"I hope it may do him good," said Mrs. Keith unsympathetically; "at all events, it will stop his drinking for a time. That poor little sister of his has had a dreadful life of it!"
"He's not going to drink any more," said Harebell with an assured little nod. "Me and him settled he wouldn't."
"You are too small to have anything to say about such things," said Mrs. Keith in her cold lifeless tone.
Harebell was silent. She did not mention the Rector's proposed call, but she ran out to the stable and told Chris the whole story.
"I wish, Chris, that I was grown-up! It must be so lovely to do whatever you like without asking any one! If Aunt Diana doesn't let me go and see him, I shall cry buckets. I feel it coming already!"
The Rector came at three o'clock, and after an interview with Mrs. Keith, Harebell was summoned to the drawing-room.
"You may go to the Cottage Hospital with the Rector," her aunt said. "I do not mind this in the least, but you are not to go again without permission."
So Harebell eagerly promised she would not, and ran off joyfully to get her hat and coat. She chattered incessantly to the Rector the whole way to the hospital, and told him all the conversation she had had with Tom. She even repeated her "spell," as she called it, and Mr. Garland found her very entertaining company.
When they were ushered into the small ward, Harebell's spirits subsided. There were four white beds in a row, and four heads were raised simultaneously to gaze at the visitors. Tom Triggs' bed was farthest off against the wall. He looked quite a different Tom Triggs to Harebell's old friend. This man had a very clean face and tidy hair; but his eyes, as they rested on the little girl's face, had the old familiar twinkle in them.
"Eh, but you're a good little lady to come and see my smash up!" he said.