Mrs. Rockram received her effusively, but Cicely cleverly silenced an old servant’s eager questions concerning courtship and matrimony.
“I came here to escape from all that,” she affirmed positively.
“What a tale!”
“The truth and nothing but the truth. Let us have a good gossip about the village. I saw Mary Farleigh this morning. She looked very thin and worn.”
“Pore dear soul!”
“I told her to send for Mr. Grimshaw.”
“She won’t never do that, miss. She’s the sart that stands up till she tumbles down. I told her, I did: ‘You’ll carry on,’ I says, ‘till you’re carried out toes first,’ I says.”
“What a way to put it!”
“That’s as may be. She passes the remark to me: ‘My time’ll come,’ she says, ‘when I bain’t needed so badly herealong.’ And ’tis true. The dear Lord only knows what Timothy’d do wi’out her.”
“Mr. Grimshaw must see her.”