For a moment Miss Holcroft's gentle face was full of astonishment, then a look of alarm and consternation crept over it, and she turned quite pale. "Pamela!" she cried, "you cannot really think that! What has put such an idea into your head?"
"Why did Marigold's mother allow us to have her here?" Miss Pamela demanded, almost fiercely. "Was it because she did not love the child, and was glad to get rid of her?"
"No, no; of course it was not!" Miss Holcroft answered soothingly, amazed that her sister, who was usually so cold and collected, should show such excitement. "Pray calm yourself, Pamela!"
"She sent Marigold to us because she could not afford to put her to school and give her a good education. If she could have kept her without injury to the child, she would have done so, and you know it as well as I do, Mary!"
"I—I suppose so," Miss Holcroft acknowledged.
"That having been the case, now she has two hundred pounds a year left to her, she will want Marigold back again. I feel sure she will, and Marigold will be glad to go!"
"Marigold is very fond of her mother, but I think she has grown to love us too. Mrs. Holcroft said nothing in her letter about taking Marigold away from us."
"No; that is to come! However, I shall write to her myself to-morrow, and inquire what her intentions are."
But Miss Pamela did nothing of the kind, for the following morning, when Marigold came down to breakfast, she seemed so poorly that her aunts sent her back to bed again, thinking she had taken cold, and would be better on the morrow; but as the day advanced she grew rapidly worse, and a message was sent to Dr. Nowell requesting him to call. Marigold knew the doctor quite well, for he and his wife were numbered amongst the Misses Holcroft's most intimate friends. He was a little, red-faced, sandy-haired man, whose genial temper and cheery manner made him a general favourite with children.
"What is amiss with her?" Miss Pamela inquired, as he followed her into the drawing-room, after having made a thorough examination of his patient.