"They will keep it up to-night," said Mrs. Tom and with a kiss bundled off down the lane. She was returning, full of pleasant anticipations to a merry circle—a circle which on her appearance would make her affectionately welcome. With the five girls it was always 'Mother!' with Tom too.
She had not taken many steps before the contrast between what she was leaving and that to which she was hastening, brought her to a standstill. Her heart misgave her.
"S'bina!" she called to the lonely figure, motionless by the gate. "S'bina!"
"Well, what is it?"
"Would you like for Richbell to come down to-night?"
In the kitchen Leadville could hear the high-pitched question and reply.
"Spoil 'er evenin'? My dear life, I wouldn't think of it. Don't you worry. I shall get on all right."
"I don't like to feel that you are all alone." She knew Sabina would not have welcomed a reference to her helplessness.
"Now don't 'ee think about me, go and enjoy yourself."
Mrs. Tom hesitated for a moment. At the few merrymakings of the countryside Sabina, jovial and buxom, had been a welcome guest; but, since her accident, the difficulty of getting about had kept her at home. Mrs. Tom decided she must be persuaded to go out more, that a pony must be got for her and the trolly adapted. That Leadville would be violently opposed to such a proceeding, that he would object to his wife's making a 'laughing-stock of herself,' did not weigh with Mrs. Tom.