What did it mean? Did he want to take me in his employ? I should have to leave Mattia and Capi. No, I wouldn’t be a servant to anybody, much less this man whom I disliked already.
My father returned and told me I could go out if I wished. I went into the caravan. What was my surprise to find Mattia there. He put his finger to his lips.
“Go and open the stable door,” he whispered, “I’ll go out softly behind you. They mustn’t know that I was here.”
I was mystified but I did as he asked.
“Do you know who that man was who was with your father?” he asked excitedly when we were in the street. “It was Mr. James Milligan, your friend’s uncle.”
I stood staring at him in the middle of the pavement. He took me by the arm and dragged me on.
“I was not going out all alone,” he continued, “so I went in there to sleep, but I didn’t sleep. Your father and a gentleman came into the stable and I heard all they said; at first I didn’t try to listen but afterward I did.
“ ‘Solid as a rock,’ said the gentleman; ‘nine out of ten would have died, but he pulled through with pneumonia.’
“ ‘How is your nephew?’ asked your father.
“ ‘Better. Three months ago the doctors again gave him up, but his mother saved him once more. Oh, she’s a marvelous mother, is Mrs. Milligan.’