“I think you had better not come with me, dear,” he said to Prissy. “You look tired.”
Priscilla agreed, not because she did not want to go, but because she wanted to do something else.
“But—but,” she began nervously, “father, aren’t you going to see Mr. Winter?”
“No, dear,” he said quite cheerfully, and not at all as though he were alarmed. “I think, from what Bessie tells me, that I had better wait until I hear something more from Mr. Winter himself before I take any steps in the matter. Loveday, would you like to come with me or to stay with Priscilla? I expect you would rather stay.”
“No, I’d rather go with you, I think,” said Loveday, her mind full of Priscilla’s plan.
“Well, Priscilla will have plenty of you, and I haven’t seen you for a long time,” said Dr. Carlyon, “so come along. Prissy, you had better rest till we come back. Now, then, Loveday, are you ready?”
And off they went. Priscilla felt rather deceitful as they left her, and she felt even more so when Bessie showed her to the little room that she and Loveday were now to share.
“Now, missie,” she said, “you shall have a nice sleep; the house will be very quiet. Aaron is going to Melland with his father, and I shall be sitting outside the front door with my sewing. If you want me, you have only to call.”
Priscilla thanked her, and thought, with thankfulness, that things seemed to be arranging themselves on purpose for her. She felt rather troubled about it, but she really had taken fresh alarm at her father’s remark that he should wait until he heard more. “Why will they put it off?” she thought anxiously; “they will leave it until too late, and the policeman will come before they have done anything, and then it will be no good!” It seemed to her very, very foolish and rash, and she felt quite glad that Loveday was in her father’s care, for there she would be safer than anywhere.
She went into the bedroom and shut the door, and lay down for a little while, until, at last, she heard Aaron and his father start, and Bessie settle down under the verandah to her sewing. When Priscilla had heard her singing softly to herself for some time, she felt that at last it would be safe to start. To cover her light cotton frock, which would have made her very conspicuous as she mounted the cliff, she put on her blue cloak, hood and all; but she carried her hat beneath it, for she thought it would be more fitting to be wearing a hat when making a first call, and one of such importance too.