“She won’t send for him, miss. But, maybe, he’d go to her if you asked him, as a favour like.”
Cicely answered quickly: “I will.”
Before she had finished her tea she decided that she would write to Grimshaw about Mary Farleigh. Also, she might hint delicately that reform in the sanitary conditions of Upworthy might come about the more surely if not pressed too vigorously at first. If her mother refused, under present conditions, to accept Arthur’s help, somebody else must be found.
She was sipping a second cup of Mrs. Rockram’s tea when Grimshaw came into the kitchen. To make matters worse he had not had his tea. Mrs. Rockram bustled out, leaving man and maid together. Grimshaw was the more self-possessed. At once Cicely said hurriedly:
“I was going to write to you.”
“Yes?”
“Will you, as a personal favour, see Mary Farleigh? She won’t send for you. She looks wretchedly.”
Grimshaw consented, adding a few disconcerting words. “What you told me this morning was heartening. Lord Wilverley is a man of tremendous executive ability. With his cordial co-operation everything is possible.”
Cicely murmured, almost inaudibly:
“But . . . if . . . if he should be unable to help?”