“You did say so?”
“Not exactly that. I’m awfully sorry, but I’m afraid that even after all that it wouldn’t go.”
“What do you mean?”
“I really can’t tell. I’m not sure that I know. But I will come myself just the same.”
Mrs. Langley sat almost erect. When it had happened, Anna did not know, but she noticed now for the first time that the hump was gone. “I don’t want you without him,” she cried, “and I want to know the truth. Why should he be afraid of me after I had done all that?”
“Because—O, if everything else was all right, he would be afraid of—your teeth!” the girl cried desperately. “They’re so—far apart—there’s a gap on each side. He hasn’t many, himself, but they’re close up and anyhow he doesn’t know what he looks like. When I hold him up to the mirror, what do you think he does. He looks right at me!” And the girl laughed nervously.
It was all she could do to restrain her tears. It seemed to her as if she could not endure it for another minute. But when Mrs. Langley spoke she forgot herself in the great wave of pity that flooded her heart.
“Well, I suppose if it’s that, there’s no help for it, and I may as well give up,” the woman said in an old, weary voice. “You feel quite sure, Anna?”
“You could have some put in?” Anna suggested colourlessly. Then as she went on, her voice showed the confidence she gained. “You’d be a lot more comfortable, too. The dentist would come over from Wenham, you know. He came way over to the Hollow to draw a tooth for Miss Penny.”
For a few moments there was silence. The room was dark now. Anna moved, and Mrs. Langley spoke fretfully.