'No,' I said, looking up at her gravely; 'but I do wish you understood my motives better.'
She laughed and turned away, and so we parted.
I found everything easier after her departure.
One evening we were just going in to dinner, when one of the servants came up to me. 'If you please, miss, a message has come from the village that Jim Carter is ill, and wants to see you at once.'
I knew the boy had been poorly, for two days before I had found him in bed with a bad sore throat, and we had had to postpone the reading lesson. His uncle said it was a cold, but I had thought then it was a severe one. I turned to ask Mrs. Forsyth if she would excuse my coming in to dinner, but she would not hear of this.
'It is great impertinence to send up at our dinner hour with such a request. I cannot agree to your running down to the village as late as this. The boy must wait till to-morrow.'
'Oh, let me just run down after dinner, then!' I pleaded. 'I am afraid he must really be very ill.'
'What is the matter with him? If it is anything infectious, you must not go near him.'
'I think it is a bad cold.'
'Come in to dinner at once. We cannot keep every one waiting.'