But Peter replied stoutly that he had his orders, and that, in fact, he had already secured for himself a room over the saddler’s shop in the village.
“But suppose Bo-peep should be ill in the night,” said Miss Felicia.
At this the man smiled.
“’Tain’t likely, madam,” he said. “The ’oss is a strong ’oss, and when I leave him, after grooming him down and giving him his mash, he won’t want no one else to interfere with him until the morning.”
Thus the arrival of Bo-peep was one of the happiest things that could have happened to Robina. The horse had, however, been two days at Heather House before Mrs Starling heard of the event. It was Robina who broke the news to her. She was busily engaged now getting ready her wardrobe for her delightful visit to Sunshine Lodge. Mrs Starling sent her a message to come to see her. The good lady was lying on a conch by the window.
“Come in very gently, Robina,” she said, “and try to make as little noise as possible.”
Robina advanced as quietly as she could. She sank down by her mother’s sofa, put one firm hand over the invalid’s tremulous one, and said, in a broken sort of voice:
“Oh, mummy!”
“Don’t be so intense, my dear; it makes my heart flutter.”
“But aren’t you better, mummy dear? I have such a lot of things to talk over with you.”