorset, and herself without anyone interrupting them. She began to wonder to be left alone for so long, listening with the anxious desire to hear her footsteps and her voices again. She listened, and finally she heard; she heard voices and approaching footsteps; but she had just convinced herself that they were not the ones she wanted when Miss Schmidt, Mr. Rushmore and Mr. Dorset left the same path she had taken and stood in front of her.
"Miss Price all alone" and "My dear Esther, how come that?" were the first greetings. She told her story. "Poor dear Esther," shouted her cousin, "how did they treat you badly! You should have stayed with us."
Then she sat down with a gentleman on each side,
