She watched Tita anxiously for a day or two after this, but could not see that the girl was distressed at Tom's departure. She talked of him, indeed, very freely—always a good sign.
* * * * *
"Tita, do you hear the birds?" says Margaret, in quite a little excited way. "Come here to this window. How they sing!"
"Don't they!" says Tita rapturously.
Her face lights up, but presently she looks a little sad.
"It makes you long for the country?" asks Margaret gently, looking at her without seeming to do so.
"No," says Tita, shaking her head resolutely; and then: "Yes—yes. But I shall always hate to go to it now—now that the dear old home is gone."
"I wish I had been able to buy it!" says Margaret regretfully.
"Oh, Meg, don't go on like that! You—you who have been everything to me!"
"I wasn't rich enough," says Margaret ruefully; "and, at all events, I wasn't in time. I confess now I sold out some shares a little time ago with a view to getting it, but I was too late; it was bought—a private sale, they said."