Little Jenny Wick looked at him thoughtfully. She did not think him looking well and her bright eyes revealed the thought.
He smiled down at her. "I know what you are thinking, Miss Jenny," he said, as if speaking to a child. "The heat has fagged me a little, but I'm really very well. How is your mother?" he added, for he and old Mrs. Wick had struck up a great friendship and more than once he had taken her for long rides in his car by himself.
Although she was the mother of so young a girl as Jenny, Mrs. Wick was several years older than her new friend, and treated him rather in an elder-sisterly way that had a great charm for him whose people had been dead for years, and who at "Happy House" was so very much the elder of everyone.
So now he was glad to hear that Mrs. Wick was well, and looking forward to seeing him before long.
"We must have a long spin some day before I go away," he answered. "I always enjoy a talk with your mother."
Jenny nodded. "So does she with you, Sir John."
"She's so glad Olly is coming back she doesn't know what to do with herself," the girl added, giving a little shake in a bird-like way to her pretty frilly frock, as she rose to go in to dinner. "The way she prefers that boy to me is simply scandalous."
Barclay laughed. "You look ill-treated. I suppose," he added as they crossed the hall en masse, "Miss Perkins will be very glad, too, if she is back yet, that is from Weston-super-Mare!"
"Yes, she and her mother and father are at Bury St. Edmunds now, with some relations of Mr. Perkins. Mother went down the other day and spent a couple of nights, but they could not put me up."