‘Yes, it is. He’s in trouble.’
‘In what way?’ asked Agnes. ‘Business? Money matters, my dear?’
‘Oh, Mother Agnes,’ said Anne, ‘he always had had enough for the needs of his whole family. And now, suddenly, he seems to be in debt. His life is troubled. He looks worried, sometimes almost ill ...’
‘Well?’ asked the Applewoman gently after a moment.
Anne again glanced across at her brother, this time as if for help.
‘We thought we ought to do something to try to aid him,’ Giles put in. ‘That’s why we came to you.’
‘To me?’ said Agnes. ‘Well, well! And did you tell anyone you were coming?’
The children shook their heads.
‘This needs thinking over,’ said Agnes, more, it seemed, to herself than to anyone else. She got up and moved over again to the back of the hut, where she disappeared behind a ragged curtain. The two cats rose also, like pages waiting on a queen, and followed her. At once the children slid together on the bench. And Anne whispered:
‘What do you think of her, Giles?’