"I've told him all about you," Peter interposed, "and all about your people, too. I knew you wouldn't mind. He knows the home at Broadstairs where Nellie is, and he says it does wonders for lots of children."
"Nellie's beginning to get stronger already," Tom said cheerfully. "We heard this morning. And she's heaps happier—that's good, isn't it?"
Peter nodded. "I expect little Grace Lee is heaps happier, too," he remarked. "I wonder how she's getting on?"
The gipsies had left Hatwell Green before the termination of the Fair, having been anxious not to clash with the menagerie on the road.
"Oh, all right," Tom answered. "I haven't a doubt about that. Moses Lee told Max Sordello he might be trusted to look after his brother's child, and I'm certain he will. Oh, yes, Grace is all right."
* * * * *
Nellie's sojourn at Broadstairs did all it had been hoped it would. She returned home shortly before Christmas as well as she had been before her illness, and, oh, so glad to be with her own folks once more.
"Every one's been as kind as kind could be to me," she told her parents and brother, on the evening of her return, as she knelt on the hearthrug before the sitting-room fire, fondling Tim, whose eyes, brimful of affection, were raised to her face. "And I loved the sea, but I counted every day as it passed, and thought the time would never come for Mother to fetch me home. You all missed me dreadfully, you say, even Tim?"
"I believe Tim missed you as much as any of us," Tom told her. "At first after you'd gone he was always expecting you to come back— watching for you and listening for your footsteps. And now you've come—why, he can't take his eyes off you!"
"Dear little fellow!" murmured Nellie, kissing Tim on the top of his head.