“Mr. Deane and I have been talking about the change in the weather ever since we met by accident in the lane,” remarked Elizabeth, with a little laugh. “It really is quite remarkable.”
“Indeed it is, miss. Fine to-day and dull to-morrow, as you may say,” assented Mrs. Petch cordially, casting a little sand over the other ostrich, but asking herself scornfully what they took her for.
Finally, Elizabeth remembered the purpose of her visit, and looking round the room for an absent bird-cage, she said hastily—
“William’s not dead, is he?”
“Why, no, miss; William’s a lot better, only he has to be kept quiet. Sam saw the bird-fancier when he went into Bardswell on Saturday, and he said perfect quiet was the thing. It just fell out lucky, Mr. Deane giving Sam the afternoon off to go and sell an old clock that the second-hand dealer’s been wanting so long. Just right it did, for it gave us a chance to get the best of advice for William. It isn’t,” said Mrs. Petch, applying the corner of her apron to her left eye, “it isn’t only what we get with him that makes us so anxious, but me and Sam has no bairns, and we’re fair soft about him. We love him like a child, that we do.”
It might have been thought that Mrs. Petch was talking on to ward off the question she saw trembling on Elizabeth’s lips, but if so, she was disappointed, for Elizabeth asked at once—
“Where is William? I should like to look at him. Mamma will not be satisfied if I go away without seeing him.”
“He stands on the dressing-table upstairs in our bedroom window,” said Mrs. Petch. “That looks out into the garden, and it’s just the place for him, and he’s scattering seed all over everything; but what do I care, poor lamb, so long as he gets better? Let him only get himself again, say I, and no matter——”
“I should like to see him,” said Elizabeth, with a look which her family would have recognised. Indeed, she possessed rather more than her share of a quality which her friends called firmness, and her family something else.
“I really couldn’t take it upon myself with Sam away——” began Mrs. Petch; then she glanced at Elizabeth’s face, and added reluctantly, “Of course, miss, if you accept the responsibility——”