She put aside her writing materials as she spoke, and went to the window, where Peggy was seated, listening to the sparrows twittering beneath the eaves of the roof and the sound of children's voices wafted upwards from the village below.
"You and Mr. Tiddy are so very kind to take so much trouble to explain everything to me," the little girl said, with a grateful ring in her sweet, clear voice, "that I am already beginning to know this place quite well—the house and the grounds, too."
"Shall I tell you what I see from this window?" asked Mrs. Tiddy.
"Oh, please!" Peggy answered delightedly. Then as her kind hostess did so, she listened with attention, her face aglow with interest and pleasure. "How well you make me understand!" she cried, as Mrs. Tiddy ceased speaking. She leaned her head out of the open window and sniffed the fresh salt breeze appreciatively, and listened to the murmur of the sea. It seemed a very beautiful world to Peggy in spite of her lack of sight.
[CHAPTER V]
AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR
IN a very few days, Peggy had settled into the routine of life at Lower Brimley, and had become well known by sight to the villagers, who took a kindly interest in Mrs. Tiddy's guest—"the pretty little maid," as they called her, who, though she was blind, could play the piano, so the servants at the farm reported, and was so clever that wherever she went once she could go by herself a second time.
Accompanied by the lean, long-legged sheep-dog, she was now a familiar figure on the beach, where she would sit for hours, listening to the incessant murmur of the sea or talking to the fishermen, whose deep voices insensibly softened in addressing her. For nowhere so much as in Cornwall is more respect shown to those whom God has afflicted; and, though Peggy knew it not, she was continually watched by friendly eyes to see that she came to no harm.
Mrs. Tiddy, who had been nervous about letting her visitor wander out of her sight at first, soon grew less vigilant, and was quite satisfied if she knew Wolf was with her, for the dog had constituted himself her faithful companion, and showed marked signs of jealousy, if any stranger came near her.
One afternoon, about a week after her arrival at Lower Brimley, Peggy was standing in a gateway waiting for Mr. Tiddy, who had gone across a meadow to look at some sheep, when Wolf, as usual at her side, gave a low, warning growl and drew closer to her. She put her hand on the dog's collar and listened, hearing at length the sound of footsteps slowly approaching. Some one was evidently ascending the hill which led from the village to the farm.