"I will, miss," Patsey replied, with a grin of delight. The democratic manner of the visitor at Rose Cottage was quite to Patsey's mind; he appreciated the good fellowship with which "Miss May" treated him.
"She's a darlin'," he thought, admiringly. "She's me notion of a lady—speakin' to a b'y as if he was a human bein'."
Patsey's "notion of a lady" was a fairly good one, albeit he was somewhat deceived in the specimen of which he spoke.
When Patsey was out of sight Gay remembered, with a pang of regret, that he had an engagement with John at the noon hour. "I will write a note to Aunt Beulah," thought he.
There were pen, ink and paper in the room, and after various trials Gay wrote this note:—
"I write to ask you to Comute my Sentence. I have an Important ingagement at twelve. I'll go back to prison when I've kept it, if you will let me come down."
Gay did not know how to spell "commute" nor did he understand the precise meaning of his first sentence, but he had heard his father, who was a lawyer, use it in connection with prisoners, and he thought it calculated to impress his aunts. He lowered the note by a string and bobbed it up and down in front of the dining-room window until Margery saw it and took it in.
"For Aunt Beulah, with my compliments," said Gay, with great courtesy.
A moment after Margery thrust her head out of the lower window. "You can come down," she said.
"Hurrah!" shouted Gay, dashing out of the room, jumping down three stairs at one jump and completing the descent by sliding down the bannisters.