Mrs. Blenkiron presently made this apparent.
"Jim's sat oop enoof as it is. You'd think there was nawbody in this village good enoof to kape coompany wi' Jimmy, the road he goas. Ef I was you, Miss Olice, I should let him be."
"I would, but it's his voice we want. I'm thinking of the concert,
Mrs. Blenkiron. It's the only voice we've got that'll fill the room."
Mrs. Blenkiron laughed.
"Eh—he'll fill it fer you, right enoof. You'll have all the yoong laads and laasses in the Daale toomblin' in to hear Jimmy."
"We want them. We want everybody. You Wesleyans and all."
Another pause. Rowcliffe was interested. Alice was really displaying considerable intelligence. Almost she persuaded him that her errand was genuine.
"Do you think Essy Gale could get him to come?"
In the surgery Rowcliffe whistled inaudibly. That was indeed a desperate shift.
Rowcliffe had turned and was now standing with his back to the fire.
He was intensely interested.