Mrs. Tiddy decided she would not call upon Miss Leighton until she had mentioned the matter to her old school friend; so she wrote to her that same day, and received an answer by return of post. Mrs. Pringle said very little about her aunt in her letter, but she raised no objection to her little daughter's calling with Mrs. Tiddy at Higher Brimley. "Aunt Caroline is not fond of young people," she remarked, "so please don't force the child upon her notice—but I am sure you will not do that."
"I certainly will not," Mrs. Tiddy reflected as she folded up her friend's letter, "but I will take Peggy to call on Miss Leighton, as the old lady made a point of my doing so. We need not stay very long, any way."
Peggy experienced a feeling of unusual shyness when, one April afternoon, she accompanied Mrs. Tiddy to Higher Brimley; and, although Miss Leighton received them with every sign of cordiality, she was anything but at ease in her presence. As the little girl sat in silence listening to the conversation of the two ladies, she was aware that the elder's eyes were upon her, and she alternately flushed and paled as she thought over the small amount of information she had gleaned from her mother since her accident about this aunt of hers. Her tender heart had gone out in sympathy towards the old lady, whom she had sincerely pitied because she had fancied she might be all alone in the world, but now she mentally regarded her from quite another point of view.
"Mother would have loved her, if she would have let her," she reflected. "It is her own fault if she is lonely. I wonder if she will speak of mother to me!"
But Miss Leighton did not once mention her niece's name. She addressed herself very kindly to Peggy every now and again, and seemed wishful to make much of her, and Mrs. Tiddy saw she was disappointed and half-vexed by the child's evident disinclination to talk.
"What have you done with your dog this afternoon?" Miss Leighton inquired, when at length her visitors rose to go.
"We shut him up in the stable before we started," Peggy answered. "He wanted to come because he loves a walk."
"He is rather quarrelsome with other dogs," Mrs. Tiddy explained, "so we thought it wiser to leave him at home. The poor creature was very disappointed, for he spends most of his time with Peggy now, and we always feel she is safe if Wolf is with her."
"What will he do when he loses her altogether?" asked Miss Leighton. "Peggy does not propose taking him back with her to London, I presume?"
"No," the little girl answered, accepting the question seriously, "I wouldn't do that, even if Mr. Tiddy would give him to me, for I am sure he would be wretched in town. I'd rather know he is here, guarding the yard and looking after the sheep, and going on as he always does—having such a good time! He will miss me at first, but—where is Mrs. Tiddy?" she asked quickly.