"As medicine she would."
"So she would then," agreed Auna. "Medicine can't be wicked. And Jesus Christ turned water into wine for happy people at a wedding, so why shouldn't unhappy people be allowed a drop? I asked grandmother that once, and she looked at me unkindly. She doesn't like me very much."
"Because you haven't thrown me over, Auna."
"Throw you over!" exclaimed the girl. "What would there be left if I hadn't got you? There's nobody else in the world, till mother comes home again; and sometimes I think she never will, father."
"But sometimes you think that she's going to? You hope still, don't you?"
She saw how eager he was and regretted her speech.
"Yes, I do sometimes. I believe, if we could take her a pair of wings and tell her to fly, she would fly. And she'd fly straight to Red House I expect. She don't like the post-office, and she don't even like grandfather's new house overmuch I'm afraid."
"I'd be the wings to help her fly, Auna, if I could. She should fly quick enough if I thought she wanted to fly—aye, though I had to break down her father's walls to let her out."
Auna was struck dumb by the vision.
"I wish I could see her alone, but 'tis harder and harder to do now she mostly keeps her room. A girl ought to be able to see her mother alone at my age; but grandmother don't make me welcome now, and she hustles me off for one thing and another."