“Here is the black silk,” she said. Her voice had a strange tonelessness. Josie looked up quickly at her friend. The other girls seemed not to notice the change in the girl.
“What is it, Ursula?” Josie asked following her to the rear of the shop.
“What is what?”
“Now, of course, Ursula, if something has happened that you don’t want to mention to me, it is your own business; but I want you to understand that if it is anything I can assist you in I am ready.”
Ursula looked into Josie’s honest face and hesitated a moment.
“Somehow everything is so wonderful and peaceful and happy up here with the Higgledy Piggledies that I can’t bear to bring any troubles among you. I haven’t a real trouble but just a nameless dread.”
“Out with it then! If you name it perhaps we can dispel it. The girls can’t hear us talking back here—and besides they are chattering so they couldn’t make out our conversation if we shouted.”
Ursula, however, did not shout but only gasped:
“Miss Fitchet is in Dorfield!”
“You mean the woman—the nurse—your stepfather wanted to have live in your home as housekeeper?”