So they walked out together, talking, and when the doctor got on his horse Harry walked beside him part of the way towards Cressley Common.
When he came back to the Grange, Harry asked to see old Dulcibella, and he told her, standing on the lobby and talking in whispers—
“The doctor says she’s not able to understand anything as she is at present.”
“Well, ye know she’s wanderin’ just now, but she may clear up a bit for a while, by-and-by.”
“Well, the doctor says she’s not to be told a word that can fret her, and particularly about the child, for he says this is no place for it, and he won’t be answerable for its life if it’s left longer here, and there’s scarlatina and fever all round, and ye have as much as ye can well manage here already, so few as there is, without nursing children; and Doctor Willett says he’ll have it well attended to by a person near Wykeford, and I’ll bring old Mildred over with it to the place this evening, and we’ll get it out o’ reach o’ the sickness that’s goin’.”
“Please God!” said Dulcibella, after a pause.
“Amen,” added Harry, and walked down, whistling low, with his hands in his pockets, to tell the same story to old Mildred Tarnley.
“’Tis a pity,” she said, darkly, “the child should be sent away from its home.”
“Especially with scarlet fever and typhus all round,” said Harry.
“And away from its mother,” she continued.