"Oh dear!" she said, "that is from old Mrs. Richardson. Her daughter has got married and gone away, and she is so lonely, and she sits alone and cries all day, and she says that I have always cheered her up in all her sorrows and she wants me to go over to-day; and it is so bad for her eyes to cry because of her dressmaking, and when she has seen me she won't cry any more; but—oh dear! oh dear!" and Denys herself burst out crying, for her nerves had been very much shaken, "I can't go and comfort anybody. It would be no use my going for that!"
Yet after breakfast she sought out Mrs. Brougham.
"Mother," she said, "I think I'll go to Mrs. Richardson this afternoon. I'm afraid I'm getting selfish in my sorrow, and I'll go, too, and see little Harry Lyon, as I'm over there. I did go once, you know, but everybody was out. The neighbour said his aunt went out washing on Mondays, and Harry was sent to the Nursery. I think perhaps I ought to go."
"Do you?" said her mother with a sigh. "Well, I won't keep you, dear, but oh, do take Pattie with you, just for companionship. I shouldn't feel so anxious while you were gone."
"Oh, but the work," said Denys.
Gertrude looked up from the table where she was correcting exercises.
"I'll see to the work," she said. "I shall be at home all day. It's a pity for mother to feel anxious, and Pattie deserves a change. She's been awfully good to us."
Denys acquiesced, though she felt that Pattie's company was very unnecessary, and so, immediately after an early lunch, Pattie and Denys found themselves stepping out of the train at Mixham Junction.
"I think we'll go to see Harry first," said Denys. "Mrs. Richardson will want to give us tea and we must not be late."
Pattie followed obediently. Little Harry was but a name to her, for he came to brighten Tom's life after she had gone out of it, and she had never heard of Harry's connection with Jane Adams. She knew the road into which Denys turned, however, well enough, and when Denys stopped at the very house where Jane Adams lived, she only thought it was a queer coincidence, and wondered vaguely what she should do if she met Jane on the stairs.